This section addresses specific questions or symptoms (scan the bold headers for yours), and ends with the short list of known software or hardware incompatibilities. If you have questions or need help with After Dark beyond what is covered here, consult the next chapter for information on how to contact our Technical Support Services.
If your problem is not answered here or anywhere in this manual, see the next chapter about contacting Berkeley Systems, but please read the ΓÇ£Before You CallΓÇ¥ section first.
The only module that runs is ΓÇ£Starry Night.ΓÇ¥
This usually happens because the After Dark Files folder that contains the rest of your modules is in the wrong place or has been renamed. If After Dark 3.0 cannot find that folder, it will create a new folder with that name, but it will be basically empty. If you find the ΓÇ£rightΓÇ¥ After Dark Files folder elsewhere on your hard disk, make sure that the exact name is ΓÇ£After Dark FilesΓÇ¥ and move it to the correct location. In System 7, it can be in the Control Panels folder (preferred), the Extensions or Preferences folders, the top level of the System Folder, or on the Desktop. In System 6, it must be in the System Folder.
If all else fails, run the Myst Screen Saver Installer again to put everything where it belongs.
Starry Night will also appear when your selected module cannot run for some reason (e.g. not enough available memory, no modules selected in Randomizer). A scrolling message will appear at the top of your screen at that time, letting you know what the problem is.
I get a ΓÇ£not installedΓÇ¥ message when I open the After Dark control panel, even after I restart.
Make sure that the After Dark control panel is in the proper location: for System 7, it must be in the Control Panels folder (preferred), the Extensions folder, or the top level of the System Folder. For System 6, it must be inside the System Folder.
If you use an extension or INIT manager, make sure that the After Dark control panel is enabled.
If After Dark still will not open, the After Dark control panel may be damaged. Reinstall After Dark from your backup diskettes, which will replace the damaged control panel with a new one.
(System 6) I can't find the After Dark 3.0 program.
In System 6, After Dark 3.0 is not a control panel, so you will not find it in the Control Panel desk accessory. Rather, After Dark 3.0 is an application that you double-click on to open. The Installer puts the ΓÇ£After Dark 3.0ΓÇ¥ file in your hard diskΓÇÖs System Folder. As an application, you can move the After Dark 3.0 program to any convenient location you wish, such as your hard disk or desktop. Do not move (or rename) the ΓÇ£After Dark 3.0 INITΓÇ¥ file or the ΓÇ£After Dark FilesΓÇ¥ folder, though.
Help! I forgot my password!
If After Dark asks for a password you donΓÇÖt know when you try to wake up the screen saver, or when you restart your Macintosh, here are the steps you need to follow.
System 7: restart your Macintosh while holding down the Shift key, and keep it pressed until you see ΓÇ£Welcome to Macintosh, Extensions Off.ΓÇ¥ This will bypass most programs in your System Folder, including After Dark and its password.
System 6: Restart your Macintosh off a startup floppy disk, such as System Startup or System Tools.
In either case, the next step is to open the System Folder on your hard disk, open the Preferences folder, open the After Dark Preferences folder, and drag the file called Preferences to the Trash can.
Then restart your Mac normally (without the Shift key or the floppy disk). After Dark will create a new Preferences file for itself, one with no password defined.
NOTE: After DarkΓÇÖs Preferences file also keeps your settings for your hot key, SystemIQ, EcoLogic, and other settings from the Setup dialog. If you have changed these settings from their default values, you will need to open the Setup dialog to reset them.
To reinstate password protection you will need to assign a new password. Please see the Setup Controls section for information on defining passwords.
Memory
If you see the message ΓÇ£Out of MemoryΓÇ¥ above the Starry Night when running a module, here are some things you can try:
ΓÇó quit unused applications you may have open to free up memory.
ΓÇó use the moduleΓÇÖs sliders and controls to reduce its complexity (and memory needs).
ΓÇó turn on Virtual Memory in the Memory control panel (if your Mac supports this option); be aware, though, that virtual memory is a much slower form of memory, and can result in slow or choppy animation or music.
ΓÇó reduce the number of colors that your monitor is set to display, using the Monitors control panel, as many modules need less memory with fewer colors
ΓÇó select a different module, at least temporarily; the modules have a wide range of memory needs, and you may have one of the ΓÇ£biggerΓÇ¥ modules selected.
A moduleΓÇÖs ability to run depends not merely on how much memory you have installed in your Macintosh, but how much memory is available at any given time. Applications you have open, and Extensions, Control Panels, and other things in your System Folder take up memory. To get information about your current memory usage, from the Finder, pull down the Apple menu and select About this Macintosh (System 7) or About the Finder (System 6).
