Troubleshooting Guide --------------------- Here are some of the things that could possibly go wrong and what to do about them. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Problem: It doesn't work. Probable Cause: You didn't read the documentation. Solution: Read the documentation. If still having trouble, express the problem more precisely. What did work properly? What were you doing when it failed? What did you expect to happen? Did anything in your system change? (e.g. Pasokon TV worked fine until new hardware was added.) Did you exit completely from MS Windows? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Problem: Video display isn't right. Problem: Machine hangs when starting PKTV. Probable Cause: Standards for Super VGA display adapters came too late. Solution: Select the "Video Display" topic from the Help menu (which might not be possible with video display problems!!!) or read the VGAINFO.TXT file for a detailed explanation. A test program called VGAINFO.EXE is included to help you determine your system's capabilities and take the proper action. This will generally mean installing a VESA driver program and/or forcing a specific video mode in the configuration file (PKTV.CFG). - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Problem: Doesn't work properly when run from Microsoft Windows. Probable Cause: Microsoft Windows is a multitasking operating system that shares the computer resources (memory, CPU time) among several applications and itself. SSTV is a very demanding application which must process thousands of image samples (pixels) per second with precise timing. The entire machine must be dedicated to this one task for proper operation. Solution: Exit out of Microsoft Windows and run Pasokon TV from the MS-DOS command prompt. Windows 3.1: In the Program Manager, pick Exit from the File menu. There are some success stories of running PKTV from MS Windows by using the PIF editor and setting the proper attributes such as Full Screen, Exclusive use of CPU, and more Extended Memory. However, this is not recommended. Windows 95: There are two ways to run this application on a system with Windows 95. Either exit out of Windows 95 or set an attribute that tells Windows 95 the application must have complete control of the machine while running. (1) When booting the system, press the F6? key to get an MS-DOS prompt instead of letting Windows start up. Type "TV" or "TVV". These are batch files that "CD" to the \PKTV3 directory then run PKTV.EXE. or (2) Exit from Windows 95: click on the "Start" button, choose "Shut Down", then click on the "Restart the computer in MS-DOS mode" option, click "Yes". When the "C>" prompt appears, type "TV" or "TVV". When finished with Pasokon TV, type "EXIT" to return to Windows 95. or (3) After installing the software in the usual way, * Double click on the "My Computer" icon. * Double click on "C:" (assuming you installed it on the C drive). * Double click on "PKTV3" or other directory where the software was installed. * Single click, with RIGHT mouse button, on "PKTV.EXE". * Click on tab labeled "Program". * Click on the "Advanced..." button. * Click on the "MSDOS mode" option, to make a check mark appear in the box next to it. * Click on "OK". * Click on "OK". This tells the operating system that this program requires complete control of the computer. Windows 95 will get out of the way and Pasokon TV can transfer the image data at the required rate. DO NOT attempt to run it from an MS-DOS Prompt window. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Problem: "I click on 'Recv' button as soon as I hear the beginning of a picture and still miss a little of the top." Probable Cause: By the time you react and the program does its preparations for receiving, the VIS code and possibly some of the image is already gone. Solution: Put the system in receive mode while people are still talking. Activating the "Sync Squelch" option on the Config menu will cause the system to display an incoming signal only when there is a fairly high probability of it being a valid signal. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Problem: Not enough memory to run HiRes 32 or other application from the "Run" menu. Probable Cause: Too many drivers or other TSR programs consuming "Conventional" memory. Description: Two people reported problems selecting a different font when running HiRes 32. Both had a lot of extra drivers for ZIP drives, DoubleSpace, or other TSR programs. Everyone else with more typical systems (i.e. only mouse, sound card, CD-ROM drivers) had no problems. Solution: (1) Try running MEMMAKER to free up more Conventional (first 640k) memory. (2) Use fewer drivers and TSR programs or reconfigure them to use less memory. See file MEMORY.TXT for more information. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Problem: Time-of-day clock stops while sending or receiving SSTV. Background: There are two different time-of-day clocks in the computer. (1) Hardware - This has a battery and continues to run when the power is turned off. (2) Software - When the system is started up, the content of the hardware clock is copied to memory. Periodic interrupts are used to update this time. Unfortunately, those timer interrupts sometimes interfere with the precise timing required for SSTV. Probable Cause: Pasokon TV stops the software time-of-day clock while transmitting and receiving because the timer interrupts can disrupt the SSTV timing. This does not affect the hardware clock. The time will be correct when the machine is rebooted. Solution: Add the "NO_PAUSE_CLOCK" option to the PKTV.CFG file and the clock will not be affected. This is fine in most cases but there is a chance that it will interfere with the SSTV timing. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Problem: The mouse doesn't work. Probable Cause: Mouse driver has not been loaded. MS Windows and MS-DOS use completely different mouse drivers. Just because the mouse works properly with Windows doesn't mean it will work with MS-DOS applications. Solution: If you bought a mouse separately, it came with a diskette containing driver software. Install it according to instructions provided. Verify proper operation by using some other mouse-aware MS-DOS application such as EDIT. If you don't have mouse-specific drivers, use one of the Microsoft mouse drivers. (But avoid the Intellipoint driver, see below.) The MS Windows 3.1 diskettes contain two mouse drivers for MS-DOS called MOUSE.SYS and MOUSE.COM. Type the following command to locate them: CD \ DIR /S MOUSE These are not always installed during Windows installation and you might have to read them from the diskettes. 