In Notepad, select "Word Wrap" from the Edit Menu, and maximize the window, to ensure you can see all the text in a paragraph. To move round the file, press Page Up and Page Down, or click in the vertical scroll bar. You can print this file by selecting the Print command from the File menu.
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Introduction
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This file contains information about Stowaway!, on the following topics:
A. Video Display Notes
Some things to try if images display incorrectly, or you have video driver errors.
B. Audio Problems
How to resolve some common sound problems.
C. CD-ROM Problems
Solutions to some problems people have with CD-ROM drives.
D. Running out of memory or running slowly
Tricks of the trade you can try to help Stowaway! run when there isn't much memory about.
E. Printing
Some notes on printing Stowaway! images.
More help is available on making the best use of all the features within Stowaway! once you have started up the product; just click on the lighthouse icon labelled Help towards the bottom left hand side of the window. (You will also find a reminder of some of the main points in this README.TXT.)
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A. Video Display Notes
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In General
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Because Stowaway! uses 256-color images, it does not look at its best when you run it in 16-color mode. If your computer is running in 16-color mode, and your video card supports 256 colors, you can run the Windows Setup program to change the video driver. This will enhance the image quality of Stowaway!. For more information on changing video drivers, check your Windows documentation.
Images appear in monochrome
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Some color video cards may display Stowaway! images in black and white. If this happens, you should upgrade your color video driver. If you do not have a newer video driver, contact the supplier or manufacturer of your video card.
Images are truncated
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Some video drivers are designed to provide large fonts; if your system is using one of these, any image in the main window will appear slightly truncated. You can run the Windows Setup program to change the default video driver to one that does not default to large fonts.
ATI cards
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Some of the advanced features of ATI cards may be incompatible with Stowaway!. In particular, for the more powerful ATI cards, you may find that the "256 color palette" of the "ATI Control Panel" must be set to ON. For more information, see your video card documentation.
Other Display Problems
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If you continue to encounter problems when displaying images or running animations in Stowaway!, you may be able to isolate them by going through the following process:
1. Running the Windows Setup application, and checking the Display driver. If it is VGA, then try running Windows in Standard Mode by exiting and restarting it by typing "WIN /S" at the system prompt. If Stowaway! works, then try running enhanced mode by exiting Windows and restarting it by typing "WIN /D:XV" at the system prompt. If this also solves the problems, then edit your SYSTEM.INI file's "[386Enh]" section so that these entries read:
EMMEXCLUDE=A000-EFFF
VIRTUALHDIRQ=OFF
2. If the Display Driver shown in the Windows Setup application is not VGA, then try using the "Changes Systems Settings..." in the Options menu to change the Display driver to VGA. If this solves the problem, then you might consider using a different video driver provided by your video card manufacturer. If not, you should contact your video card manufacturer for advice.
Remember, when trying to solve your problem, that Stowaway! uses 256-color images, so using the 16-color mode of the standard VGA driver will cause it to no longer look its best.
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B. Audio Problems
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There are many possible causes of audio problems. Remember, for example, that your computer can only play one sound at a time, so when another application is playing a sound, then Stowaway! cannot do so. Most applications are well behaved and only prevent other programs from playing a sound when they themselves are doing so. However, some applications, such as certain Screen Savers, remove audio capability from all other Windows applications. If you have such an application, you should deactivate it when you are running Stowaway!.
Audio is fuzzy or distorted
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There are a number of possible causes of fuzzy or distorted sounds. Problems are often caused by low quality speakers, speakers set to high or maximum volume, or speakers powered by batteries which are failing. You should also be aware that some speakers are not capable of playing low frequency sounds properly.
If the software supplied with your sound card allows you to change settings you should check them to see if they are causing the distortion.
Some sound cards have software which allows you to adjust the volume AND tone of the sound; start with these tone controls set in the mid position and your volume level set between 80 - 100%. This should give a clear signal with no distortion.
If treble or bass is added in this software you must reduce the volume to compensate, or distortion will occur. Check your sound card manual for the optimum settings.
Powered speakers are best and, if possible, should be placed either side of the screen. You may need to adjust the position of these speakers slightly if the magnets in the speakers are unshielded and cause discoloration and distortion of the image.
