Visual Home/Visual_Home_Books_That_Work_1996.iso/win31faq.txt

Text File | 1996-07-14 | 6KB | 152 lines

Some Windows 3.1 users of Visual Home have problems with "WIN32s,"
a software product from Microsoft that lets programs written for
Windows 95 run under Windows 3.1.
The following questions and answers may help you run Visual Home under Windows 3.1.

Q: Is there anything I can do to make the program run faster?
A: For Windows 3.x users, here are some common things to "tune-up" your system:

1. Increase your swap space:
Under your Main Group in the Program Manager:

    Go to Control Panel
    Select  386 Enhanced
    Click  Virtual Memory

Make sure that the type of swap files is set to Permanent. (If it's temporary,
set it to permanent by selecting the "Change" button)

Make sure your recommended size matches your new size settings (you can view sizes
when you click on the change button).

We recommend that your virtual memory size is set to at least 15,000kb

2. Set your graphics display for optimal performance:

Under your Main Group in the Program Manager:

    Go to Windows Setup
    Go to Display

Make sure your colors are set to 256 colors and resolution is 800x600 or 640x480.

3. Always make sure that CD is in the drive before you run the program so your system
will start reading files right away.

Q: My computer freezes.  What can I do?
A: If your computer does not respond to any keyboard or mouse input, or is showing
a blank/black screen, this may be because Virtual Home "pushes" the video driver
too far, by either sending it too much data to display or sending it too fast.
To verify if there is such conflict with your video driver, you can temporarily
switch to the standard video driver that comes with Windows.  If the program works
after the switch, you should upgrade your video driver immediately.

To switch to the standard video driver, from the Program Manager go under the Main group:
-Select the  Windows Setup icon
-Check the Display
-Choose File from the menu bar and select the option, "Change System Settings"
-First, note the current display driver.
-Scroll either up or down to select something that is closest to "VGA with 256 colors",
select it and press "OK."
You will have to use your judgment on this selection.  Pick one that sounds like a standard
Windows driver.
- Finally, try running Visual Home with this video driver.

Q: There is a video driver conflict, now what do I do?
A: Use the program "MSD" to learn the manufacturer of your video card, then
contact them to get the latest driver.
To run MSD, exit to DOS and type "MSD.
This command will call up the Microsoft Diagnostics. The "Video" portion will display
the type of adapter installed on your system.

There are known conflicts with older versions of certain video drivers such as Diamond,
Trident, Cirrus and ATI.  Please upgrade these display adapters by calling the vendors
and requesting updated drivers. Some of the major manufacturers are listed below:

Trident
Service:    415-691-9211
BBS:        415-691-1016

Diamond
Service:    408-325-7100
BBS:        408-325-7000
URL:        http://www.diamondmm.com/index.html

Cirrus Logic
Service:    510-226-2323
BBS:        510-440-9080
URL:        http://www.cirrus.com/


Q: How do I re-install win32s?
A: If you have the following symptoms, you may need to re-install "win32s"

-Win32s error
- Cannot find OLECLI.DLL
- Windows requires WIN32S.EXE and WIN32s16.DLL to run
- Windows requires w32s.386 in order to run
- Cannot find file freecell.exe (or one of it's components)

You can try the following steps:

1. Check your video driver:
If you are having video/display problems, check to see if you have an S3 chip
video card (Trident, Diamond, ATI, Cirrus, Paradise are some cards supported
by the S3 chip). Certain S3 drivers do not work with Win32s. Either use the
generic drivers shipped with Windows, or contact your video card manufacturer
for an updated driver.
See the section above under the question "Q: My computer freezes"


2. Check your printer driver:
If you have a printer driver by Lasermaster, comment it out.
(It interferes with installing Win32s.)  Reboot the computer so that
the changes you made take effect. After you successfully reinstall Win32s,
reinstall the driver or remove the comment characters.

To comment out the "Lasermaster" print driver, follow these steps:
-From File Manager, Choose the File menu, then "Run."
-Type "sysedit" then press enter.
-From the System Configuration Editor,  select the Win.ini file and type "rem"
in front of the line pertaining to Lasermaster.
After editing, the line should look like this:

rem  device=Lasermaster


3. Enable "Share":
Your "autoexec.bat" file should contain a line like this:
            C:\DOS\SHARE.EXE
Otherwise, your "system.ini" file, under the "[386Enh]" section, should have a line like this:
            Device=VSHARE.386
If not, or you do not know how to verify this, please contact Books That Work technical support
to help you do this.

4. Re-install win32s:
Now proceed with the instructions listed below for both Windows 3.1 and Windows 3.11
Delete this line from your "system.ini" file.
    Device=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\WIN32S\W32S.386
Add the following line in your System.ini file

    device=*vmcpd

Edit the Win32s.ini file on your hard disk. Change the line setup=1 to read setup=0.
The file should be under "c:\windows\system" directory.  If not, search for it
with File Manager.

Delete the following c:\windows\system\win32s directory from File Manager.
When prompted on whether to delete the files, click "yes to all".

You now need to exit Windows and delete files under DOS.
At the DOS prompt type:
cd \windows\system
del winmm16.dll
del w32sys.dll

Now get back into Windows by typing Win at the DOS prompt. First terminate all other programs.
You can do so by pressing the "Ctrl" and "Esc" key together to bring up the "Task List".
From there, end all tasks except "Program Manager".

Now you can re-install win32s by running: "d:\win32s\disk1\setup.exe"
(substitute the letter "d" with the drive letter of your CD-ROM).