Encarta 1995: README.WRI Contents (Part 1 of 2)
  
PSS ID Number: Q122466
Article last modified on 05-07-1999
 

 
WINDOWS
 

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1995
WINDOWS
kbmm kbreadme kbmm kbfaq
 
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The information in this article applies to:
 
 - Microsoft Encarta for Windows, 1995 edition 
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SUMMARY
=======
 
This article contains the first part of the README.WRI file that comes with
Microsoft Encarta 1995 edition.
 
To view the second portion of README.WRI, please see the following article(s) in
the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
 
   Q122467 Contents of the Encarta 1995 README.WRI File (Part 2)
 
NOTE: This Readme document refers to the Microsoft Download Service (MSDL). As of
12/31/1998, the MSDL service is no longer available. To download support files,
visit one of the following Microsoft Internet sites:
 
   http://support.microsoft.com/support
 
   ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/softlib/mslfiles
 
MORE INFORMATION
================
 
Microsoft Encarta, 1995 Edition - README
----------------------------------------
 
Microsoft Encarta Tips:
 
This document contains that will help you get the most out of Encarta and
your system.
 
To read this file on-screen, use the Page Down and Page Up keys on your
keyboard. You can print the file by choosing the Print command from the
File menu.
 
Sending suggestions, content enhancements, and errors
 
If you have suggestions for features you would like to see in future
editions of Encarta or comments about the current version, please send them
to:
 
     Encarta Program Manager
     Consumer Division
     Microsoft Corporation
     1 Microsoft Way
     Redmond, WA  98052-6399
     FAX: (206) 936-7329
     Internet:  mswish@microsoft.com
 
Comments about errors, comprehensiveness, or validity of information
presented are welcome. Please send these comments by FAX, U.S. Mail, or
E-mail.
 
Table of Contents
-----------------
 
Section    Description
 
1.         Problems During Setup
2.         Encarta and Windows Performance Issues
3.         Video Cards and Display Problems
4.         Audio Problems
5.         CD-ROM Problems
6.         Word Processors and Encarta
7.         Running Encarta on Windows NT
8.         Using Encarta with Microsoft Works 3.0 for Windows
9.         Mouse Cursor Problem
10.        Credit Information
11.        General Multimedia Information
 
NOTE: Sections 5-11 are found in a separate Knowledge Base article.
 
1.  Problems During Setup
 
Because Encarta installs system files that may be shared with other
applications, it is best to shut down other applications before setting up.
 
If Setup is interrupted by a loss of power, a power surge, or some other
unexpected incident, then restart Windows before you run Setup again.
 
Refer to your Encarta User's Guide for minimum system requirements.
 
2.  Encarta and Windows Performance Issues
 
There are several ways to make Encarta run faster. Many of the methods
described below are general tips to improve the performance of any Windows
application. Consult your Windows manual for more details.
 
Microsoft Encarta uses your computer's memory (RAM) to display pictures and
play animations and sound. If Encarta runs slowly or you see out-of-memory
errors, Encarta may not have enough memory. Below are some tips to make the
best use of your available memory.
 
* Close all applications that you are not using.
 
* Set up a permanent Windows swap file.
 
    Windows works best when there is hard disk space allocated for
    swapping a file into or out of your computer's memory. To set up
    a permanent Windows swap file on your hard disk, open the Control
    Panel (usually in the "Main" program group of Program Manager),
    and click the icon "386 Enhanced."  Then use the "Virtual Memory"
    button to see if your current swap file is temporary or permanent,
    to check the size of the current swap file, and to make changes.
    Windows usually creates a temporary swap file by default, but if
    your disk is full or fragmented, this temporary file can become
    unavailable. If you can, make the size of the permanent swap file
    at least 4096KB.
 
    Look at the Help menu of the Windows Control Panel or in your
    Windows documentation for more information.
 
* Defragment or optimize your hard disk by running a defragmentation
  program.
 
