miro.plus high-speed drivers - Install Disk for Windows NT (tm) Version 4.0 operating system 16-July-97 miro Computer Products AG Carl-Miele-Str. 4, D-38112 Braunschweig P.O.Box 3452, D-38024 Braunschweig Phone (+49) (0)531 / 2113-0 Fax (+49) (0)531 / 2113-99 Hotline (+49) (0)531 / 2113-666 Windows NT is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. NOTE: The drivers on the disk have been developed for "Windows NT Workstation Version 4.0" (build 1381). Compatibility with other versions of Windows NT version is not guaranteed. 1.) Disk contents 2.) miroTWINFACE dual-screen configuration 2.1.) Supported boards 2.1.1.) With miroTWINMODULE 10 2.1.2.) With miroTWINMODULE 20 2.1.3.) With miroTWINMODULE 40 2.2.) Hardware installation 2.3.) Driver installation 2.4.) miro Monitor Select - Control Panel extension 2.5.) Changing the resolutions 2.6.) miro Video Address - Control Panel extension 2.7.) Positioning windows 2.7.1.) miroTWINFACE control - Program for positioning windows 2.7.2.) miroTWINFACE control - Control Panel Extension 3.) Deleting drivers 4.) In case of problems 5.) Special hint 6.) Anomalies and Bugs fixed in this release 7.) New Features 1.) Disk contents - README.TXT : Instructions (this file) - LIESMICH.TXT : Instructions German - OEMSETUP.INF : Installation script for SETUP program - MIRO. : File for disk identification - CRYSTAL2.CPL : Control Panel extension (for miro Monitor Select and miroTWINFACE control) - MLINADDR.CPL : Control Panel extension (for miro Video Address) - MTWINCON.EXE : miroTWINFACE control - program - MTWINDLL.DLL : dynamic link library for miroTWINFACE control - CARD****.INI : board specific configuration files - MONITOR.INI : configuration file - TIMING.INI : configuration file - MIROHW.INI : configuration file - CRYSTAL2.SYS : Miniport driver - CRYSTAL2.DLL : Display driver - USERHINT.EXE : Help Program - FastRes.EXE : The resolution switching tool 2.) miroTWINFACE dual-screen configuration 2.1.) Supported boards 2.1.1.) With miroTWINMODULE 10 8 Bit (256 colors) / 15 Bit (32k colors) / 16 Bit (65k colors) : - miroCRYSTAL 40SV twin - miroCRYSTAL 20SV twin - miroCRYSTAL 20SD twin - miroCRYSTAL 22SD twin 2.1.2.) with miroTWINMODULE 20 8 Bit (256 colors) / 15 Bit (32k colors) / 16 Bit (65k colors) / 32 Bit (16,7M colors) : - miroCRYSTAL 40SV twin - miroCRYSTAL 20SV twin - miroCRYSTAL 20SD twin - miroCRYSTAL 22SD twin 2.1.3.) with miroTWINMODULE 40 - miroCRYSTAL 84SV twin - miroCRYSTAL 44SV twin 2.2.) Hardware installation Install your graphics board as described in the Hardware Manual supplied with your board. To use miroTWINFACE with two monitors having different technical data, connect the monitor with the lower resolution to the daughterboard. Connect the second monitor to the basic board. If you have two monitors with identical technical data, you do not have to connect them as described above. The monitor connected to the daughterboard displays the boot messages and the fullscreen DOS prompt. Make sure that DIP switch 2 is not set to ON. It is assumed that the monitor connected to the daughterboard is located on the right-hand side of your desktop and the monitor connected to the basic board on the left-hand side. This allocation can be redefined as described under 2.4.d). We recommend this arrangement, however, for monitors with different technical data, because then the icons for minimized programs are always located at the bottom on the left-hand side in the visible screen area. 2.3.) Driver installation It is required that you have installed Windows NT 4.0 with a graphics driver for your VGA board. a) By using the Icon "My Computer", you can start the "Control Panel" program.. b) Start the "Display-Tool". Switch to the "Settings" section. c) Please choose the "Change Display Type" button. d) The "Display Type" window offers an overview of the currently active Display Driver. Please activate the "Change..."-button. e) In the "Select Device" offers you an overview of all display drivers supplied with your Windows NT 4.0 Installation. Please select the "Have Disk..."