|
|
|
Being able to change resolutions on the fly is one of the nicest *little* features of Windows 95. If you need to switch color depth or resolution to get a different view of your document, go into Control Panel's Display, choose the Settings tab and move the Desktop Area slider to your preferred resolution.
When using an external monitor, selecting a higher resolution can turn a so-so presentation into a stunning spectacle. Instead of using the default 640x480 resolution, set your video display to a higher setting for optimal viewing pleasure. If you can't find a high-res driver already on your system, check the diskettes that came with the notebook, or contact the vendor.
If .AVI files don't play back as well under Windows 95 as they did under Windows for Workgroups, you may be suffering from driver deprivation. The retail version of Windows 95 initially shipped without a Direct Draw driver that some video cards rely on to accelerate video playback. To get your video running at full speed, check with the video card manufacturer for the Direct Draw driver or check Microsoft's online areas.
If your PC seems sluggish when updating the screen, don't assume you need a new CPU. Your video adapter may be the bottleneck; 64-bit PCI and VL-bus cards offering graphics *and* motion video acceleration will speed up nearly every task you perform and are within most budgets. If you have an ISA-only machine, consider a new system since ISA adapters are becoming scarce and don't offer near the local-bus speeds that Windows demands.
A bluish tint on the display doesn't automatically mean your monitor needs repair. Check the connection between your monitor and video card. A bent pin or loosely connected monitor cable can result in an incomplete signal that generates the blue tint. Also, make sure that the video card is firmly seated in its expansion slot before calling for help.
Ready your system for the MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) file format, which is appearing on many entertainment and educational titles. You have two upgrade paths--hardware or software. For the highest quality MPEG playback, look for video cards that include hardware-accelerated MPEG which display movies full-screen at 30 frames per second. Since these cards are generally more expensive, you might try one of the software MPEG CODECs (Coder/Decoder) including programs from Media Matics and Xing among others. These programs work best on Pentium systems because they utilize the CPU to decode the MPEG files, but 486's can also offer acceptable playback.
Adding a new video adapter under Windows 95 is generally much simpler than in 3.*x*. Win95 automatically detects the presence of a new video adapter and loads a compatible driver. If an appropriate driver isn't available, Win95 loads a VGA driver so that you can run Windows and manually change the driver. To manually change your video driver, select Control Panel through Settings on the Start menu and select Display. Next choose Change Adapter Type, and click on the Have Disk option. From here you can install the drivers from diskette, the network or wherever they are stored. Alternatively, you can right-click on the My Computer icon on the desktop (or under Explorer) to bring up the system properties. From there select Device Manager, and click on the name of the video adapter. Finally choose the Driver tab and select Change driver to bring up a dialog box. You can also bring up your display properties by right-clicking on any open area of the desktop.
If Windows 95 is not displaying properly, restart your PC and relaunch in safe mode. To do this, press F8 during bootup to bring up the Startup menu and Windows will default to the VGA driver. If Windows runs but is displaying erratically—such as colors not displaying properly or windows not resizing correctly--you may have a buggy driver. Turn down the hardware acceleration feature by selecting Graphics under the Performance subsection of the System Control Panel. This can help stabilize a quirky video driver.
|
|
|