    For example, MS-DOS 6.0 includes a utility called Microsoft
    Defrag. Some other popular utilities are PC Tools, Norton
    Utilities, and Mace Utilities.
 
* Add more RAM (memory) to your computer.
 
    You can determine how much memory is available by starting MS-DOS,
    typing "mem" and pressing ENTER. This starts a program that will
    tell you how much memory you have. You need at least 4 megabytes
    (sometimes listed as 4096 kilobytes or KB) of RAM, and 8 megabytes
    is recommended.
 
* Add a cache to your CD-ROM drive.
 
    SmartDrive in MS-DOS 6.2 and utilities like Norton Speedcache+ can
    significantly improve the performance of CD-ROM products by
    helping eliminate unnecessary seeks and reads.  If you have an
    older or slow CD-ROM drive, the performance difference is very
    noticeable.
 
For more details on improving performance, consult your Windows and CD-ROM
manuals or see the tips in your Encarta user's guide.
 
3. Video Cards and Display Problems
 
Encarta 95 will not run properly in 16-color mode. The standard VGA driver
that comes with Windows and almost all video cards can show only 16 colors.
However, unless you have a VGA-only video card or monitor, you can change
to a higher color mode. For example, you can change to a driver that will
display 256 colors. Your system may already have a driver installed that
displays 256 colors or more. For instructions on how to determine what
video driver you have installed, and on how to install or change drivers,
see Help within Windows Setup. Click the Windows Setup icon, usually
located in the Main group in the Windows Program Manager.
 
In some situations, Encarta may encounter video display problems when using
high resolution video drivers from various video card manufacturers. The
problems include:
 
- Maps or illustrations in the article text appear grainy or flawed
- Animations break up or do not display at all
- Videos display garbled images or crash Encarta
 
There are several things you can do if you encounter problems like this:
 
* Obtain updated drivers from your video card manufacturer
 
    Most problems can be fixed by obtaining new drivers from your
    video card manufacturer. Contact the manufacturer of your video
    card to determine if there are newer versions available.  Their
    phone number should be in the manuals that came with your video
    card or personal computer. Another option for obtaining updated
    drivers is the Microsoft Download service, an electronic bulletin
    board that can be accessed via a modem at (206) 936-MSDL
    (206-936-6735).
 
* Change to a different display mode
 
    An alternative to obtaining a new or updated display driver is to
    change your video mode to a standard video mode such as 640 x 480
    resolution with 256 colors.
 
Special Note: USING ENCARTA 1995 WITH ATI VIDEO CARDS
 
If you are using an ATI Ultra driver, specifically the drivers ULTRA.DRV or
ULTRABG.DRV, Encarta may "freeze" while running. If this happens, you will
get no error message, and will have to use the Ctrl-Alt-Delete keys to
close Encarta and return to Windows. The solution to this problem is to get
a newer driver from ATI (see below for how to contact ATI). A temporary
workaround is to add the following line to your ENCARTA.INI file:
 
       NoWatermark=1
 
To add this line, use Notepad to edit your ENCARTA.INI file. Add the line
under [95Options]. ENCARTA.INI is found in your \windows directory. This
line will prevent Encarta's "Watermarks" from being drawn, which will
remove the source of the failure. Once you install new drivers, you can
remove this line from the INI file.
 
If you are using an ATI video card and a "mach" video driver (mach8 or
mach32) as your Windows display driver*, the Device Bitmaps setting for the
video card must be set to "Off". This enables the animations in Encarta to
run properly. To check/change this setting, do the following:
 
    1.Launch the Mach FlexDesk Control Panel by double-clicking the
      "mach FlexDesk Control Panel" icon usually found in the "mach
      Utilities" program group in Program Manager. The "mach
      Utilities" group is created when you run the ATI mach video
      driver setup program.
    2.Click the Advanced button.
    3.Make sure "Device Bitmaps" is set to "Off", or set it to "Off"
      if it is not.
      (if the Advanced dialog box has no "Device Bitmaps" setting,
      read below on changing the setting through your WIN.INI file)
    4.Click OK to close the FlexDesk Advanced Settings.
    5.Click OK to close the FlexDesk Control Panel.
 
