5. Running your Smart Steps program with low memory
6. Sound problems
7. Screen size and color configuration
8. Printing
1. Introduction
About Dorling Kindersley
DK Multimedia titles are available wherever CD-ROMs are sold. New titles will be available on a regular basis. For more information, contact us at DK Multimedia, 9 Henrietta Street, London, WC2E 8PS.
You may also visit us on the World Wide Web at:
http://www.dk.com
About this Read Me file
This Read Me file is designed to address most of the problems you may encounter when using your Smart Steps program. Please take a look at the table of contents above to see if your particular problem is addressed.
If you are still having problems or need further technical support on any Dorling Kindersley product, please call the Multimedia Helpline with details of the problem, including any error messages that were produced, and the full specification of your Macintosh. If possible, you should be beside your machine when you telephone.
The numbers in New York, USA are:
Telephone: 1-800 DKMM 575
Fax: 212 213 5240
E-mail: DKMM@phantom.com
The numbers in London, United Kingdom are:
Telephone: 0870 0100 350
Fax: 0171 753 7343
E-mail: DKMM@dkmm.co.uk
2. Care of Compact Discs
Contrary to early reports, compact discs (CDs) are very easily damaged if treated carelessly. Such damage has a much greater effect on the digital data of a CD-ROM than on the information of a music CD. A dirty or damaged CD-ROM is quite likely to malfunction. With CD-ROM drives becoming ever faster and more disc-sensitive, this is an increasing problem.
The surface of the disc can quickly gather dirt and is very easily scratched. To protect the data from scratches, fingerprints, dust particles, and smears, do not touch the readout side (unlabeled side) of the disc or place it face down on a hard surface.
Should the CD become dirty, clean it with a soft cloth lightly moistened with CD cleaning fluid or ethyl alcohol, working from the centre to the edge. Do not use any type of solvent, such as benzine, lacquer thinner, anti-static agents, or LP record cleaners as they may damage the surface.
Never leave the disc in a place subject to direct sunlight, high temperature, or high humidity. Recommended storage conditions are:
Temperature: 10░C to 50░C (50░F to 122░F)
Humidity: 10% to 80%
3. Installing your Smart Steps program
1. Insert the disc in the CD-ROM drive.
2. Drag your Smart Steps program Folder to your hard disk.
3. Open the folder and double-click on your Smart Steps program icon.
Before running your Smart Steps program, you should ensure that any screen saver and electronic mail applications are turned off. Other applications may be left open, but may slow down the performance of your Smart Steps program, or cause problems associated with low memory conditions.
4. Performance problems
If your Smart Steps program runs slowly or sound output is interrupted, try the following suggestions:
┤ Running your Smart Steps program with your Macintosh in Virtual Memory mode may cause sound break-up, particularly on older Macs. In Virtual Memory mode, your Macintosh uses a section of its hard drive to emulate RAM. Although this increases the free RAM available to your Smart Steps program, access to that RAM can be slow. For best performance, use the Memory control panel to turn Virtual Memory off and then restart your Macintosh. However, if you are low on memory you may have no choice but to leave Virtual Memory switched on.
┤ An old or slow CD-ROM drive will impair the program's performance. The only solution to this problem is to upgrade your CD-ROM drive.
┤ Running your Smart Steps program with less than the minimum amount of free RAM can cause problems (see section 5, Running your Smart Steps program with low memory.) You can check to see if there is any free RAM available by opening the About This Macintosh dialog box from the Apple menu in the Finder. If there is free RAM available you can set the program to take advantage of this. First install the program on your hard disk (see section 3, Installing your Smart Steps program), then select your Smart Steps program icon and choose Get Info from the File menu in the Finder. You can then use the Get Info dialog box to increase the amount of memory set aside for your Smart Steps program. Allocating more memory to the program can improve performance.
┤ SCSI termination problems can affect your CD-ROM drive. Your CD-ROM drive must be either internally or externally terminated. Consult your Macintosh documentation for more information on SCSI termination.
Some performance problems may be caused by low memory conditions. Try reading the following section on running your Smart Steps program with low memory.
5. Running your Smart Steps program with low memory
Your Smart Steps program requires a minimum amount of free RAM to run. You can check how much free RAM is required by doing the following:
1. Insert your Smart Steps program CD into the CD-ROM drive.
2. Double-click on your Smart Steps program folder to open it, then click once to highlight your Smart Steps program icon.
3. From the File menu, select Get Info.
4. Under the Memory Requirements section, look for the figure in the Minimum Size box. This is the minimum amount of free RAM that your Smart Steps program requires in order to run.
