Thank you for purchasing the Motovision's StressSavers screensaver!
What follows are some helpful tips that may help improve the performance of StressSavers on your system.
LIVING WITH COMPUTER FLEXIBILITY
Computer systems are very flexible by design; i.e., they allow a wide variety of software and hardware configurations. This flexibility will also create situations where two similar systems will perform differently simply because of the brand of hardware installed, the software installed or how the software is configured on the systems. Most performance issues and problems occur on those systems that are below the recommended configurations or that use "off-brand" hardware components (especially with sound and video card components- Click on VIDEO & SOUND SUPPORT for more information on tested video and sound cards). This is a long way of saying that:
#1) make sure your configuration meets or exceeds the
minimum configuration listed on the package!
If your system doesn't meet these requirements you may have problems running this software.
2) Try to use name brand or industry standard hardware components in your system, especially sound and video cards. "Off-brands" or generic brand components may respond unexpectedly or unreliably.
ADD RAM!
3) If at all possible add RAM! The cost of RAM memory has dropped so much that adding RAM may not only be the cheapest but also the best way to improve the performance of your system.
CHECKING YOUR DISPLAY PROPERTIES
4) Set your monitor to 256 colors with 640x480 pixels (creating full-screen playback) or 800x600 pixels (playback with a black border.)
You can check these settings in Win 95 by going to:
"Start"--"Settings"--"Control Panel"-double click "Display"-click the "Settings" tab. Look in the "Color Palette" window for the number of colors and the "Desktop Area" for the pixel dimensions. Adjust if needed. **SHORTCUT** To check your display properties quickly, right-click and hold your mouse anywhere on your opening "main" screen in an area that has no icons. Go to "Properties"--left-click and Viola!; your Display Properties screen is up. By the way, StressSavers may run fine on faster systems with the "Color Palette" set to 64K colors or higher, however your pixel dimension shouldn't be higher than 800x600 or it will appear very small on your screen.
SETTING THE START (OR "WAIT") TIME FOR STRESSSAVERS
5) The "Display Properties" window will also allow you to set how often StressSavers starts while not using your system. After opening the Display Properties (see #4) click on the "Screen Saver" tab. In the "Screen Saver" window check to see that a name like "Ssnature&music"* shows if not, select it through the scroll down button.
Check the "Wait" window, this is how many minutes after your computer is inactive before StressSavers will start; adjust to your preferences. You can also set your password here if you wish.
The "Settings" button only functions as an info screen about StressSavers. The "Preview" button functions as just that; it will preview the screen saver. Click OK when done.
*File name for nature StressSavers, other StressSavers will use similar naming such as "Ssflowers&music."
**Considerations regarding the Wait time**
If you're running at lot of things in the background, i.e., printing large jobs or running scan disk software, etc., consider setting the wait time higher so as to not potentially interfere with the background applications. This also applies when playing multimedia presentations or audio CD's.
FOR WINDOWS 95 USERS THAT HAVE PERFORMANCE PROBLEMS
As stated before you need to have the minimum hardware / memory requirements.
If you do and have video playback problems-it's likely that your video card may not meet the latest industry standards or that your video card drivers are not current. Check with your manufacturer. (REMEMBER TO SET YOUR MONITOR TO 256 COLORS FOR OPTIMAL PLAYBACK!)
If you experience "palette flash"- psychedelic colors or way-off colors that may flash for an instant or don't change until you restart Windows, then try installing the StressSavers designed for Pentiums 90-133 or StressSavers Lite (Pentium 90 or slower); these StressSavers use the standard Windows pallete and may completely eliminate the problem.
NOTE TO LAPTOP USERS: If you have a energy saving feature that shuts off the monitor after a certain amount of time, please disable it or set it to a much higher time setting--we've experienced a some conflicts when StressSavers is running and the monitor shuts off.
OTHER TIPS
If you run DOS based programs through WIN 95 and leave them open, you may experience some conflicts when StressSavers are running.
Certain Windows disk utilities (Scan Disk, Disk Defragmenter, etc.) may conflict with the performance of StressSavers when they are running.
On some systems, StressSavers may not respond imediatley to a mouse move or keystroke, this is more likley to occur when the program is transtioning form one screen to another or when text is animating. A slight delay is normal.
If you have sound problems; first make sure everything is properly connected, then check to make sure you installed the correct (sound) version of StressSavers. If you still have problems, make sure your sound card is Sound Blaster compatible (click on video & sound support) and see if their are new drivers available through your manufacturer.
If this all checks out but the StressSaver's playback is sluggish or very poor, then there maybe some software or hardware conflicts that are beyond the scope of this discussion. In this case try installing the STRESSSAVERS LITE version. It has the most basic configuration of all; no sound or animated messages, however it still looks great on the screen!
TO DELETE THE STRESSSAVERS FROM YOUR SYSTEM
Go to your Windows folder find the "Ssssnature&music.scr" file* and the corresponding "Ssssnature&music.exe" {file icon looks like a red cone} and simply drag them to your recycle bin or hit delete. That's it, no other files to remove or worry about!
*For nature StressSavers, other versions may say "Ssssflowers&music.scr",
"Ssssbible silent.scr", etc.
Any comments on how to improve our products is greatly appreciated; please email them to: info@moti-vision.com or call us at 800-238-0256. For the latest information on StressSavers including new and upcoming products, please visit our website: www.moti-vision.com