You will need to restart Windows for the changes to take effect.
 
If the Advanced dialog box has no "Device Bitmaps" setting, you will have
to make the change by altering your WIN.INI file. You can do this by
running Notepad, which is normally located in the Accessories group in
Program Manager. Open the file WIN.INI which can be found in your windows
subdirectory. With the cursor placed at the top of the file, search for the
word "devicebitmap" (do not enter the quotation marks, do not use any
spaces). To search, select "Search" then "Find". You should find a line
that reads, "devicebitmap=on". Change it to "devicebitmap=off" and save the
file. You will need to restart Windows for the change to take effect.
 
*You can verify the Windows Display driver selection by launching the
Windows Setup icon found in the Main program group of the Windows Program
Manager.
 
*Also, if the ATI Crystal Fonts option is turned on, Encarta may not
display the correct colors. We suggest turning this option off if you are
running in 256 color mode and are experiencing color problems.
 
For information about ATI video cards or the ATI installation utility
referred to above, contact ATI Technical Support at (905) 882-2626.
 
4. Audio Problems
 
The following are some suggested solutions for common problems with playing
audio in Encarta.
 
--------------------------------------------------
SOUND DOES NOT PLAY AT ALL
--------------------------------------------------
 
1. Check the volume.
 
2. If the volume is turned up and you still hear no sounds, something
    may be wrong with your audio card installation. Check to see that
    the audio card software is installed correctly and reinstall it if
    necessary.  For further details, see the section below "MAKING
    SURE THE SOUND CARD IS INSTALLED PROPERLY"
 
3. If the software is installed correctly, the audio card may need to
    be pressed more securely into its slot or have a jumper setting
    changed on the audio card.
 
4. If you have both an audio card and special software that bypasses
    the audio card to play sounds through the PC speaker, we suggest
    you remove or disable the special software (the PC speaker
    driver). Encarta requires an MPC-compatible audio; it is not
    meant to run with just the PC internal speaker or any combination
    of that speaker and special software.
 
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SOUND PLAYS BUT IS DISTORTED OR "FUZZY"
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Sound distortion is often caused by sending a higher volume or amplitude of
sound than the speakers are able to handle. Also, if the volume control on
your audio card is set too high it may cause distortion from the amplifier
on the audio card. Sometimes lower quality speakers will distort at a lower
volume than better speakers will (compare a clock radio speaker to a big
stereo system; the stereo speakers can play much louder with no
distortion). For example, if the volume for your audio card or "WAVE file
output" is set to near its maximum it will produce distortion just like a
radio with the volume turned up too high. To learn how to change your audio
card settings, check the manuals that came with your audio card. Changing
the volume settings is normally done with either a volume dial on the back
of your audio card (in the rear of your computer where the speakers plug
in) or with a program that is often called a "mixer" that is usually
installed in the Windows Control Panel of the Main program group. Some
audio cards use both types of controls and they must both be adjusted.
 
Another possible cause is that you are using a 16-bit sound card set to a
lower Direct Memory Access (DMA). Sounds that appear scratchy while using a
low DMA will sound better using an upper DMA. In the case of the Media
Vision Pro Audio 16 soundcard, a DMA setting of 7 will correct any scratchy
sounds. To change the DMA channel you will have to go to the Windows
Control Panel and select drivers. In the drivers section select the sound
card driver and choose setup. You should be able to select a higher DMA
setting here. If the driver will not allow you to change the DMA setting
you may need to refer to your sound card manual .
 
