SPEA Hotline Information =========================================================================== Trouble Shooting Guide ............................... System Configuration SPEA V7 series Release 0795.3 =========================================================================== Dear user, your SPEA GRAPHITI graphics-board has been tested with a wide variety of hardware and software and complies with all valid and applicable standards of hardware and software. Given the big variety of PC-mainboards, still increased by a lot of additional components, both software and hardware, it is impossible to foresee and test all potential combinations and configurations. Sometimes adjustments and changes in the configuration might be necessary to provide a smoothly running system. Important: ---------- Please check first whether you have the latest drivers installed. Compare the release of the drivers in our BBS with your currently installed version. You find the release date on the original disks of your drivers and also in the comments to the drivers in our BBS. We recommend to note the release of downloaded software on the disk! Updates through the BBS or Compuserve are free! You only pay telephone-fees. The following text contains hints, tricks and solutions for common problems and requests. Many of them came from other users in the field. Weīd like to thank them for their contribution. Remark: Please keep in mind that the options of the system-BIOS may vary. If any of the options mentioned here should not be available, try to get an updated BIOS or maybe adapt the recommended changes to the possibilities of the installed BIOS in your PC. Yours sincerely the Support-Team of SPEA SOFTWARE AG System-configuration =========================================================================== Questions !.Answer --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The PC doesnīt boot or beeps when starting? !.A1.A3.A14 PCI/AMI Bios: System beeps 2 or 3 times, system hangs? Questions/problems with OS/2? !.A44 No display on the monitor (Frame-Grabber board !.A1.A22 or monochrome VGA-monitor installed)? .A28.A30 The monitor displays only b/w? !.A1 The graphics-board is not recognized? !.A1.A3.A4 .A5.A6.A20 Dual-screen configuration on PCI-systems: SPTUNE doesnīt recognize the secondary board. !.A32 Which addresses are used by the graphics-boards? !.A4 Is it possible to have DOS with a vertical frequency higher than 60Hz? !.A15 Feature Connector: Which resolutions are possible? !.A38 The utilities for the graphics-board are missing? !.A16 Linux XFREE86-2.x : X-Server canīt be started with high resolutions? !.A39 Fax-, modem-, oder soundboard do no longer work? !.A4.A6 .A8.A17 Floppy-drives or network not recognized? !.A7 S3TEST - Memory Test shows message: '80 errors' ? !.A18 PC with AMI-BIOS wonīt boot? !.A13 The installation of the Superdisk hangs or the PC crashes? !.A19 S3TEST.EXE reports: "EEPROM CHECKSUM ERROR"? V7SETUP reports: "No S3-board found." or "Jumper setting error." or "DAC test error."? !.A6.A20 .A24 SPTUNE fails while a Logi-Mouse is being used? !.A42 SPTUNE reports: "No S3-board found." !.A6 STPUNE: Start creates a "blue screen"? SPDUAL: no screen, system hangs? !.A6 SPTUNE reports: fatal error - no gdc mode number available? !.A34 How can I delete a user-defined video-mode, that has been created with SPTUNE? !.A34 A monitor with a maximum horizontal frequency of 31.5 KHz can display the resolution 640x480 only in true colour when connected to a V7-Mirage? !.A21 MIRAGE + VOBIS MS1570LE Monitor: The monitor changes the graphics-modes spontaneously? !.A35 Problems with CLR (CLear Screen) when the VESA driver is installed? !.A22 The startup-sound of Windows is replayed with distortions? !.A23 Is it possible to emulate Hercules-MDA-CGA-EGA? !.A25 MIRAGE: MS-Flightsimulator (and various games) canīt be configured in a higher mode than VGA? The display is compressed vertically? !.A26 V7-MERCURY: Staggered lines in games (scrolling)? !.A27 MERCURY (Lite) PCI in a PCI-system with Phoenix Bios displays nothing or the PC hangs at startup? !.A31 Mirage and Mercury with a VGA-monochrome monitor: The PC shows no BIOS message at startup and hangs? !.A33 No text displayed in mode 103 (203)? !.A36 Mode 10A only uses upper half of the monitor? !.A37 System-configuration =========================================================================== Answers --------------------------------------------------------------------------- A1 