Director Web : Tips n' Scripts : Platform Specific Issues

Troubleshooting for Windows

Date:    Wed, 2 Aug 1995 13:31:42 -0800
From:    Darren Giles <mars@NETCOM.COM>
Subject: Read Me's for Director, CD-ROM, QuickTime

I've had a lot of inquiries about the Read Me issue... for what it's worth, here's a rough draft of my current Troubleshooting section. It's for the PC side (the Mac side is much simpler!), and focuses on Director and QTW.

Feel free to use any/all of this for yourselves -- In return I would very much appreciate any suggestions to make it more complete and accurate.

For problems during installation:

SYMPTOM: Installation fails because Windows cannot create a Program Group.
- POSSIBLE PROBLEM: Windows has a maximum of 40 Program Groups allowed; you may have reached the maximum.
  1. POSSIBLE SOLUTION: Remove other unnecessary Program Groups and try installation again.
SYMPTOM: Divide by 0 error while installing QuickTime .
- POSSIBLE PROBLEM: System has run out of DOS memory.
  1. POSSIBLE SOLUTION: Boot from a floppy with minimal autoexec.bat and config.sys, then install QuickTime.
SYMPTOM: The QuickTime installer cannot delete VIEWENU.DLL (an icon file for the Viewer Windows item) because it is "In Use".
- POSSIBLE PROBLEM: Installer cannot delete files which are being used by the system.
  1. POSSIBLE SOLUTION: Quit installer, leaving a partial, incomplete install; restart Windows; re-install.

For problems with movie playback:

SYMPTOM: Movies are not playing smoothly, frames are dropping out, etc.
- POSSIBLE PROBLEM: Your software CD-ROM caching may be interfering with QuickTime's internal caching.
  1. POSSIBLE SOLUTION: Turn off external caching (i.e. SmartDrive). Refer to your DOS manual for help with SmartDrive.
- POSSIBLE PROBLEM: Your audio or video drivers may be out-of-date.
  1. POSSIBLE SOLUTION: Turn the sound all the way down during playback. If the video plays smoothly without the sound, then the problem likely resides with your sound card or sound card drivers. Refer to the instructions/manual for your sound card for help diagnosing and solving this problem.
  2. POSSIBLE SOLUTION: Obtain the latest version of the drivers for your video card and sound card. Contact the vendor of each card for help getting those drivers.
- POSSIBLE PROBLEM: Virtual memory may be interfering with QuickTime's nternal caching.
  1. POSSIBLE SOLUTION: Turn off virtual memory.
- POSSIBLE PROBLEM: You may be using 16-bit graphics (thousands of colors) when 8-bits graphics (256-colors) may be faster.
  1. POSSIBLE SOLUTION: Change your video configuration to 8-bit graphics. Note that this will, however, reduce the color clarity.
- POSSIBLE PROBLEM: You may be using the Microsoft Speaker Driver, which does not allow playing of sound and animation of video at the same time.
  1. POSSIBLE SOLUTION: Use another speaker driver.
- POSSIBLE PROBLEM: You may not have your PC running in Turbo mode.
  1. POSSIBLE SOLUTION: Make sure the turbo switch on the front of your PC is activated.
- POSSIBLE PROBLEM: There may be a DMA conflict between hardware components in your computer.
  1. POSSIBLE SOLUTION: Reconfigure the drivers for your hardware so there are no overlapping DMA assignments. Refer to the instructions/manuals for your hardware components for help with reconfiguring them.
SYMPTOM: The movies are "grainy," and the color is not clear.
- POSSIBLE PROBLEM: You may be using 8-bits graphics (256-colors); 16-bit graphics (thousands of colors) will produce the range of colors more smoothly.
  1. POSSIBLE SOLUTION: Change your video configuration to 16-bit graphics. Note that this may, however, make the movies play back less smoothly.
SYMPTOM: When the mouse cursor is over the playback window, the video playback is poor and the audio falls out of sync.
- POSSIBLE PROBLEM: Your mouse drivers may be causing this playback performance degradation.
  1. POSSIBLE SOLUTION: Try a different mouse, or a different driver for your current mouse.
  2. POSSIBLE SOLUTION: Make sure you have the most recent versions of your mouse driver.
- POSSIBLE PROBLEM: If you are using a custom cursor, then the time needed to redraw the special cursor for each frame may be causing he performance problems.
  1. POSSIBLE SOLUTION: Turn off custom cursors while using QuickTime.
  2. POSSIBLE SOLUTION: Don't leave the mouse cursor over the playback window during playback.

Other tips:

SYMPTOM: Program uses only a small window in the center of the screen (not the full screen).
- POSSIBLE PROBLEM: You may have a multisync monitor with the resolution set higher than 640x480.
  1. POSSIBLE SOLUTION: Try explicitly setting the resolution to 640x480, the program uses that resolution.
SYMPTOM: Intermittent "Cannot find LINGO.INI file" error message at QuickTime startup.
- POSSIBLE PROBLEM: Cirrus Logic video driver writes outside its own memory area, causing intermittent error messages.
  1. POSSIBLE SOLUTION: If you are using the Cirrus Logic video drivers, try running the MS SVGA 256-color driver that comes with Windows for Workgroups, or any other version of the Cirrus Logic driver.
  2. POSSIBLE SOLUTION: Try using another video card / video driver.
SYMPTOM: The program suffers from frequent General Protection Faults
- POSSIBLE PROBLEM: There may be a problem with the configuration of your video card driver.
  1. POSSIBLE SOLUTION: Re-configure the driver to use 640x480 resolution and 8-bit (256-color) graphics.
  2. POSSIBLE SOLUTION: Make sure your DOS and Windows memory managers are not interfering with the video card's memory area. Refer to the instructions/manuals for DOS and Windows, as well as the manual for your video card, for help with this.
  3. POSSIBLE SOLUTION: Make sure you have the latest versions of your video card's drivers. Contact the vendor of the card for help. Try to ensure that the version of the driver you have is listed in the compatible hardware/drivers listing at the end of this document.