Copyright: Copyright Xara Ltd 1994


Win32s - Possible Problems
Xara Studio and Win32s - possible problems

Pre-installation Checks

After Installation Problems


Checks before Instaling Win32s
WinPrint

- If you have a printer driver by LaserMaster, delete it or comment it out because it interferes with installing Win32s. Then reboot the computer so that the changes you made will take effect. After you successfully reinstall Win32s, reinstall the driver or remove the comment characters. The driver interferes with installing Win32s because the LaserMaster drivers create a WINSPOOL device . The extension is ignored when the filename portion of a path matches a device name. As a result, when Setup tries to write to WINSPOOL.DRV, it fails, because it attempts to write to WINSPOOL. In fact, any Win32 application that tries to link to WINSPOOL.DRV also fails; however, most Win32 applications that print under Win32s do not use the WINSPOOL application programming interfaces (APIs) because they are not supported in Win32s. As a result, you can usually just disable this driver while installing Win32s and then reenable it afterwards. Delete the \WIN32S directory, the \WIN32APP directory, W32SYS.DLL, W32S16.DLL, and WIN32S.EXE from your hard drive before installing. Although it is possible to install Win32s on top of an old installation of Win32s, it is better to remove the old files before installing the new ones. Edit the WIN32S.INI file on your hard drive. Change the line(s) SETUP = 1 to read SETUP = 0. Reboot your computer and reinstall Win32s.

Growstub (Mouse driver problem)

Problem

As your Win32 application starts, there is a GP fault caused by GROWSTUB in POINTER.DLL.

Cause

This problem is caused by a bug in GROWSTUB, which is part of the Microsoft Mouse driver version 9.01.

Solution

Microsoft Mouse driver version 9.01b corrects this problem. Driver 9.01b is available via part number: 135-099-309 "Convert Mouse 2.0(dual) 9.01". This driver does not introduce new functionality, therefore, you need only upgrade if you have run into this problem.

You can also avoid the problem by removing POINTER.EXE from the load= line in your WIN.INI file.


Checks After Installing Win32s
Summary

The installation guide for Win32s that is included in the Win32 SDK recommends running the Freecell application to verify that the installation was successful. This article discusses some of the errors that may occur when trying to run Freecell on an unsuccessful install. The article also contains a list of corrective actions to help you reinstall Win32s.

Possible symptoms

One of the following may occur when running Freecell if the installation is not successful:

 - 	File Error: Cannot find OLECLI.DLL

   -or-

 - Win32s - Error:

   Improper installation. Win32s requires WIN32S.EXE and WIN32S16.DLL to run. Reinstall Win32s.

   -or-

 - Win32s - Error:

   Improper installation.  Windows requires w32s.386 in order to run.

   Reinstall Win32s.

   -or-

 - Error: Cannot find file freecell.exe (or one of its components)...

   -or-

 - The display is corrupted as soon as you run FreeCell.

Possible solutions

If you are having video problems, check to see if you have an S3 video card. Certain S3 drivers do not work with Win32s. Either use the generic drivers shipped with Windows or contact your video card manufacturer for an updated driver.,

 - Make sure that the following line is in your SYSTEM.INI file

      device=*vmcpd

Make sure that paging is enabled. From the Control Panel, select the 386 Enhanced icon, choose Virtual Memory, and choose Change. Verify that the drive type is not set to none. The type can be set to either temporary or permanent.

Make sure that SHARE is enabled. Edit AUTOEXEC.BAT and add the following line if it is not already there:

      C:\DOS\SHARE.EXE

NOTE: Using Freecell Help will generate errors, including "Routine Not Found" or "Help Topic Does Not Exist." The generation of these errors has nothing to do with whether or not Win32s is installed correctly.

FREECELL.HLP was meant to be used with WINHLP32.EXE. FREECELL.HLP uses the advanced features of WINHLP32 for full-text searching. WINHELP.EXE, which runs on Windows 3.1, does not support this. As a result, each time FREECELL.HLP tries to bind the Find button to the full-text searching APIs, it fails, and Windows Help displays the message box. You can still read most of the information in the help file. You can use the Search button to do keyword searches.