Check if the graphics board is seated correctly. Check the connectors of the videocable - secure it by fastening the screws. Be aware that the VGA BIOS can be switched off - check the jumper. How is the setting of input-impedance on the monitor. It should be set to 75 Ohm. A2 Make sure you have the current driver for your SPEA V7-board installed. All current drivers are available in the BBS. A3 Remove all possible hardware from your PC to find possible conflicts in the configuration. If a minimized system works fine then add one component after the other until the conflict occurs again. Then try to solve it. Try the SPEA board in a different PC to see if the board has no physical defect. A4 Important: The following addresses are reserved for boards of the Mirage and Mercury series: Standard VGA I/O: 03C0-03DA (03B0-03DF) S3 Graphics Engine: 02E8-02EA Video RAM: A000-BFFF Video ROM: C000-C7FF (-CFFF for P64 boards) A5 Load the VESA mode-driver for your graphics board: V7*VBE.EXE A6 Be careful with expanded memory managers like HIMEM.SYS, QEMM386.SYS or 386MAX.SYS. Always install them in the first line of the CONFIG.SYS and donīt use the INCLUDE option. On the other hand, you must EXCLUDE memory areas that are used by network adaptor, soundboard, scanner and, most important, the BIOS area of the SPEA graphics board. Use X=C000-C7FF to exclude the BIOS area of the SPEA graphics board. Use X=C000-CFFF for P64 PCI boards. Important! Use EMM386 from DOS 6.22 or disable it for testing! A7 Decrease the cache-size from 2048KB to 1024KB or disable the cache. A8 Disable COM4 (COM4=DISABLED) in the system-setup; the I/O address 2E8h is needed by the S3 engine. A9 Were there any other VGA-hardware (BIOS) in your PC (onboard VGA or additional VGA-boards), deactivate it/them. Only one active VGA-Bios is allowed in a PC. A10 Install your graphics-board in a different slot or test it in another PC. A11 BIOS-system-setup: Install SHADOW-RAM for the Video-BIOS. Slow down the bus-clock of the PC. A12 V7-MIRAGE: Change the setting of DIP-switch 2 on the Mirage to change the status of "Zero Wait States". (--> manual) A13 Install the graphics-board as secondary board, with primary board disabled. Test/change SIMM moduls. Switch off the Bios option "Parity Check". A14 Make test-installation of the system to find out conflicts with drivers or other hardware. The following is an example for CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT. CONFIG.SYS ----------------------------------------- DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS FILES=50 BUFFERS=20 DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS COUNTRY=49,,C:\DOS\COUNTRY.SYS STACKS=0,0 DOS=HIGH,UMB SHELL=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM C:\DOS /P /E:512 DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\MOUSE.SYS /Y AUTOEXEC.BAT ------------------------------------------ @ECHO OFF C:\WINDOWS\SMARTDRV.EXE SET COMSPEC=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM PATH C:\WINDOWS;C:\DOS PROMPT $P$G C:\DOS\KEYB.COM GR,,C:\DOS\KEYBOARD.SYS SET TEMP=C:\TEMP SET TMP=C:\TEMP Hints: - Adjust drive(s) and directories to your system. If necessary add the driver for doublespace or Stacker. - Make the first test with harddisk-controller and graphics-board only, then add the other components one after another. - Install a permanent swap-file for Windows and a directory c:\temp. - Make the first installation of Windows with the standard VGA driver. - Test Windows in standard VGA mode. - Install the BIGWIN driver for SPEA graphics-board by calling A:V7SETUP/A:SPSETUP from the program-manager. - Test Windows with various BigWin modes. A15 MIRAGE/MERCURY: You can configure a higher vertical frequency for standard VGA resolution wit V7HFREQ.COM (available in the BBS). Important: Read the README-file about V7HFREQ. The settings made with MNTMIR, MNTMER or MNTPRO are valid for all the other applications under DOS for which drivers are offered on the superdisk. VEGA: The respective tool for the VEGA, CLMODE.EXE - (pre)release 2.2, available in the BBS - also allows vertical frequencies higher than 60Hz. A16 The utilities for the SPEA V7-graphics boards are packed in libraries on the driver-diskettes. You need to install the drivers with the program INSTALL on the floppy from the diskette into a directory - C:\SPEA\GDC - . Select "drivers/utilities" from the menu of the install-program. A17 Disable COM4 (COM4=DISABLED) in the system-setup; the I/O address 