--------------------------------------------------
SOUND PLAYS BUT HAS SKIPS
--------------------------------------------------
 
If audio breaks up or skips periodically it is usually an indication that
the CD-ROM drive does not fully meet the MPC (Multimedia PC) specification
for the Data Transfer Rate. The MPC specification states that the CD-ROM
drive needs to be capable of transferring data at a rate of 150 KB per
second while utilizing 40% or less of the CPU. You can continue to use your
CD-ROM drive to run Encarta, but will continue to experience this
choppiness in audio and animation clips.
 
-------------------------------------
SOUNDS ARE CUT OFF
-------------------------------------
 
Most audio cards can play only one sound at a time; therefore, other sound-
producing programs could interrupt the sounds from Encarta. Some sound
producing programs may take over the audio capability and prevent other
Windows programs from being able to make sounds. If you suspect you have
such a program do not run it at the same time as Encarta.
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ERROR MESSAGE:  "NO WAVE DEVICE THAT CAN PLAY FILES..."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
If you get the error message "No wave device that can play files in the
current format is installed. Use the drivers option to install the wave
device." when trying to play some sound clips or dialogues, then the
Microsoft audio compression manager and drivers may not be installed
correctly. There are 2 files in your Windows system directory that need to
be up to date. You can compare the files MSACM.DRV and MSADPCM.ACM to those
located on your Encarta CD. If these files are current, then you will want
to make sure that your SYSTEM.INI file contains the right information. You
can open the SYSTEM.INI in Notepad or any text editor. Make sure that the
following sections and section entries appear:
 
[Drivers]
wavemapper=msacm.drv
 
[MSACM]
install=msadpcm.acm
 
------------------------------------------------
ANTHEM VOLUME IS TOO LOW
------------------------------------------------
 
When playing anthems in Encarta you may here softer sounds than when
playing other audio. To increase the sound level, you need to adjust your
mixer settings. To do this you must first locate your mixer. It should be
in the group where your sound software is loaded. Refer to your audio
card's software manual for the exact location.
 
Once you find and run the mixer you can independently raise and lower the
levels of the different types of sound. For example you can turn up wav
audio and turn down the CD-audio. To get the anthems to play louder, turn
up the midi setting
 
---------------------------------------------------------------------
AUDIO DOES NOT PLAY DURING ANIMATIONS
---------------------------------------------------------------------
 
If you install Encarta from a network using UNC path names, the animation
audio will not play. An example of a UNC path name is "\\netloc\encarta".
When you install from a network location, you should use File Manager to
connect to the network drive, and install using the drive letter assigned
for that connection, rather than the UNC path name. For instructions on
using a drive connection, see Help within the Connect Network Drive dialog
box found under the Disk menu in File Manager.
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ERROR WHEN YOU PLAY AUDIO YOU'VE COPIED TO ANOTHER APPLICATION
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
If you receive an error message when you try to play audio that you've
copied to another application, you may have one of the following problems.
 
     1. If you have run the software package called Sound Impressions
        since you copied the audio, you need to run Sound Recorder,
        which can usually be found in the Accessories group in Program
        Manager. Sound Impressions makes changes to your system that
        running Sound Recorder will repair. Simply start Sound
        Recorder and, once it is open, close it.
 
     2. If you have removed the file SOUNDREC.EXE from your windows
        subdirectory, you need to replace it in order to hear the
        copied audio clips. If you do not have a copy of the file
        elsewhere, you will need to re-install Windows. Consult your
        Windows manual for more information.
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
MAKING SURE THE SOUND CARD IS INSTALLED PROPERLY
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
  1. Check to see that you can play MIDI from MS-DOS. Most sound
     cards come with a test utility or an MS-DOS program for playing
     MIDI or testing the card configuration. If MIDI does not work
     with these then the MIDI will not work in Windows either.
 
  2. Verify Port and IRQ settings by looking at the sound card and
     comparing the way it is set up to the way that the audio card
     software thinks it is set up. The audio card manual should
     explain how to configure the audio card settings.
 