-button. f) In the "Install from Disk" window, please choose the driver and directory containing your installation software. You can search your drivers by using the "Browse"-button. Only files with the filename extension ".inf" are displayed. The file you have to look for is named "mirotwin.inf". g) After selecting the proper file, you choose the installed graphics board from the "Change Display" window. Select your board and press "OK" or doubleclick the appropriate entry in the list. h) Select "YES" in the "Third-party Drivers" messagebox. The driver files are now being copyied to your harddisk. i) Close the "Display Type" and the "Display Properties" windows and reboot the computer. j) After the restart the driver which has just been installed is active with the lowest resolution (31 kHz VESA monitor: 640 x 480, 256 colours, 60 Hz). Go on with 2.4.) to select a monitor and with 2.5.) to change the resolution. If problems occur with the display driver when restarting the system, you can reselect the VGA driver by using the "Windows NT Version 4.0 [VGA mode]" option in the boot menu. If this doesn`t solve the problem use the "last good menu" option to reselect the old configuration. If your system uses another display driver, you need the installation disk to enable the miro driver again. 2.4.) miro Monitor Select - Control Panel extension a) By using the Icon "My Computer", you can start the "Control Panel" program.. b) To select the monitors, start the "miro Monitor Select"-Tool. c) The titles consists of the name of your graphics board or your miroTWINMODULE which is assigned to the left/right monitors. d) If the boards are not assigned to the correct monitor, you can change this setting using the "Boot messages on left monitor" / "Boot messages on right monitor buttons. Select the monitor on which the boot messages appeared. After changing the setting, the titles are updated according to 2.4.c). Also, the resolution list may change according to 2.4.f). e) Select your monitor from the "Monitor" list. If your monitor is not listed, select the monitor from the "Multi Frequency" monitors with the frequency which comes close to the frequency of your monitor. f) After a short while you see the "Available Resolutions" list which gives you an overview of all resolutions supported by your monitor and the horizontal and vertical refresh rates. Please make sure that you do not select a horizontal scan frequency which is higher than the horizontal scan frequency of your monitor. g) To avoid loading the miroTWINFACE driver, press the "disable miroTWINFACE" button. If you disabled the "Disable current driver" button, the driver running before (e.g. miroCRYSTAL (single-screen) ) or the VGA driver is activated. h) To confirm your selection, click "OK". i) In the "Monitor Settings Change" window you can restart your computer immediately by pressing the "Restart Now" button. You can also click the "Don't Restart Now" button to get back to the "Control Panel" program. Restart the system using the taskbar. j) After the restart the selected monitors are active. If the resolutions and refresh rates differ from the settings of the previous monitor, the system will notify you. Then, the 640 x 480 resolution with 256 colors and 31 kHz / 60 Hz is enabled for both screens. To change the resolution, proceed with 2.5.). k) Instad of proceeding as described under h), you can abort the tool by pressing the "Cancel" button. In this case, the settings you made will not be enabled. PLEASE NOTE: The "miro Monitor Select" icon is only available in the "Control Panel" program, if a driver installed from this disk is currently active. If you disabled the miroTWINFACE driver under 2.4.g), the miroMONITOR-Select program for the single-screen operation receives another button which activates miroTWINFACE. For the single-screen and the dual-screen operation the monitors have to be configured individually. There is no synchronisation between both installations. 2.5.) Changing the resolutions a) By using the Icon "My Computer", you can start the "Control Panel" program.. b) Start the "Display" tool to select/change the video display. c) The "List All Modes" button lists the resolutions your board and your monitor support and the number of colours and frequencies. Double-click to select a resolution. PLEASE NOTE: For miroTWINFACE for Windows NT version 4.0 the horizontal resolutions are added, the vertical resolution is the maximum resolution of the basic board. If this resolution is higher than the maximum vertical resolution of the daughterboard, the remaining screen area is displayed virtually, the workspace can be moved by moving the mouse cursor toward the upper or the lower screen margin. The selected frequency refers to the monitor connected to the basic board. Detailed information for both monitors you will receive from the "miro Monitor Select" program. d) You can also use the "Desktop area" slider, the "Color Palette" and the "Refresh Frequency" windows