home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- README MATROX GRAPHICS INC. January 15th, 1996
-
- MGA Windows 95 Display Driver
- Revision 2.01.010
-
- Table of Contents
-
- - Description of This Release
- - Floppy Contents
- - Installation
- - Registry Settings
- - Notes, Problems, and Limitations
-
- Description of This Release
- ---------------------------
-
- This is the MGA Windows 95 PowerDesk software, version 2.0.
-
- This product includes a MGA Windows 95 driver AND the Matrox
- PowerDesk for Windows 95, which allows: virtual desktop, hardware
- pan and zoom, Quick Access panel and more...
-
- Floppy contents
- ---------------
-
- Basic Driver files (installed in \Windows\System):
-
- MGAPD.INF Installation support file
- MGAPD.DRV MGA Win95 Driver
- MGAPD.VXD Win95 miniVDD
- MGAPD.DLL MGA initialization DLL
-
- PowerDesk files installed in \Windows\System:
-
- MGASHEET.DLL MGA Display Property Sheet (replaces regular sheet)
- MGASHEET.HLP Help file for Property Sheet
- MGACTRL.EXE MGA Control Center (for PowerDesk)
- MGACTRL.DLL MGA Keyboard hooker (for PowerDesk hotkeys)
- M_SHEET.DLL Text strings for MGAEXT.DLL
- M_CTRL.DLL Text strings for MGACTRL.EXE
- MGAPREV.BMP MGA Pixel Depth Preview Bitmaps
-
- PowerDesk files installed in \Matrox\MGA:
-
- README This file
- ONLINE.DOC Documentation
- PANELOFF.REG MGA PowerDesk uninstall file
- RAMBIOS.SYS MGA BIOS Shadowing Utility
- \MON
- MGASET.EXE MGA Win95 Monitor Program
- M_SET.DLL Text strings for MGASET.EXE
- MGASET.HLP Help file for Monitor Program
- MGA.MON MGA Monitor File
- ULTIMA1A.MON MGA Ultima 1/A Monitor File
- \QA
- MGAQUICK.EXE MGA Win95 QuickAccess program
- M_QUICK.DLL Text strings for MGAQUICK.EXE
-
- DirectDraw files installed in \Windows\System:
-
- MGADD.DRV MGA DirectDraw hooks
- MGADD16.DLL MGA DirectDraw thunk layer
- MGADD32.DLL MGA DirectDraw accelerations
-
- DirectDraw files installed in \Windows\System\VMM32:
-
- VFLATD.VXD MGA DirectDraw new virtualize flat frame buffer device
-
- Installation
- ------------
-
- The installation is covered in the "online.doc" file.
- You can view this file with WordPad.
-
- The installation process can be customized by modifying the "mga.ini"
- file on the diskette. Examples of customization options include:
- default installation path, default driver performance switches,
- default schemes, etc. The file is self-documented. This type of
- customization should be carried out by advanced users only.
-
- Registry Settings
- -----------------
-
- PowerDesk settings are kept in the Windows 95 registry, under the keys:
-
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MATROX\MGA and
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MATROX\QUICKACCESS
-
- Notes, Problems, and Limitations
- --------------------------------
-
- - Microsoft MGA Ultima/Impression driver
-
- The Microsoft MGA Ultima/Impression driver v.1.0 does not have, or support,
- the PowerDesk enhancements. In the "Adapter Type" list, the MGA driver is
- called the "Matrox MGA Ultima/Impression", while the PowerDesk one is
- called "Matrox MGA PowerDesk".
-
- - Windows 95 "display.txt" file
-
- Windows 95 comes with a readme file called "display.txt" containing
- valuable information related to display adapters.
- Note that the remarks about the Matrox MGA adapters refer to the Microsoft
- MGA Ultima/Impression driver, not to your MGA PowerDesk driver.
-
- - Adobe Type Manager limitation
-
- When Adobe Type Manager is installed, you cannot run the driver if the
- "Advanced Graphics Acceleration Settings" is set to none. Note that ATM
- is installed as part of Adobe Acrobat Reader. This is an Adobe problem
- documented in the Windows 95 "display.txt" file.