After Dark crashes, or conflicts with another program.
There are several possible causes for a crash or conflict. Try to pinpoint the problem by reproducing the situation that first caused the trouble. In some cases, simply restarting your Macintosh will resolve the problem. If the trouble persists, try reinstalling the screen saver from your backup diskettes.
My PowerBook has problems running After Dark.
PowerBooks have a few battery conservation options that can interfere with After Dark, even if your PowerBook is plugged in. These software options, if not turned off, can turn the PowerBook entirely black after a short while, make the After Dark animation slow or ΓÇ£choppy,ΓÇ¥ or even prevent After Dark from activating when the idle time passes. This mostly applies to when your PowerBook is plugged in; when operating on battery power, you probably want to let all of the battery conservation options do their jobs.
To read the solution to the screen dimming (going black) problem, please see the next entry on that topic.
To solve the problems where After Dark is slow, choppy or not activating on its own, the PowerBook option you need to turn off is called ΓÇ£Processor CyclingΓÇ¥. This feature constantly changes the processor speed, which tricks After Dark into thinking your Mac is busy, possibly doing some heavy number-crunching task. The procedure for turning off Processor Cycling depends on your particular PowerBook model and software.
The control panel that turns Processor Cycling on or off should be called either ΓÇ£PowerBookΓÇ¥ or ΓÇ£Portable.ΓÇ¥ In most versions of this control panel, however, the on/off switch for that feature is ΓÇ£hidden,ΓÇ¥ requiring a keyboard/mouse trick to access.
If you have a control panel called ΓÇ£PowerBook,ΓÇ¥ there are different versions, each with its own scheme. If your PowerBook control panel has a big button called ΓÇ£Options,ΓÇ¥ hold down the Option key on your keyboard as you click on that Options button with the mouse pointer. If you do this ΓÇ£trickΓÇ¥ properly, you will see the option to turn off processor cycling, which you should do. The newer version of the PowerBook control panel is slightly different; instead of an Options button, it has a switch in the upper right corner that can be set to ΓÇ£EasyΓÇ¥ or ΓÇ£Custom.ΓÇ¥ As with the others, hold down the Option key on your keyboard as you move the switch from ΓÇ£EasyΓÇ¥ to ΓÇ£Custom.ΓÇ¥ Then turn off the Processor Cycling option.
If you have the much older ΓÇ£PortableΓÇ¥ control panel, you need to hold down the Option key on your keyboard as you click somewhere on the line of text that says ΓÇ£Minutes Until Automatic Sleep.ΓÇ¥ A new dialog will appear with the option of ΓÇ£restΓÇ¥ (the former name for Processor Cycling) or ΓÇ£donΓÇÖt restΓÇ¥; select ΓÇ£donΓÇÖt rest.ΓÇ¥.
For more information about the PowerBooksΓÇÖ battery conservation features, please consult your PowerBook manual, or call Apple Technical Support at (800) SOS-APPLE.
Finally, if you have an external monitor attached to your PowerBook, see also the notes below on multiple monitors.
The screen saver runs a bit, then turns black.
Many Macintosh models, including PowerBooks and PowerMacs, offer an option (usually ΓÇ£onΓÇ¥ by default) to dim or turn off the monitor after a period of inactivity to save power. If you want to see After Dark indefinitely, you need to turn this option off. Depending on which Mac you have, look in your Control Panels folder for a file called ΓÇ£PowerBook,ΓÇ¥ ΓÇ£PowerBook Display,ΓÇ¥ ΓÇ£Screen,ΓÇ¥ ΓÇ£Energy Saver,ΓÇ¥ or ΓÇ£CPU Energy Saver.ΓÇ¥
My game conflicts with After Dark.
Some games are not fully compatible with screen savers in general, including After Dark, creating problems that do not occur in any other type of program. Examples of problems that can arise are memory conflicts, getting sound to work properly, screen redrawing problems, or crashes.
We do not have a list of incompatible games. If a particular game seems incompatible, you should prevent After Dark from activating while that game is running by turning After Dark off with the On/Off switch in the control panel, or by setting a very long sleep time and disabling After DarkΓÇÖs sleep corners in the Setup dialog box. DonΓÇÖt forget to reset those After Dark options after you quit that game!
Music doesn't play or is choppy.
Because of the complexity of these songs, the modules that play music require about 1 Mb of RAM in addition to the memory requirements of the moduleΓÇÖs graphics. If there is not enough memory available at the moment for the music to play, the module will run silently.
If music runs but sounds choppy, your computer may be relying on Virtual Memory because all of the physical RAM is taken up. This means that your Mac must get the pieces of each song from your hard drive as theyΓÇÖre needed, slowing down both music and animation.