to select a resolution. Keep in mind that the settings are interdependent. If you select an invalid setting, the other options change so that a valid setting is restored. e) To check the selected resolution in a testscreen, click the "Test" button and confirm. - Is the selected resolution/frequency displayed on both monitors? - Is the specified resolution the resolution of the visible screen area? - Are the arrows in the margins of the testscreen visible? (In the virtual mode the arrows are not visible on the monitor connected to the daughterboard.) - Are the coloured and the hatched areas displayed correctly? f) After five seconds the testscreen disappears and you see the workspace again. If the resolution on the testscreen is OK, confirm the "Testing Mode" window with "Yes". g) You can restart the computer immediately by clicking "Restart Now" in the "Display settings change" window. You can also click the "Don´t Restart Now" button to go back to the "Display type" window. To close this window click "Close". To close the "Display settings" window click "OK". Use the Program Manager to restart the system. h) After the restart the new resolution is active. i) If you do not like the resolution, click "No" in the "Testing Mode" window. After another message has appeared, you are back in the "Display Settings" window. Select another resolution and continue with e) or close the Display Tool by clicking the "Cancel" button. The "Font Size" window allows you to select another font size (see d)). If you have not installed the fonts of the selected size, you are requested to insert the installation disk under A:\. Overwrite the default with the drive letter of you CD drive and enter the path \i386. Insert the Windows NT Version 4.0 CD in your CD drive so that the required files can be copied to your hard disk. 2.6.) miro Video Address (Control Panel extension) To accelerate the image output even more, activate the linear video addressing function. For this purpose an extension of the Control Panel is installed during the installation. Open the Control Panel Program and click the "miro Video Address" icon to configure the linear video address, PLEASE NOTE: Keep in mind that problems may occur with motherboards which do not decode the addresses completely and in case of address conflicts with other memory-mapped expansion boards or with the main memory. PLEASE NOTE: For the driver for Windows NT 4.0 and a computer with PCI bus your system activates this option automatically. If any problems occur with your motherboard (e.g. older motherboards with PCI bus and Vesa Local bus), disable this option. All other adjustments of this tool will be ignored by the driver. Use the "Linear Video Addressing enabled" and the "Linear Video Addressing disabled" buttons to switch the linear video addressing function on/off: - "Linear Video Addressing enabled" switches this option on. Then the video memory of the graphics board is unsegmented and can be accessed by the display driver under the address specified under "Physical address". - "Linear Video Addressing disabled" switches this option off (default setting). The linear video address is specified under "Physical address". This address can be overwritten with a hexadecimal value. Make sure that the new address is aligned with 8 MB (example of sequence of increasing addresses: 7400.000 - 7480.000 - 7500.0000). (Default setting: fe00.0000) Use the arrow buttons beside the display window to increase / decrease the video address in 8 MB steps. The "Reset" button enables the default settings. Confirm your settings by clicking "OK" and close the "configuration of linear video address". The settings take effect after the computer has been restarted. If the address you entered is not aligned correctly, you cannot close the window using the "OK" button. Correct the setting or click "Cancel" to abort. If problems occur with the display driver when restarting the computer, start the system with another driver as described under 2.3) and switch the linear video addressing function off. PLEASE NOTE: The "miro Video Address" icon is only available in the "Control Panel" program, if a driver installed from this disk is currently active. 