-
- - Windows 95 SuperVGA monitors not supported
-
- Windows 95 provides "Standard monitor types". This includes various
- SuperVGA monitors supporting resolutions from 800 X 600 to 1600 X 1200.
- These monitor types do not specify refresh rate ranges, which causes
- our driver to reject them and work as if there is no monitor selected.
- In this case, the driver will output resolutions up to 1600 X 1200,
- which might not be supported by your actual monitor. Therefore the
- SuperVGA monitor types SHOULD NOT BE USED WITH THE MGA POWERDESK DRIVER.
- Instead, try to find your specific monitor name (or type) in the Windows 95
- list, or use one of the generic monitors from the MGA Monitor Program.
-
- - Monitor Refresh rates with a virtual desktop
-
- When working with a virtual desktop, the refresh rate used for the
- Windows 95 monitor will be derived from the virtual desktop resolution
- ("Desktop area") rather than from the display resolution ("Display
- area"). This typically will result in an inferior refresh rate, and if
- the virtual desktop resolution is not supported by your monitor
- (e.g. 1600 X 1200), the default refresh rate of only 60 Hz will be used.
-
- This limitation does not occur when using the Matrox MGA Monitor Program,
- where the refresh rates are taken from the display resolution.
-
- - Monitors in interlaced mode
-
- Some old monitors such as the IBM 8514 and the NEC 3D do not support non-
- interlaced mode in all resolutions. The MGA driver does not properly
- handle interlaced mode under the Windows 95 monitor mechanism, so if you
- own one of these monitors, please use the MGA Monitor Program.
-
- - MGA Rev.1 boards, Impression Plus AT-Bus
-
- If you have a MGA Rev.1 board or an Impression Plus AT-Bus, you MUST use
- the RAMBIOS.SYS program (or some other form of shadow BIOS) when the MGA
- board is configured with the on-board VGA enabled, in a single-screen
- configuration, at the default base address of AC000. The RAMBIOS.SYS
- utility must be loaded through the CONFIG.SYS file (CONFIG.SYS file must
- contain the line: device=c:\Matrox\MGA\RAMBIOS.SYS).
-
- - MGA ULTIMA/1/A Users
-
- If you have a MGA-ULT/1/A board (1Mb VRAM), you must use the Matrox Monitor
- Selection program rather than the Windows 95 monitor selection. Furthermore,
- you must use the special ULTIMA1A.MON Monitor file, located in the
- \Matrox\MGA\MON directory. Simply copy this file over the MGA.MON file, then
- call the Matrox Monitor Program to select a monitor from that list.
-
- - Repaint problems with PanLOCK
-
- We have noted erratic window repainting problems with the PanLOCK feature.
- The problem is related to Windows main message queue, and happens more
- easily with the "window dragging" feature of the Win95 Plus Pack. It has
- been seen so far in Lotus 4, Access and AMIPro. There is no workaround
- other than to avoid using PanLOCK.
-
- - Microsoft DirectDraw
-
- The MGA DirectDraw driver is included with this release. It provides
- the necessary hooks to accelerate upcomming DirectX games.
-
- - MGA ULTIMA/PCI
-
- If you have a PCI based computer and are experiencing system lock-ups on the
- first boot after installing your PCI display adapter, in "fail-safe boot", or
- when your display is set to 640x480, 16 colors, then you should copy a
- special version of the Windows 95 VGA display driver. It works around a
- compatibility problem between the Intel "Triton" PCI controller and the
- MGA ULTIMA/PCI. The file is located in \DRIVERS\DISPLAY\VGA on the Microsoft
- Windows 95 CD-ROM. Just copy this version of VGA.DRV over the version already
- in your Windows\system directory.
-
- - DirectDraw and Automatic Power Management
-
- As stated in "Microsoft DirectX release Notes" dated September 30, 1995, A
- DirectDraw game might be unable to restore properly if it is suspended
- by Automatic Power Management utilities.
-
- - More Information
-
- More information is available in the WordPad file "online.doc". This
- file is included on your Matrox floppy disk, and installed in your
- \Matrox\MGA folder.