  3. Make sure the sound card does not conflict with other hardware.
     This is done by comparing the setup of the audio card with the
     setups of other cards in your computer. It is important that no
     two cards try to use the same port or IRQ. This is a common
     source of problems when you are getting no sound at all.
 
  4. If you have a Sound Blaster 16 sound card, and you can't hear
     sounds play, you may have to disable the 16-bit audio by
     switching the High DMA channel to match the Low DMA channel.
     Sound Blaster has utilities programs to help you do this. If
     you need to do this manually, you must change the current
     settings in both the AUTOEXEC.BAT and the SYSTEM.INI.
     COMMON SOLUTIONS TO MAKING SOUNDS PLAY:  MIDI AUDIO
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
MIDI AUDIO DOES NOT PLAY IN WINDOWS OR A WINDOWS PROGRAM
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
When a program that supports MIDI doesn't play the MIDI audio, it is
commonly due to one or more of the following reasons:
 
*  The audio card is not installed properly, does not support MIDI, or
   is conflicting with another Windows device.
 
*  A MIDI driver is not installed or is improperly configured.
 
*  The MIDI Mapper is improperly configured.
 
   NOTE: Before attempting any complicated troubleshooting, try
   restarting Windows or rebooting your computer and see if your
   system functions correctly.
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
MIDI TROUBLESHOOTING WITH MEDIA PLAYER
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Media Player is a program that can play MIDI files. It is normally located
in the Accessories group in the Program Manager. It allows you to check the
MIDI installation in a simple way. After using the File Open command to
load a .MID file into Media Player (there should be some .MID files in the
Windows directory) press the Play button. The following message may occur:
 
     The current MIDI Mapper setup refers to a MIDI device that is
     not installed on the system. Use MIDI Mapper to edit the
     setup.
 
If this message appears, then your MIDI Mapper is not configured
properly. The first thing to do in this case is to check to see if
your MIDI Mapper configuration was changed.
1.) Look for a file called MIDIMAP.OLD in your \WINDOWS\SYSTEM
    directory. If this file exists, it means that your original MIDI
    Mapper configuration file was replaced.
2.) If you see a MIDIMAP.OLD, then rename MIDIMAP.CFG to MIDIMAP.BAK.
3.) Now rename MIDIMAP.OLD to MIDIMAP.CFG.
4.) Try playing a MIDI file in Media Player.
 
If this procedure fails or is inapplicable, run Control Panel (usually in
the Main group of the Windows Program Manager) and check the setup in the
MIDI Mapper.
 
For example, if the Ad Lib driver is installed in the Drivers part of the
Control Panel, the MIDI Mapper should be set for Ad Lib. If a different
MIDI device is installed, choose an appropriate setup for the device. For
more information on setting up the MIDI device drivers, look in the manuals
that came with your audio card.
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
MAKE SURE THAT THE MIDI DRIVER IS INSTALLED
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
  1. Check to see if the MIDI driver is installed by double-clicking
     the Drivers icon in the Control Panel. If the sound card is Ad
     Lib compatible, try using the Ad Lib driver that shipped with
     Windows 3.1.
 
  2. The Midi Sequencer command should be available in the Media
     Player's Device menu.
 
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SET MIDI MAPPER
-------------------------------------
 
To set the MIDI Mapper to use the Ad Lib setup:
 
  1. Run Control Panel.
  2. Run MIDI Mapper.
  3. Press ALT+S to show setups.
  4. Press ALT+A to move to the name field for setups.
  5. Use the UP ARROW and DOWN ARROW keys to set the name field to Ad
     Lib, and the description below the name field to "Base-level
     setup."
  6. Close the MIDI Mapper to accept this setup.
 
Additional query words: kbhowto msn_encarta multi media multimedia multi-media
 
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Keywords          :  
Platform          : WINDOWS
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Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1999.