VideoLogic SmartTools for Windows 95 ==================================== & GrafixStar 400 ================ 14th June, 1996. This ReadMe file contains late-breaking information and tips on using VideoLogic's SmartTools for Microsoft Windows 95. For a detailed explanation of the functions and operations of SmartTools please consult the on-line help. The SmartTools are a new set of applications designed to allow you to get the most out of the powerful capabilities of your GrafixStar graphics card. The SmartTools give you more control over the appearance and behaviour of your Windows desktop. Contents ======== 1. An overview of SmartTools 2. Installation / Deinstallation 3. Troubleshooting 4. GrafixStar 400 Drivers 1. An overview of SmartTools ============================ 1.1. SmartTools ================ SmartTools lets you create toolbars to give you more control and quicker access to your Windows applications and documents. With SmartTools you can: - Use toolbars for other Smart applications, and customize these toolbars to suit your needs. - Create toolbars for other applications, adding buttons for the programs, documents and files you use most. - Assign hotkeys for the commands that you use most often. 1.2. SmartDisplay ================== SmartDisplay makes it easier and quicker for you to set up the display properties for your monitor. SmartDisplay gives you: - A SmartDisplay Wizard, which guides you through a step by step procedure that helps you find the ideal display properties for the kind of work you are doing. - A SmartDisplay setup procedure for advanced users, which allows you to select the display size, color palette, refresh rate, desktop size, connectivity, monitor alignment and properties for your display. 1.3. SmartDesktop ================== SmartDesktop is an application which controls the appearance and behaviour of your desktop. With SmartDesktop you can: - Use a virtual desktop, where the desktop size is larger than the display size. SmartDesktop controls the way you move around the desktop and reach the off-screen portion of your desktop. - Change the display size at the touch of a button, allowing you to zoom in and zoom out while you are working. 2. Installation / Deinstallation ================================ The GrafixStar 400 software for Windows 95 users is supplied on the VideoLogic Software Library CD in the folder GS400\Win95. This contains two sub-folders, Disk1 and Disk2, which contain the following: Disk1 - SmartTools and GrafixStar 400 Driver Disk2 - Disk 2 of the SmartTools installer These folders can be copied to your hard disk, or to 3.5" disks, and intalled in the same way as from the CD. If you are doing this, remember to use the path to the files you are using, not the path to the files on the CD shown below ([drive]:\GS400\Win95). Before installing SmartTools, you must install the latest graphics drivers for your GrafixStar card (found in [drive]:\GS400\Win95\Disk1 of the CD). This is explained in detail below. 2.1. Installation ================== 2.1.1. Installing the GrafixStar 400 Drivers for the first time in Windows 95 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Switch your computer on and start Windows 95. 2. Windows 95 detects that you have a new graphics card and automatically installs the default driver for this card. When prompted, restart your PC. 3. Insert the CD into your system. 3. Insert the CD into your system. 4. Choose Browse and locate the folder [drive]:\GS400\Win95\Disk1 on the CD, choose OK twice, select GrafixStar 400 PCI from the list and click OK. 5. When the GrafixStar files have been copied to your PC, a message will appear asking you to restart Windows. Choose OK. 6. Windows 95 will restart with the new drivers loaded. If these have been installed correctly you will find a new 'Advanced' tab in the Display Properties panel. 7. Open the Display Properties control panel (the quickest way is to click the right mouse button on the Windows desktop and select Properties). 8. Select the Settings tab and click on Change Display Type. 9. Make sure that the Monitor Type line contains the name of your monitor. If not, choose Change Monitor Type, select your monitor from the list and click OK. 2.1.2. Re-installing the GrafixStar drivers -------------------------------------------- The easiest way to install the GrafixStar Windows 95 software is using the Display Properties window: 1. Insert the CD or disk into your computer. 2. Open the Control Panel window. To do this, click Start, point to Settings and click Control Panel. 3. Double click on the Display icon to open the Display Properties Window. Note: You can go directly to the Display Properties window by clicking on the Windows 95 desktop with the right mouse button and choosing Properties from the menu. 4. Choose the Settings page by clicking on the Settings tab. 5. Choose the Change Display Type button. 