DOCUMENT:Q110368 26-MAY-2001 [homemm] TITLE :Encarta 1994: README.WRI Contents PRODUCT :Microsoft Home Multimedia Titles PROD/VER:1994 OPER/SYS: KEYWORDS: ====================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The information in this article applies to: - Microsoft Encarta 1994 The Complete Multimedia Encyclopedia ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY ======= The following is the complete text of the README.WRI file that comes with Microsoft Encarta 1994 edition. 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://www.microsoft.com/support ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/softlib/mslfiles MORE INFORMATION ================ Microsoft Encarta, 1994 Edition - README Microsoft Encarta Tips This document contains information about Microsoft Encarta that was unavailable when the User's Guide was printed. To read this file on-screen, use the Page Down and Page Up keys on your keyboard. You can also 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 Comments about errors, comprehensives, or validity of information presented are very welcome. Please send these comments by FAX or U.S. mail. Table of Contents Section Description 1. Problems during Setup 2. Encarta and Windows Performance Issues 3. Video Cards and Display Problems 4. Audio Card Problems 5. CD-ROM Problems 6. Word Processors and Encarta 7. Running Encarta on Windows NT 8. General Multimedia Information 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, please restart Windows before you run Setup again. 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 ideas 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 Windows Control Panel (usually in the "Main" program group of Program Manager), and click on the icon "386 Enhanced." Then use the "Virtual Memory" button to see whether 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 2048K. 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 four megabytes (sometimes listed as 4096 kilobytes or KB) of RAM, and at least two megabytes in your hard disk's Windows swap file to run Encarta. * 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 difference is very noticeable. For complete details on improving performance, consult your Windows and CD-ROM manuals or see the tips in your Encarta user guide. 3. Video Cards and Display Problems 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 have 'glitches' - 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 (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. * Use the standard VGA driver You can use the standard VGA driver that comes with Windows with almost all video cards. However, the VGA driver can only show 16 colors and most images may not display as clear as they would in 256 colors. Also, image display takes slightly longer when running in 16 color mode. For instructions on installing or changing video drivers, please see Help within Windows Setup. You can start Windows setup from an icon usually located in the Main group in the Windows Program Manager. Special Note: USING ENCARTA 1994 WITH ATI VIDEO CARDS If you are using an ATI video card and one of the "mach" video drivers (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 on 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. 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. * 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. For information about ATI video cards or the ATI installation utility referred to above, contact ATI Technical Support at (905) 882-2626. 4. Audio Card Problems The following are common problems and some suggested solutions for 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 a 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 card to be installed; it is not meant to run with just the PC internal speaker or any combination of that speaker and special software. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 speakers that are not of high quality 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. This 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. -------------------------------------------------- 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 only play 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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 in the Windows directory) please 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, it means that 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MAKING 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. ------------------------------------ SETTING 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. 5. CD-ROM Problems COMMON SOLUTIONS FOR PROBLEMS WITH CD-ROM DRIVES NOTE: Do not remove the Encarta compact disc from your CD-ROM drive while running Encarta. If Encarta cannot find the data files it needs to run, you will see an error message prompting you to correct the problem. To find the source of the problem, do the following: * Make sure the Encarta compact disc is correctly inserted into the CD-ROM drive. * If you have an external CD-ROM drive make sure that the drive is connected to your computer correctly, the power is turned on and it is functioning in MS-DOS. This can be done by viewing a directory of the drive at an MS-DOS prompt. To do this, change to the CD-ROM drive at an MS-DOS prompt, type DIR and press ENTER. * Make sure that the Encarta program is looking for the compact disc on the correct drive. Check that ENCARTA.INI file in the WINDOWS directory. The section called [94Options] should have a entry called "BookPath". The path should be set to the \encyc95\ directory on the drive that you CD-ROM appears as. For example, if your CD-ROM drive is drive D:, the entry would appear like the following: [94Options] BookPath=D:\encyc94\ If you still see an error message after checking the points above, check the manuals that came with your CD-ROM drive for information on how a CD-ROM is to be set up, or contact the company that supplied the drive. 