2E8h is needed by the S3 engine. This often affects fax- or modem-boards. If you have a sound-board installed, check also DMA and IRQ setting. A18 If your AMI BIOS allows to set a value for ALE or SINGLALE then change the setting from "disabled" to "enabled" or vice versa. A19 Add the line SET COMSPEC=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM /e:512 /p to the AUTOEXEC.BAT and reboot your system. A20 Get the program IDEFIX.EXE from the SPEA BBS and execute it. IDEFIX renews the card-ID that is stored in the graphics-board. A21 You need BIOS 3.07 and V7SETUP v. 1.51 or later versions to set up a resolution 640x480 with 256 clolours. Youīll find both, BIOS file and V7SETUP, in the BBS. A22 Enter the DOS command mode co80 . A23 Delete the entry V7START.DLL in the line drivers in the file SYSTEM.INI, in the block [Boot]. A24 The VESA-modes must be installed! Start the V7*VBE.EXE or add a line that starts V7*.EXE to the AUTOEXEC.BAT. A25 V7-MERCURY: S3 doesnīt support Hercules-MDA-CGA-EGA emulation any more. Install a Hercules card, if necessary. A26 You find the current version of the VESA-drivers for the MIRAGE in the BBS: V7MIRVBE.EXE and, for P64 version, V7MIPVBE.EXE. A27 Start the program VGAFIX (available in the BBS): VGAFIX -i Important: Remove the program from the memory before starting Windows: VGAFIX -u A28 The monitor is turned on and working? If possible, select impedance 75Ohm. If there is a frame-grabber and it is connected only via the feature connector you must plug a 75Ohm terminator-plug (available from SPEA) into the graphics-board. (or just connect another monitor!) A29 Pentium PCs with OPTI chipset 82C596/82C597 or 82C571/82C572: Your MIRAGE or MERCURY needs BIOS 4.02 or a later version for these mainboards. A30 Monochrome-VGA-monitor with MIRAGE/MERCURY: S3 doesnīt support the monochrome mode any more. You need a colour monitor. A31 PCI PCs with Phoenix BIOS >= 1.0 have problems with the ID of the S3-928P chip. Tested configurations: Phoenix BIOS 1.00 Rel. Juli93 PCI mainboard with Award BIOS MIRAGE P64 or MERCURY P64 or VEGA+ PCI A32 Make sure that mainboard, PC-BIOS and graphics-board support the same level of PCI. The following boards comply with PCI level 2.0: VEGA-PLUS, MIRAGE-P64 and MERCURY-P64. If PC and graphics board are PCI2.0 compliant and SPTUNE has problems to recognize the boards: Check if your PC has the latest BIOS version. (e.g. AWARD and AMI offer updates for flash-BIOS on BBS; please ask your dealer) A33 cancelled --> A30 A34 Use the program EFIX (available in the BBS). A35 Get the program 1570FIX from the Vobis BBS. A36 According to the definition of VGA this mode supports no text output. A37 DOS6.2 : Get an update of ANSI.SYS from DOS 6.22. A38 The hardware specification of the feature connector allows only those VGA modes: 640x480-16/256 colours and 800x600-16/256 colours and a maximum pixelclock of 40/37.5 MHz. A39 Remove the entry "Virtual 1280x1024" from the file XCONFIG. A42 Install an updated Logitech driver or use a MicroSoft mousedriver. A44 * OS/2 with S3-graphics-boards: -> By no means the button "Start with Windows" may be activated in the configuration of SPEAView. If SPEAView is active, seamless Windows canīt be used - not even with standard VGA. Tip: If you use dualboot option of OS/2 and both Windows and OS/2 use the same Windows installation SPEAView may not be automatically launched, not even in the installation under DOS. * OS/2, BigBlue and the SPEA logo: -> From BigBlue version 2.02 on the logo can be turned off by adding the line SET SPEALOGO=OFF in the CONFIG.SYS. * OS/2: How to reconfigure from BigBlue to VGA: -> If the BigBlue driver is active with a SPEA V7 board and you want to install another VGA board (why should you want to do this?) proceed as follows: Start the program "adjust installation" in "System configuration". Select "primary display" and "VGA" and follow the instructions of the program. * Windows95 with SPEA V7 boards with S3-Chips: -> There are basically two possibilities to run the beta versions of Windows95 with SPEA V7 boards: 1. Use the driver that comes with Windows95. Important: You need to load the VESA-driver in the AUTOEXEC.BAT (e.g. V7MIPVBE for the V7-MIRAGE P-64). In some resolution however there may be problems with this driver (e.g. no cursor in 1024*768 with the V7-MERCURY). 2. Use the BigWin driver version 2.1 or later like you do with Windows 3.1x. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -100795-TV