PC Media 2/PC MEDIA CD02.iso/share/os2/mgaii_11/winnt/readme.nt

Text File | 1994-02-22 | 11.6 KB | 234 lines

README.NT                 MATROX ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS          February 22, 1994

                                  Matrox MGA
               8-, 16-, and 24-bpp Drivers for Windows NT 3.1
                                  Rev. 1.10

Windows NT Files on this Disk
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   \MGA_VID             Tag file for Windows NT Setup

   \WINNT\MGA_VID       Tag file for Windows NT Setup
   \WINNT\MGA.SYS       MGA miniport driver
   \WINNT\MGA8.DLL      8bpp (256 colors) MGA user-mode driver
   \WINNT\MGA16.DLL     16bpp (65536 colors) MGA user-mode driver
   \WINNT\MGA24.DLL     24bpp (16777216 colors) MGA user-mode driver
   \WINNT\OEMSETUP.INF  MGA driver installation file for Windows NT

   \WINNT\MGAVGA.EXE    Utility used to initialize the MGA to VGA mode
   \WINNT\MGAMON.EXE    Monitor selection utility
   \WINNT\MGA.MON       MGA monitor file
   \WINNT\MGA.INF       MGA default setup file

   \WINNT\README.NT     This file


About These Drivers
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These drivers support all MGA Ultima, Ultima-Plus, Impression, and
Impression-Pro boards.


Installation
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The general procedure for changing a display driver is the following:

      - Boot Windows NT with Administrator privileges.

      - In 'Program Manager/Main', double-click on 'Windows NT Setup'.

      - When it opens, select 'Options/Change System Settings...'.

      - Select 'Display' to get a list of the available display drivers.
        From this list, select the driver you want, or 'Other'.  If you
        select 'Other', you will be prompted for a disk from which the
        new driver is to be installed.

      - After the change has been made, select 'Options/Exit'.

      - The change will take effect when you restart Windows NT.

If you are installing the MGA driver for the first time, boot Windows NT
using your current adapter, and run Windows NT Setup as outlined above.
When prompted for a disk, just insert this disk into the appropriate drive,
type in [Drive]:\WINNT as the path to the driver files, and select the
resolution and number of colors you want.  Some of these combinations might
not be supported by your board and/or your monitor.  Refer to your MGA Owner's
Manual or run the SETUP program (see Board Testing below) to determine the
supported resolution and pixel depth combinations.

If you are updating your MGA driver, you might have to select a different
resolution or number of colors before Windows NT Setup prompts you for the
new driver.  Select 'Options/Change System Settings...'.  From the list,
select the new resolution, then press OK.  Setup will tell you that the
driver is already on the system;  press the 'New' button and answer the
prompts to have Setup install the new driver.  You can then switch back
to the resolution you were using previously.

Running a full-screen Command Prompt application in a single-screen system
requires that MGAVGA.EXE be executed at the start of the DOS session.
MGAVGA.EXE has been copied into the \WINNT\SYSTEM32 at installation time.
To make sure that it is run automatically at the start of each Command Prompt
session, you can include the following line in your AUTOEXEC.NT file:

        %SystemRoot%\system32\mgavga


Changing Resolution
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Whenever you want to change resolution, run the Windows NT Setup.  Again
select 'Options/Change System Settings...'.  From the list, select the
new resolution, then press OK.  Setup will tell you that the driver is
already on the system;  press the 'Current' button, then exit.  Your next
Windows NT session will run at the new resolution.


Monitor Customization
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By default, the display driver assumes that you have a 60 Hz monitor. If
your monitor is capable of higher refresh rates, then you should run the
MGAMON program and select a different monitor.  MGAMON.EXE should have been
copied by the Windows NT Setup program into your \WINNT\SYSTEM32 subdirectory
when the MGA drivers were installed.  To customize your monitor:

      - From the Windows NT desktop, start a Command Prompt session.

      - If you are in a full-screen Command Prompt session, first run the
        MGAVGA utility (see "Known Bugs and Limitations" below).  Do not
        run MGAVGA in a windowed Command Prompt session.

      - Change the working directory to \WINNT\SYSTEM32 and then run MGAMON.

      - From the list of monitors, select the one whose maximum refresh rate
        matches the one you are using.  An MGA.INF file will be created in
        the \WINNT\SYSTEM32 subdirectory.  The change will take effect when
        you restart Windows NT.


Board Testing
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you encounter any problem running Windows NT with your board, you should
first determine whether it is a system or hardware problem. The best way
to check for a potential hardware problem is to use the MGA Setup program.

SETUP is a DOS program included on Disk #1 of the Power Driver package.
It cannot be run from a Command Prompt session.

If you have a DOS (FAT) partition on your hard disk, simply install the
Setup and Utilities product using the provided Installation program. Then
go to the \MGA\SETUP program and type SETUP.

