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trouble.txt
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1996-04-29
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18KB
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433 lines
Troubleshooting Guide
---------------------
Here are some of the things that could possibly go wrong
and what to do about them.
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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?
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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).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