1. Insert Windows Disk #2. 2. Type "COPY a:\EXPAND.EXE C:\WINDOWS" Next locate the diskette containing MOUSE.COM and MOUSE.SY_ and insert it. Type: EXPAND a:\MOUSE.COM C:\WINDOWS EXPAND a:\MOUSE.SYS C:\WINDOWS Finally, do either (1) or (2) but NOT both. The first one is preferred. (1) Add this near end of AUTOEXEC.BAT file: C:\WINDOWS\MOUSE.COM (2) Add this near end of CONFIG.SYS file: DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\MOUSE.SYS Refer to the manuals included with your computer for more details. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Problem: Program start up is too slow. Probable Cause: Not enough physical memory for the number of of images kept in memory. As a result, there is excessive swapping of information between disk and memory. Solution: (1) Add more memory. or (2) Reduce the number of images kept in memory by picking Images from the Setup menu. Suggested number of images: 2 images for 4 Meg of memory. 5 images for 8 Meg of memory. 10 images for 16 Meg of memory. Note: Reducing the number of images will not make more memory available for external programs run from the "Run" menu. Read file MEMORY.TXT for more information on this topic. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Problem: Can't read an image file. Probable Cause: Image file specifications are sometimes imprecise and implementations vary. TIF is very complicated and tends to have more than its share of compatibility problems between different applications. Solution: Try reading the image file into another program and writing it in some other type that Pasokon TV can read. Make a copy of the troublesome file on a diskette and mail it to us. Please mention (1) what application the file came from, (2) what other applications can read it, (3) what other applications can't read it. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Problem: Program hangs or crashes, especially when attempting to transmit or receive. Probable Cause: This program is much more demanding than its predecessor. It uses more video display modes and takes advantage of the 32 bit architecture of the '386 and later computers rather than treating them as old 16 bit '286 machines. A few compatibility problems are sure to arise. Here are the strange problems found so far and the solutions. The good news is that this type of problem has been very rare. The bad news is that it is so rare it is difficult to gather much data to determine the causes and cures. "First Aid": One person reported that Pasokon TV *and* other applications started acting strangely after installing a program called "First Aid". Removing the "First Aid" program solved all the problems. Hang on Receive or Transmit: A couple different '486 machines would hang when attempting to receive or transmit SSTV. We discovered (by accident) that placing "REM " in front of the HIMEM.SYS line in CONFIG.SYS solved the problem. Normally, disabling the extended memory manager would be a bad idea and cause other applications to fail. However, in this case the computer was used only for SSTV and a few other MS-DOS ham applications. None of the other applications seemed to be affected by the lack of HIMEM.SYS. HIMEM.SYS: Removing HIMEM.SYS from CONFIG.SYS allowed Pasokon TV to run properly but this is not an acceptable work-around for most people because MS Windows will not run without it. I don't think the problem is with HIMEM.SYS but one of the drivers it loads into high memory. An interesting experiment would be to NOT load them into high memory. Intellipoint mouse driver: One person, with the hang on transmit or receive, methodically removed the drivers and other TSR programs one by one. He discovered that the Microsoft Intellipoint mouse driver was the culprit. Replacing this overgrown driver with a simple generic one solved the problem. Is anyone else using this mouse driver, with or without success? I'd like to know. AMD 586: One person with an AMD 586 CPU reported that PKTV and VGAINFO crashed immediately when starting. The AMD 586 is not a Pentium clone. It is an entirely different architecture and not 100% compatible. Even an advertisement for it admits compatibility problems. Another person with a '586 has not had any problems so I have no reason to believe it is an AMD 586 specific problem. Waiting for more details... Is anyone else using an AMD 586? General Approach: 1. Remove TSR programs and unneeded drivers by placing "REM " in front of them in the AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files. Reboot. 2. If this solves the problem, put them back in, one at a time, to see which one is causing a conflict. 3. Tell me about any problems - and solutions - you find so they can be added to this list. How wide spread? Only about 2% of those using PKTV version 3 reported hangs or crashes. Most have been resolved with a minor machine reconfiguration. I'm waiting for more details or results of experiments from the others. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Problem: Moving the mouse pointer around on the screen leaves behind a trail. Solution: Add this option to the PKTV.CFG file: MOUSE_DROPPINGS This will use an alternative (slower) method to repair the portion of the screen uncovered by the mouse cursor as it is moved. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Please try the troubleshooting tips here first before calling for assistance. If calling about a video display problem have a copy of the VGAINFO.LOG file handy. If other strange problems, have copies of AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS ready. John Langner WB2OSZ 115 Stedman St. Chelmsford, MA 01824-1823 U.S.A. tel: 1 (508) 250 0611 -- SSTV Hotline (Fridays, nights 22:00-23:00 eastern U.S. time, weekends) 1 (508) 256 6907 -- General purpose phone line. e-mail: johnl@world.std.com