If your CD-ROM is not MPC compatible, then the sound may play badly or be interrupted when playing. Check your CD-ROM's documentation to ensure that it meets the following requirements:
1. It has an average seek time of less than one second;
2. It has a transfer rate of 150KB per second while using less than 40% of the CPU bandwidth.
Sound plays too quietly
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Make sure the volume is set to an audible level. Check the sound board itself, the speakers or headphones if they have a volume control, and any software which may have been supplied with your sound board which can change the volume level.
If sound is set to an audible level, then you may have a problem with the way your sound board drivers are set up. Check they are set up correctly (from the Drivers section of the Control Panel), and, if necessary, reinstall them. Consult your sound board documentation for more detailed information.
Stowaway! will not work with sound drivers which drive the internal "PC Speaker".
EISA machines
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If you are running Stowaway! on an EISA machine, and the sound appears scratchy, change the DMA channel on the sound card to DMA 7. Consult your sound card documentation for more detailed information.
Media Vision Sound Cards
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Please ensure you have the latest drivers for your Media Vision sound card. Some earlier drivers cause problems for Stowaway!. Contact Media Vision for current driver information.
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C. CD-ROM Problems
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Should Stowaway! have problems finding the data files it needs from its Compact Disc, you'll see a message asking you to select the drive which contains the files. To find what has caused the problem, do the following:
Ensure that the Stowaway! CD has been correctly inserted into the CD-ROM drive.
Ensure Stowaway! is looking in the right place for the Compact Disc Drive. If, for example, the drive letter has changed as a result of a system change (for example, by adding or removing a Ram Disk or another device) then Stowaway! will fail to find its CD-ROM. You can check that the drive letter is correct by using Windows File Manager to see which letter is assigned to the Compact Disc Drive.
If you have an external Compact Disc drive, ensure that it is plugged in, turned on, and connected to your computer. You may need to check the documentation that came with the drive.
Verify that your Compact Disc drive is MPC compatible, so that it meets the following requirements:
1. It has an average seek time of less than one second;
2. It has a transfer rate of 150KB per second while using less than 40% of the CPU bandwidth.
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D. Running out of memory or running slowly
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Stowaway! uses your computer's system memory to display pictures. If you find that Stowaway! runs slowly or if you encounter out-of-memory errors, the program probably doesn't have enough memory. Consider doing the following to improve your computer's performance:
Close any unnecessary applications.
Check that your computer has at least 4MB of memory. You can do this by leaving Windows, and typing "mem" at the system prompt. If you have less than 4MB of memory, then you need to install some more.
Check that Windows has 4MB of memory available for Stowaway!. You can do this by selecting "About Program Manager" from the "Help" menu in Program Manager. You may find more memory becomes available if you restart Windows.
If you are running Windows in Enhanced mode, set up a permanent Windows swap file on your hard disk. You can do this by following the instructions in your Windows documentation.
On machines with only 4MB of memory, the SMARTDRV setting that controls the size of the disk cache for use inside Windows should be restricted to 512K or less. If you are running Windows for Workgroups 3.11 and using 32-bit disk access, make sure that the SMARTDRV settings in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file enable Smartdrive to cache your CD-ROM drive efficiently. Please consult your Windows documentation for further information on how to check and adjust these settings.
Clean up your hard disk by defragmenting it. There are a number of tools available to carry out this task, including the DEFRAG command found in DOS version 6 and later.
If you still cannot run Stowaway! on a 256-color display, try switching to the 16-color Windows VGA driver. For instructions on how to change your Windows display consult your Windows documentation. Note that images used by Stowaway! are 256-color, so they do not look their best in 16-color mode.
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E. Printing
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Printing images from Stowaway! may take several minutes, depending on the type of printer you use. Since screen resolution and printer resolution are often different, the printout may not match the quality you see on the screen.
Some dot-matrix printers may not print pictures properly with the "Low / Faster" quality setting in the Print Dialog. On these printers change the quality setting in the Print Dialog to "High / Slower".
Because the pictures can be quite large, you may have difficulty copying or printing in low-memory conditions. In this case, follow the advice in section D of this file, and try again.