Please see the item above called ΓÇ£MEMORYΓÇ¥ for information about how to check your memory usage and how to make more memory available.
After Dark won't activate when the ΓÇ£idle timeΓÇ¥ passes.
There are a few situations where After Dark might not sleep on its own after the idle time you set. First, double-check the After Dark control panel: make sure it opens, indicating it is installed correctly; see that the On/Off switch is set to On; and open the Setup dialog to confirm that the ΓÇ£sleep timeΓÇ¥ is not set longer than you wish.
If your Macintosh is busyΓÇösuch as a long print job, modem activity, colleagues using File Sharing to access your hard diskΓÇöAfter Dark's ΓÇ£System IQ Activity MonitorΓÇ¥ feature is designed to prevent After Dark from sleeping until that activity is finished. (See Chapter 5 for more information on System IQ.)
Utilities that perform in the background, such as disk compression programs, might also prevent After Dark from activating. Contact the publisher of that software, or our Macintosh Technical Support department.
Some of After DarkΓÇÖs own dialogs, such as the Setup and RandomizerΓÇÖs New/Edit dialog, prevent After Dark from activating due to unavoidable reasons; when you OK or Cancel the dialog, After Dark will be able to sleep.
See also the entry below on ΓÇ£Known Software or Hardware Incompatibilities.ΓÇ¥
Some modules don't work in all color levels.
If your monitor is set to display more than 256 or fewer than 16 colors, some modules will not run. Open the control panel called ΓÇ£MonitorsΓÇ¥ and switch your monitor to 256 colors. For instance, Satori and Nirvana require exactly 256 colors. If a module was not designed to work at the number of colors your monitor is currently set to, it will revert to Starry Night with a scrolling message indicating its color requirements.
Some of my modules donΓÇÖt move!
A few of After Dark modules appear to have sections that are motionless. However, these modules are periodically redrawn in a different place on the screen, to prevent burn-in. Other modules have a "Clear Screen First" option; turn this checkbox on if you wish.
None of my Myst Screen Saver (or After Dark 3.0 or Disney or Star Trek) modules run, claiming resources are missing or they're out of memory.
The After Dark 3.0 modules (and the Star Trek and Disney Collection modules) share certain resources between them to keep file sizes down. If those resources are moved or renamed, the modules will not run, but will revert to Starry Night with a message that the resources could not be found (or possibly a false ΓÇ£out of memoryΓÇ¥ message).
If you have reorganized the locations of files or folders inside the After Dark Files folder, there are certain folders you must not move, rename, or reorganize. The following folders must remainΓÇöunalteredΓÇöat the top level of the After Dark Files folder:
EcoLogic Files, AD 3.0 Resources, Disney Resources, Shared Resources
and any other folder with the word ΓÇ£ResourcesΓÇ¥ in its name.
If you canΓÇÖt restore the folders and modules to working order, run the Installer (from After Dark 3.0, Disney, or whichever collectionΓÇÖs modules are not working properly) to put all the files where they belong.
The WallZapper icon in my Setup dialog is grayed out, or when I try to zap the screen, I get a dialog saying WallZapper was not installed.
This will happen if the Screen Posters file is not properly installed in your Extensions folder (System 7) or System Folder (System 6), if the Screen Posters file is damaged, or if it did not load successfully for some other reason. Restart your Macintosh, and see if it now works. If you have an extension/INIT management utility, make sure Screen Posters is enabled. If the problem persists, run the After Dark 3.0 installer again.
What is ΓÇ£Sound Manager 3.0,ΓÇ£ and why is it listed as ΓÇ£recommendedΓÇ¥ in the system requirements?
Sound Manager 3.0 is a system extension from Apple Computer that improves the operation and smoothness of high quality sound hardware & software, such as the music in After Dark 3.0 and the Disney Collection. You can get Sound Manager 3.0 for free from Apple Computer (call (800) SOS-APPLE), or possibly from your local dealer or user group. It is also available from several online services, including AppleLink, America Online, CompuServe, and eWorld.
What is ΓÇ£32-bit QuickDraw,ΓÇ£ and why is it listed as ΓÇ£requiredΓÇ¥ in the system requirements?
This requirement only applies to users running System 6.07 or 6.08 on a Mac II, IIx, IIcx, IIci, IIfx, or SE/30. On all other Macintohs models, 32-bit QuickDraw is either built into the hardware or into System 7. 32-bit QuickDraw helps ensure the proper display of colors and graphics. If the 32-bit QuickDraw file is not in your System Folder, install it from your System 6 disks; run the system software installer, and do a Custom install for 32-bit QuickDraw.