If you do not have a DOS partition, you will have to create a bootable
disk with SETUP on it. Here is the procedure:

      - insert Power Driver disk#1 in your diskette drive
       - copy a:\setup\files1.zip and a:\pkunzip.exe to your hard disk
       - type "pkunzip files1" to unzip the files
       - format a DOS bootable disk
       - copy the following files to your new floppy disk:
         SETUP.EXE, DOS4GW.EXE, MGA.MON
      - reboot your computer with the the new diskette
       - type "setup"

In SETUP, select "Graphic Mode Test" to test the different modes available
for your board.  The program will not attempt to test a mode which is not
supported by your board. The default testing will be done at a 60Hz refresh
rate for all resolutions.

If you have a customized monitor file (MGA.INF) in your \winnt\system32
subdirectory, SETUP can take it into account, if you set the MGA environment
variable as follow:

      set mga=c:\winnt\system32


Known Bugs and Limitations
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
      - Running a full-screen Command Prompt application in a single-screen
        system might not work quite as expected.  If you encounter problems,
        try running MGAVGA.EXE at the start of the DOS session.  You can
        include this program in the \WINNT\SYSTEM32\AUTOEXEC.NT batch file,
        so that it is run automatically at the start of each Command Prompt
        session.

      - Pressing the "Restart" button in the "Shutdown Computer" dialog box
        (the Windows NT closing dialog box) does not reset the MGA boards to
        the VGA text mode required for a warm reboot.  A cold reboot must be
        effected to start a new session.

      - We are aware of conflicts between the MGA boards and some SCSI
        adapters.  The cause of these conflicts has not been determined yet.
        In our experience, there are some conbinations of addresses that do
        work.

      - There are some problems starting the Microsoft Hardware Compatibility
        Tests TESTMGR program.  When TESTMGR is run for the first time, it
        requires the user to fill in information about the test system.  With
        the MGA 24-bits-per-pixel (16 million colors) driver, TESTMGR crashes
        when opening the Video information form.  The problem could not be
        traced back to the driver itself.  A work-around is to fill out the
        forms using the 8-bits-per-pixel driver, and then to switch to the
        24-bits-per-pixel driver to run the tests.

      - If your board is a MGA-I VL-bus board you might get the following
        error message soon after log-in:

                              Dr. Watson for Windows NT
                          An application error has occurred
                   and an application error log is being generated.
                                       ntvdm.exe

        This error will prevent you from running most DOS applications in a
        Command Prompt window and all Windows 3.1 applications.  However,
        there are ways to eliminate or work around the problem.

        You should check first whether your computer can shadow the video
        BIOS.  If it can, there will be an entry for this capability in the
        BIOS setup program, which can be run at boot time on some machines,
        or at any time on some other, by depressing a combination of keys.
        If this capability exists, you should enable it and then boot
        Windows NT to check whether this solves the NTVDM problem.  We are
        aware that this procedure does not work on all computers.  If BIOS
        shadowing is impossible or if it does not fix the NTVDM error,
        then there are two work-arounds.

        To run DOS applications, you will have to create a special Command
        Prompt icon.  To do this, go into your 'Main' window, then click on
        'File' and 'New'.  Select 'Program Item' in the dialog box and
        click on OK.  In the Program Item Properties dialog box, type in
        a 'Description:' (say, "Special Command Prompt"), and type in the
        'Command Line:' "CMD.EXE /Kc:\winnt\system32\mem.exe", where you
        should substitute "c:\winnt" with the appropriate path to your
        Windows NT directory.  Press the Change Icon button to select an
        appropriate icon, and then press OK until the new program icon is
        displayed in your 'Main' window.  Double-click on your Special
        Command Prompt icon;  you will get the ntvdm error message, but
        just go on.  Click on the Close button, then select 'Settings...'.
        In the dialog box, set 'Full Screen' and 'Save Configuration', and
        then press OK.  Type 'exit' to close the Command Prompt session.
        From now on, a Special Command Prompt session will always start as a
        full-screen session and will execute MEM.EXE automatically.  You
        should then be able to run a DOS application either from the full
        screen prompt or, by pressing Alt-Enter, from a windowed session.

        To run Windows 3.1 applications, you will first have to find out
        the path to any of your Windows 3.1 applications.  To do this, click
        on its icon and press Alt-Enter;  the 'Command Line:' box holds this
        information.  Close the dialog box and start a Command Prompt session
        (NOT a Special Command Prompt session), then switch to full screen
        by pressing Alt-Enter, change to the appropriate subdirectory and
        start your application from the command line, typing in the name of
        its .EXE file.  Your screen should revert to graphics mode and your
        application should start.  From now on, and until you exit your
        current Windows NT session, you can start any Windows 3.1 application
        by double-clicking on its icon.

        - If your board is a MGA-I AT-bus board mapped at 0xAC000 you might
        get the same problem as listed above with the VL-bus board. Again the
        easiest workaround is to shadow the video BIOS through your system
        configuration. If your system does not support shadowing, it is
        possible to avoid the problem by either booting your board in 16-bit
        bus access mode (switch #5), or by changing your base address. If you
        can't do that because of a conflict with another device, you must
        revert to the "software" work-arounds outlined above.