6. Make sure that the Monitor Type line contains the name of your monitor. If not, click the Change button and select the name of your monitor from the list. 7. Click on the Change button for the Adapter Type. 8. Insert the GrafixStar CD into your computer and choose Have Disk from the Select Device menu. Browse to the folder [drive]:\GS400\win95\disk1. 9. Select your GrafixStar card from the list and choose OK. 10. When the GrafixStar files have been copied to your PC, the Change Display Type window is displayed again. Choose Close. 11. A message appears telling you that you will have to restart Windows 95 for the new display type to take effect. Choose OK. 12. Windows 95 restarts with the new GrafixStar Windows 95 drivers. If the GrafixStar drivers have installed correctly you will find an additional 'Advanced' page in the Display Properties Window. You are now ready to install the SmartTools for Windows 95. 2.1.3. Installing the SmartTools --------------------------------- 1. Choose Run from the Start menu. 2. Insert the GrafixStar CD into your computer and browse to the folder [drive]:\GS400\win95\disk1. 3. Type setup and choose OK. 4. Follow the instructions that appear on the screen. When SmartTools is installed, the Advanced page within the Display Properties Window is replaced by two new pages entitled 'SmartDisplay' and 'SmartDesktop'. 2.2. Deinstalling the SmartTools ================================= To deinstall the SmartTools from your system, rerun the SmartTools SetUp from the VideoLogic SmartTools program group and select Remove. Note that removing SmartTools involves restarting Windows 95, so save any open documents before you start. Once the SmartTools have been deinstalled, you will have to reinstall the GrafixStar drivers so the Advanced page reappears in the Display Properties Window. 3. Troubleshooting ================== 3.1 Display Properties - Settings Tab Corruption ------------------------------------------------- As part of the SmartTools installation the Settings Tab in the Display Properties page is modified. It has been found that some other applications may also modify the Settings Tab, e.g. Direct X version 2. This can result in corruption of the Settings Tab. To disable the SmartTools modifications to the Settings Tab use the patch file (msstnpg.reg) included on disk 2 of the SmartTools install. To do this run the file MSSTNGPG.REG once from within Windows 95 by double clicking on its icon. To re-enable the SmartTools modifications to the Settings Tab, SmartTools must first be deinstalled and then reinstalled. 3.2 Errors when running Virtual Desktops and/or changing Modes --------------------------------------------------------------- Some applications, especially those that display video, report errors when running a Virtual Desktop or changing modes. Every effort is made to prevent such problems but if they do occur we recommend that you close the problematic application before changing mode. 3.3. Modes =========== 3.3.1. 16-color modes ---------------------- SmartTools is not designed to work with a 16-color palette (4-bits per pixel). 3.3.2. Monitors ---------------- Windows 95 does not restrict the generic SVGA monitor settings to a given set of display sizes, so SmartTools allows any display size to be selected. Therefore if you have 'Standard monitor types' selected as you monitor, SmartTools will not restrict your display size. There is therefore a possibility that you could zoom out to a display size that your monitor does not support. 3.4. Toolbars ============== 3.4.1. Disappearing Toolbars ----------------------------- When using SmartDesktop to zoom into the desktop, it is possible from time to time to lose sight of the SmartTools toolbars. You can relocate a toolbar within your current display using the 'Find Now' feature. To reach the 'Find Now' button, select the Properties button of the toolbar on the Toolbar Properties page of SmartTools. 3.4.2. Maximize in Display --------------------------- The SmartDesktop feature 'Maximize on Display' maximizes your applications to the full size of your display. This feature ignores the Windows 95 Taskbar, so part of your application window disappears below it. If you use this feature, we recommended that you set the Taskbar to 'auto-hide'. 3.4.3. Moving & Deleting Buttons from Toolbars ----------------------------------------------- You can move buttons around on the toolbars by holding down the shift key and dragging them to the desired location. To remove a button, drag it off the toolbar while holding down the shift key. 3.5. HotKeys ============= 3.5.1. DOSBox -------------- The SmartDesktop hotkeys will not function when a DOSBox is open and its window currently has the focus. 