Miscellaneous multiple monitor musings
ΓÇó If you have more than one monitor, you will find that most of the After Dark 3.0 modules (and all of the Star Trek and Disney modules and many others) are designed to work on only one monitor at a time; other monitors are simply turned black. The choice of monitor is based on factors including the number of colors each monitor is set to, the monitor size, and which one has the menu bar. Generally speaking, the biggest monitor that is set to 256 colors ΓÇ£winsΓÇ¥ (even over thousands or millions of colors).
If the module isnΓÇÖt working on the one monitor youΓÇÖd prefer, you can do one of two things:
(1) use the ΓÇ£MonitorsΓÇ¥ control panel to adjust the number of colors each monitor is set to so the module ΓÇ£picksΓÇ¥ the desired monitor;
(2) use MultiModule to make a module work on the desired monitor. You can even set a different module to work on each monitor.
(Note that you canΓÇÖt force a module like Satori to work on a black and white monitor, or a one-monitor only module work on all monitors, and that some modules like those in the Disney Collection do not run under MultiModule.)
ΓÇó If you have an external monitor attached to your PowerBook, the ΓÇ£mirroringΓÇ¥ option may not draw some After Dark modulesΓÇÖ graphics correctly on both monitors. Also, attaching or removing an external monitor while the PowerBook is in Sleep mode may confuse After Dark until you restart your PowerBook.
ΓÇó If you use Apple Computer's new ΓÇ£Display ManagerΓÇ¥ software to change which monitor has the menu bar without restarting, the WallZapper feature may get confused.
ΓÇó See also the Chapter 5 section on WallZapper for a note on multiple monitors.
Known software or hardware incompatibilities
ΓÇó Adobe Type Reunion (old version, 1.0.1): May crash when running Bad Dog (possibly others) in demo mode and ATR is installed.
ΓÇó Global Fax/PowerPort Mercury: May crash when AD sleeps and you are sending a fax in the foreground.
ΓÇó Prodigy 3.0: Hangs when Prodigy tries to refresh, while AD is waking and your modem (probably only LANRover net modem) tries to notify you of disconnect.
ΓÇó PegasusMail 2.0: If AD sleeps when Pegasus is in foreground, application ΓÇ£sticksΓÇ¥ until AD sleeps over it a second time.
ΓÇó Do not use old versions of MultiModule and Randomizer with After Dark 3.0, this may cause a crash.
ΓÇó The AD book module ΓÇÿPearlsΓÇÖ may crash with new versions of AppleΓÇÖs Monitors control panel and After Dark.
ΓÇó There is a crash running the Logo module for a long time in Randomizer.
ΓÇó In low memory conditions, you may not get your WallZapper poster restored or it will fail to install without an alert. Some pictures may have ΓÇÿnoiseΓÇÖ, particularly some Simpsons modules, and any custom PICTs youΓÇÖve zapped.
ΓÇó You may fail to get alert messages in these programs during After Dark sleep:
- InTouch, Remind Me!
- Mail Programs (may get After Dark wake up as well)
- Alarm Clock
- Now-up-to-date
- Claris Organizer
ΓÇó The following applications may punch their notification dialogs through After DarkΓÇÖs screen, but you should be able to dismiss them normally:
- Norton Utilities 3.0ΓÇÖs FileSaver
- Stuffit SpaceSaver
- SassafrasΓÇÖ KeyServer
- SymantecΓÇÖs SAM
- Coral ResearchΓÇÖs TimeLog
ΓÇó Interactive mode in Spock and Pinocchio doesnΓÇÖt work.
ΓÇó Norton FastBackΓÇÖs scheduled backup may be blocked by After Dark.
ΓÇó After Dark may cause floating palettes to disappear in AutoCAD and possibly other applications.
ΓÇó Thunder7 may conflict with the After Dark installer.
ΓÇó Eudora may not redraw properly upon awakening from After Dark sleep.
ΓÇó After Dark may crash over Think Pascal.
ΓÇó Connectix Desktop Utilities: make sure you have at least version 1.0.3 to avoid possible conflicts.
ΓÇó Thunder: make sure you have at least version 1.5.4 of this spell checker to avoid possible conflicts.
ΓÇó Now Utilities 4.0 / Now Menus: you may need to turn off Now MenuΓÇÖs ΓÇ£Memory SizerΓÇ¥ option to avoid possible conflicts in low memory conditions. Also, make sure you have the most recent upgrade of Now Utilities, such as 4.0.2 or later.
ΓÇó DiskLock 3.0: After Dark 3.0 and DiskLock 3.0 are currently incompatible with this ultilty; we are working with Symantec to correct this problem.
