----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Vistaapro demo uses several state of the art technologies that have not been fully standardized in the PC industry. There are a few hardware and software configurations that can cause problems with this Vistapro demo. This trouble-shooting guide may help you if you are having problems installing or running the Vistapro demo. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Symptom: You are running QEMM's memory manager. When you try to start Vistapro demo you get a message saying that "Previously installed software is neither VCPI nor DPMI compatible". Fix: In your CONFIG.SYS file, on the line that loads QEMM, there is probably the NOEMS switch. If you replace this switch with FRAME=NONE. The Vistapro demo will now run properly. You might consider upgrading to Microsoft's DOS 6.0. DOS's new memory manager has most of the benefits of QEMM, has many other enhancements, and no conflicts with Vistapro or the demo. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Symptom: You are running an old version of 386MAX. When you try to start Vistapro demo you get a message saying that "Previously installed software is neither VCPI nor DPMI compatible". or your computer crashes. Fix: Old versions of 386MAX are not compatible with programs that run in protected mode. You will have to upgrade to a newer version of 386MAX. You might consider upgrading to Microsoft's DOS 6.0 instead. DOS's new memory manager has most of the benefits of 386MAX, has many other enhancements, and no conflicts with Vistapro or the demo. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Symptom: You are running a recent version of 386MAX. When you try to start Vistapro demo you get a message saying that "Previously installed software is neither VCPI nor DPMI compatible", or your computer crashes. Fix: You may have 386MAX configured with the NOFRAME switch. If you change NOFRAME to EMS=0 Vistapro demo will run properly. You might consider upgrading to Microsoft's DOS 6.0 instead. DOS's new memory manager has most of the benefits of 386MAX, has many other enhancements, and no conflicts with Vistapro or the demo. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Symptom: When you start the Vistapro demo you get a message that says something similar to "Not ready reading drive X, Abort, Retry, Fail?" Fix: When Vistapro demo starts up, the virtual memory manager searches all drives for free space. It places it's virtual memory swap file on the drive with the most free space in order to provide you with as much virtual memory as possible. If you have a CD-ROM or other removable media drive (Syquest cartridges, Bernoulli box, etc) and there is no media present in the drive, DOS prints this error message when Vistapro demo tries to examine it. You can force Vistapro demo to create the swap file in a particular place rather than search through the drives by setting environmental variable VTMP. Before running the Vistapro demo you should type: SET VTMP=C:\ or SET VTMP=D:\ or SET VTMP=C:\TEMP This will force the Vistapro demo to create it's temporary swap file in the root directory of drive C, the root of drive D, or in the subdirectory C:\TEMP, respectively. Once you have done this Vistapro demo will not search through all your drives and you wont get the "Abort, Retry, Fail" message. You may set VTMP to any valid hard disk/directory although we recommend using the disk with the most free space. You may want to add the assignment to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file, or Vistapro demo's GO.BAT file so it is done automatically. Alternatively you can simply select the "Fail" option (with some versions of DOS it's "Continue" instead) and Vistapro demo will continue to run. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Symptom: When you run Vistapro demo, you cannot access ANY of the VESA graphics modes. You can only render to VGA 320x200. Please note that the demo is intentionally limited to 640x480. Fix: You don't have a VESA driver loaded. Vistapro demo requires a VESA driver for anything other than 320x200. Contact the manufacturer of your SVGA card, or the dealer who sold you your computer. They should be able to supply you a VESA driver. VESA drivers are also available on-line from Compuserve and VRLI's BBS system. On VRLI's BBS system look in the section entitled "IBM drivers and utilities". You will need a comm program that supports on of the popular file transfer protocols -- XMODEM, YMODEM, ZMODEM, etc. Different cards require different VESA drivers. You need to know the manufacturer and model number of your SVGA card to determine which VESA driver you need. For detailed information on the VESA modes supported by your card, download the file: VESAINFO.LZH. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Symptom: Vistapro demo lets you select a VESA mode but rendering to that mode results in garbage or otherwise incorrect images. Fix: Some VESA drivers improperly indicate to Vistapro demo that they support certain of the VESA modes even though the hardware doesn't. You simply will not be able to use those modes. Sometimes a newer VESA driver will fix the problem. It may also be possible that your monitor does not support some of the higher resolution modes. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Symptom: Vistapro demo runs out of memory while running in a DOS session under OS/2. It aborts. Fix: Default DOS sessions under OS/2 are only allowed 2MB of DPMI memory. Many settings of VP3 require more than this. You need to increase the DPMI memory limit of the DOS session. 1) From the OS/2 program manager, right-click on the full screen DOS session icon from which you will be starting Vistapro demo. 2) Select the Open-->Settings menu item. 3) Select the Session tab. 4) Press the DOS Settings button. 4) Scroll down the settings list until you locate the. DPMI_MEMORY_LIMIT option. Left-click on it. 5) Set the value slider to 128 (megabytes). This assures that Vistapro demo will always be able to get as much memory as it needs -- assuming your hardware has enough memory and/or hard disk space. Setting this value too high won't hurt. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Symptom: Vistapro demo crashes while running under OS/2 2.0. Fix: There are some bugs in OS/2 2.0 when running protected mode programs like Vistapro demo. You may need to install IBM's "service pack" upgrade. Or you can upgrade to OS/2 2.1 if it is shipping by the time you read this. -----------------------------------------------------------------------