3.6. Connectivity - Feature Connector ====================================== 3.6.1 Feature Connector ------------------------ If you select 'Feature Connector' from the Connectivity page of SmartDisplay, your CONFIG.SYS file is modified to include the TSR VLENABLE.SYS. VLENABLE is a small utility that enables DAC snooping at start up. If your system does not have a CONFIG.SYS file, or it has one that is zero bytes in size, you must create a file called CONFIG.SYS at the root of your hard disk and make sure that it contains some data (a 'rem' line is sufficient), before you select 'Feature Connector'. When you have selected Feature Connector you must restart your system to run VLENABLE. If you uncheck the Feature Connector option, the VLENABLE.SYS line in the CONFIG.SYS file will be disabled by changing it to a 'rem' line. 4. The GrafixStar 400 Drivers ============================= For information on installing the drivers see section 2.1 Contents ======== 4.1. Display modes with video acceleration 4.2. Using games with DirectDraw 4.3. Troubleshooting 4.1. Display modes with video acceleration ========================================== The modes below support video acceleration: Display size Colors Refresh rate (Hz) 640x480 256 60, 72, 75, 85 800x600 256 56, 60, 72, 75, 85 1024x768 256 43, 60, 70, 72, 75, 80, 85 640x480 65,536 60, 72, 75, 85 800x600 65,536 56, 60, 72, 75, 85 1024x768 65,536 43, 60, 70, 72, 75, 80, 85 640x480 16.7m 60, 72, 75, 85 All other modes display AVI files using software only, which gives poorer quality playback. If you want to playback MPEG files without special hardware, you can obtain a FREE copy of Xing MPEG Player when you return your GrafixStar 400 registration card. 4.2. Using games with DirectDraw ================================ GrafixStar 400 display drivers for Windows 95 are compatible with DirectDraw. SmartTools automatically installs DirectDraw. To manually install DirectDraw, find the directory REDIST.IHV on disk 2 and run SETUP.EXE, after which Windows 95 needs to be restarted. To deinstall DirectDraw simply delete the following files: file location Ddhelp.exe [drive]:\windows\system Ddraw.dll [drive]:\windows\system Ddraw16.dll [drive]:\windows\system Dvideo.dll [drive]:\windows\system Iccvid.dll [drive]:\windows\system 4.3. Troubleshooting ==================== Upgrading the BIOS ------------------ Upgrading your GrafixStar 400 to use the latest BIOS can cure a number of problems. The TSR 'vlgx4upg.com' updates the GrafixStar 400 BIOS to version 1.3. ‘vlgx4upg.com’ can be found in the VLPROD directory of a Windows 3.1/3.11 installation and in the SYSTEM directory of a Windows 95 installation. The TSR remains installed until the system is switched off. We recommended that you run it permanently, by adding a call to it in either your CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT. To run from the CONFIG.SYS insert the line Install=DRIVE:\PATH\VLGX4UPG.COM To run the file from the AUTOEXEC.BAT insert the line DRIVE:\PATH\VLGX4UPG.COM QuickTime for Windows Version 2.XX.XX ------------------------------------- If you experience problems when viewing QuickTime movies, run the QuickTime Control Panel from the Windows 95 Control Panel, and follow the steps below: - Run the QuickTime Control Panel, click the more button and select the Video tab. - From within the Optimization section, the Draw Method setting will be set to Video Hardware. Change this to Video Driver. - close the QuickTime Control Panel. Play AVI with MS PLUS! pack --------------------------- If you are using a display mode which is capable of video acceleration (see section 4.1) and have the option 'Show Window contents while dragging' enabled, you will see the accelerated video displaced from the video window whilst dragging the video window around the desktop. Disable the 'Show Window contents while dragging' on the PLUS page in the display properties. Monitor screen centering ------------------------ Some advanced monitors which utilize a user display setting by detecting the horizontal line frequency, may appear to change the size and positioning of the returned Window 95 screen when task switching from a DOS fullscreen session to a Windows 95 session. This problem occurs when the monitor is at the borderline between two settings. To remedy, use the monitor screen controls to adjust the screen to the desired settings. Quickres -------- Quickres is part of a series of unsupported utilities provided by Microsoft. The mechanism used by Quickres to achieve color-depth switching on the fly can seriously impact GrafixStar 700 performance, and can make Windows 95 unstable. We do not recommend the use of this utility. Xing 2.X --------- PEG clips replayed in modes other than the video accelerated modes listed in section 4.1. above, may cause Windows to become unstable. If this problem occurs, change the Display Mode to one that supports video acceleration.