6. Word Processors and Encarta USING ENCARTA WITH WORD PROCESSORS - TIPS AND TROUBLESHOOTING Encarta allows you to create multimedia reports by copying and pasting pictures and sounds into Microsoft Write or your word processor of choice. Audio clips can be pasted as icons into other applications. Double-clicking on these icons will play the audio clip. Photos, illustrations, and maps can be pasted into other applications also. Note that some applications will use black or white "placeholders" for pictures when they are pasted into that application. This is to improve performance, since actual pictures in word processing documents can slow down scrolling and other functions. If you print a document that has been using placeholders for pictures, the pictures should appear properly. Remember that anything that you copy into another application should be credited with a footnote or acknowledgment. See the Encarta manuals for details. Please obey copyright laws. SELECTING A CUSTOM WORD PROCESSOR TO CALL FROM ENCARTA By clicking the Options menu selection under the MENU button, you can use the Choose Word Processor button to select any Windows application as the "word processor" that you will call up with Encarta's Word Processor menu item. Note that after finding and selecting your word processor in the Choose Word Processor box, you must click OK to close the box, or Cancel to ignore the change. TROUBLESHOOTING TIPS FOR CALLING WORD PROCESSORS FROM ENCARTA A few tips will help you in using Encarta's Word Processor menu: 1. If you Choose a Word Processor in Options, you must then make sure that this word processor is not already open in Windows. If you have it open when you select the Word Processor menu item in Encarta, a second instance will be launched. 2. Once you open your application with the Word Processor menu item, you can use this menu command to bring the Word Processor back after you have minimized it. This makes research and report writing more convenient. 3. Certain Windows applications do not respond to the command used by Encarta's word processor menu to bring the word processor back after it has been minimized. These applications generally have complicated execution commands that Encarta cannot call properly. The next item, # 4, explains how to work around this problem to switch back and forth from Encarta to your word processor. 4. If you encounter problems bringing your personal Word Processor back up with the Encarta Word Processor command, you can use several methods to switch to your word processor. In each case, make sure your Word Processor is open before using the Task List. a. Hold down the ALT key, and press TAB repeatedly. This will cycle each open Windows application to the foreground in order. When you see the application you want, let go of the ALT key, and that application will appear. b. Use the Windows Task List to Switch To another application. There are three ways to bring up the Task List: * Click once on the Encarta System Menu (the one you use to see the Close command). At the bottom of the list of menu commands, click on "Switch To". * Double-click anywhere on the Windows desktop that is outside a window. The Windows Task List will appear. * Press the CTRL key and hit the Escape key. The Windows Task List will appear. When the Task List is open, click once on your Word Processor in the list to highlight it. Then press the Switch To button. This will bring your Word Processor to the foreground. You can then use the same method from within your Word Processor to get back to Encarta. 5. You will get an Error Message from the Encarta Word Processor command if you select a word processor and then delete that word processor from your hard disk, or if Encarta can not find a valid Windows application from your selection. In this case, you must choose a new word processor using Options before the Word Processor command will work for you. 7. Running Encarta on Windows NT Encarta runs well on Windows NT with the following exceptions: * The NT version of the CinePak video decompressor from SuperMac was not officially released and tested when Encarta 1994 was completed. Therefore, only the standard Windows decompressor is included, so videos will not play on NT. * If you have a non-Intel Windows NT machine (i.e. Mips or Alpha processor) then you will need to manually install two DLL's that do not have the 80386 code found in the DLLs installed by default. These files are in the \encarta\nt directory on the CD and are called ENC94IMG.DLL and POEMWINC.DLL. To install these files, do the following: - Do a complete setup of Encarta. You must choose the "Faster" installation option so that the files to be replaced run from the hard driver. - Copy the two files from the \encarta\nt directory on the CD into the same directory you designated in Setup (C:\ENCARTA by default). These files replace the ones setup copied there. N.B. On non-Intel NT machines the Encarta Dictionary/Thesaurus should not be run since it will cause a crash. 8. General Multimedia Information For more information regarding Multimedia PCs, MPC titles, and other general multimedia topics of interest, please refer to the MPC Marketing Council at the following location: Multimedia PC Marketing Council, Inc. 1703 M Street Suite 700 Washington, DC 20036 (202) 452-1600 For more information regarding other Microsoft Multimedia titles write to: Microsoft Multimedia Publishing Group Consumer Division 1 Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052-6399 For information regarding a specific MPC product, contact the manufacturer of that product. 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