You can then check how much free RAM is available by opening the About This Macintosh dialog box from the Apple menu in the Finder. If you do not have enough free RAM to run your Smart Steps program, try the following suggestions to free up additional RAM:
┤ Make sure you have only one application running at a time.
┤ If you still have less than the minimum amount of free RAM, you can allocate some hard disk space to work as Virtual Memory. You can set your Macintosh to use Virtual Memory by using the Memory control panel, found in the Control Panels folder within your System folder, then restart your Macintosh. However, using Virtual Memory may slow your Macintosh's access time to RAM causing sound and video break-up, so only switch it on if it is really necessary.
┤ You may be able to reduce the amount of memory used by your system software by removing unused Apple menu items, fonts, extensions, sounds, etc. from your system folder. These items can occupy considerable amounts of memory and their removal may allow your Smart Steps program enough RAM to run efficiently. Consult your Macintosh documentation for more information on how to remove these items.
┤ If your Macintosh is set to more than 256 colors you can reduce the amount of memory your Smart Steps program uses by setting the monitor control panel to 256 colors. To do this, select Control Panels from the Apple menu, and then select Monitors. From the list of settings for your selected monitor you should choose 256 colors.
┤ Your Smart Steps program can be set to run in less than the recommended amount of RAM. To do this, first install the program to your hard disk (see section 3, Installing your Smart Steps program.) Select your Smart Steps program icon and choose Get Info from the File menu in the Finder. You can then use the Get Info dialog box to decrease the amount of minimum and preferred memory set aside for your Smart Steps program. Allocating less memory to the program may allow the program to run, but will also affect the program's performance, and may cause the program to crash.
┤ Do not set the preferred memory size to more than or equal to the amount of free RAM on your system as this may cause problems.
If your Smart Steps program crashes, or freezes up, the most likely cause is a problem with the disc. You should try the following solutions:
1) If you are stuck in the product and cannot exit, press OPTION (Alt) + COMMAND (APPLE) + ESC to force your Smart Steps program to shut down. Do this only if the application has truly crashed; we do not recommend you try this with other applications.
You should try cleaning the disc before trying to run your Smart Steps program again.
2) If this does not work, use the Monitors control panel to reduce the amount of colors used by your monitor to 256 colors.
3)If you are still having problems with crashes and freezes, from the Apple menu choose Control Panels, then Memory. In the Memory control panel, make sure that the Modern Memory Manager is set to Off (if this is present on your machine). DO NOT click Use Defaults. Now restart your computer and try to run your Smart Steps program again.
6. Sound problems
If your Smart Steps program produces no sound at all, check the following points:
┤ Use the Sound control panel to check that the sound volume level on your machine is turned up.
┤ If you have external speakers, check that they are on and that their volume control is turned up.
┤ If you wish to use either the internal or external speakers, make sure that you have not left headphones plugged in.
If your Smart Steps program produces interrupted or distorted sound, check the following points:
┤ If the sound volume level in the Sound control panel is set at maximum volume, it may cause sound to distort. The same problem may occur with external speakers set at maximum volume. Experiment with different volume levels until you find a comfortable sound level.
┤ Running your Macintosh in Virtual Memory mode may cause sound break-up. In Virtual Memory mode your Macintosh uses a section of its hard drive as RAM. Although this increases the free RAM available to your Smart Steps program, access to sounds stored in that RAM can be slow. For best performance, use the Memory control panel to turn Virtual Memory off, and then restart your Macintosh. However, users who are low on memory may have no choice but to leave Virtual Memory switched on.
┤ The built-in speakers supplied with Macintosh computers vary in quality depending on the age and model of the machine. A poor quality speaker may cause distorted sound, especially at high volume levels.
┤ Your Smart Steps program requires the Macintosh to have some spare memory available to generate the sounds. For this reason, do not allocate quite all the available memory to your Smart Steps program when you start it up. See section 7, on Running your Smart Steps program with low memory for more details on how to set the memory allocation.
7. Screen size and color configuration
Your Smart Steps program will run on any color monitor with a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels.
Your Smart Steps program is not designed to run on multiple monitors. If you have such a setup, the program will run on your primary monitor only.
8. Printing
If you see the following dialog box when you try to print:
"Printomatic Xtra Error: Couldn't take a picture of the stage"
Then your system is low on memory. Try following the advice in section 5, 'Running your Smart Steps program with low memory' and then try printing again. If you are using a low specification Macintosh with only 12Mb RAM, then you may need to upgrade your RAM.