2.7.) Positioning windows 2.7.1.) miroTWINFACE control - Program for positioning windows Along with the miroTWINFACE drivers, a program for controlling the window positions is copied to your hard disk. This program extends the possibilities for positioning windows the driver offers. When this program is active, dialog boxes, which otherwise appear on both screens. appear on the screen where the mouse cursor is located. When clicking on the Maximize button, the window is maximized on the screen, where the mouse cursor is currently located. For information on how to configure miroTWINFACE control, refer to 2.7.2.). To close the program, select the "Close" command in its system menu or log out. NOTE: Not all windows can be controlled by miroTWINFACE control. This phenomenon is inherent in the system and must not be regarded as a failure. In case of incompatibilities with apllications you use, you cannot use miroTWINFACE control. 2.7.2.) miroTWINFACE control - Control Panel Extension This extension is copied together with the "miro Monitor Select" extension. Open the Control Panel Program and click the "miroTWINFACE control" icon to configure miroTWINFACE control. To configure the positioning of maximized windows, select the "MAXIMIZE alignment" button (default = off). To configure the positioning of the dialog boxes, click on the "Dialog alignment" button (default = off). To confirm, click "OK" and close the "configuration of miroTWINFACE control". Now, the selected settings are saved and will be used immediately. To abort the configuration, click on "Cancel". NOTE: In case of incompatibilities with some applications, one or both options cannot be used or used simultaneously. 3.) Deleting drivers Delete drivers you do not need anymore by enabling another driver using the Display Tool of the Control Panel program and by restarting the sytem afterwards. Then, use the File Manager to delete the display driver (extension .DLL) under \WINNT\SYSTEM32 and the miniport driver (extension .SYS) and the configuration files (extension .INI) under \WINNT\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS. 4.) In case of problems In case of problems with the VGA DOS box in the fullscreen mode ask your dealer or miro for an update of the BIOS-ROM. In some cases an unsynchronized image may stabilize by switching between the window and the fullscreen mode of the VGA DOS box. The VGA DOS boxs only supports the resolutions available for a 'standard VGA', e.g. display modes of up to 320x200 pixels with 256 colors or 640x480 pixels with 16 colors. If a DOS application tries to use a higher resolution, the VGA DOS box, or, in the worst case, the hole system might crash. 5.) Special hint Please do not try to install drivers or system-relevant tools which are suited for Microsoft Windows 3.x or Microsoft Windows 95. Windows NT 4.0 does not support these drivers or tools. In the worst case, this may cause a system crash. 6.) Anomalies and Bugs fixed with this release - Problems with mainboards which do not support switching off VGA PALETTE SNOOP are fixed - Design Alert from Microsoft has been incorporated - Problems with switching to singlescreen after subsequent boots after installation has been fixed 7.) New Features: - FastRes: THIS TOOL IS UNSUPPORTED If you encounter any errors or if you have any suggestions, please send email to: pgpbeta@msmail.miro.de Features: + Fast resolution and/or colordepth switching without reboot + Uses Systemtray thus minimizing screen area covering + Shows full information on asymmetrical resolution selections + Can switch driver to only display a monochrome picture + Provides a shortcut to the Display Settings Dialog + Gives you fast information about the currently selected mode by just positioning the mousecursor above the icon + Provides an easy-to-use, freely placeable button to stop scrolling on the lower resolution monitor for asymmetrical displays - Userhint: After first installation, this program guides you to the monitor selection to avoid often encountered problems with non-available high resolutions after installing the driver. - Grayscale support This is only possible for 256 color modes. This feature, only accessible when using the FastRes Program mentioned above, can be used for switching the complete windows desktop to a grayscale representation. This can be useful for a preview of color art and pictures subject to be printed on a monochrome printer. - Automatic Install of MiroTwinControl. This Program is installed automatically by the installation script. If you want to disable this program, you must have administrator rights to do so. Please use the registry editor ´REGEDT32.EXE´ to remove the value ´miroTWINCON´ found in the registry at the key: ´HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run´ if you want to remove this tool from your system. - eof