Please note that the troubleshooting information in this file also applies to the non-interactive Sampler included on the My First Math Adventure CD-ROM. However, please note that the Sampler is not designed to be printed from.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Care of compact discs
3. System requirements for running My First Math Adventure
4. Installing My First Math Adventure
5. Installing QuickTime¬ 2.5
6. Performance problems
7. Running My First Math Adventure with low memory
8. Sound problems
9. Screen size and color configuration
10. Printing and copying
11. Error messages
12. Connecting to the Internet and registering your disc
13. Game play in My First Math Adventure
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 My First Math Adventure. 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: 0171 753 3488
Fax: 0171 753 7575
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 center 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: 10íC to 50íC (50íF to 122íF)
Humidity: 10 percent to 80 percent
3. System requirements for running My First Math Adventure
The minimum computer specification required for running My First Math Adventure is as follows:
An Apple Macintosh 68LC040 25/50MHz computer, or above, that supports a 640 x 480 pixel monitor displaying 256 colors, 8Mb RAM, a double-speed CD-ROM drive, and System 7.01 or later.
The following Macintoshes have processors that fall below the base specification, and therefore are not supported:
Ñ All Classic Macintosh Systems
Ñ All Macintosh II Systems
Ñ These Macintosh LC Systems: LC, LCII, LCIII, LCIII+, LC520, LC550, Macintosh TV.
Ñ These Portable Macintosh Systems: Macintosh Portable, 100 - 180c, Duo 210 - 270c
My First Math Adventure also requires a certain amount of free RAM in order to run. You can check the minimum amount of free RAM required by My First Math Adventure in the following way:
1. Insert the My First Math Adventure CD into the CD-ROM drive.
2. Double-click on the My First Math Adventure Folder, then click on the My First Math Adventure icon to highlight it.
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 My First Math Adventure needs in order to run.
4. Installing My First Math Adventure
My First Math Adventure may be run directly from the CD simply by double-clicking on the My First Math Adventure icon.
For improved performance, you can install My First Math Adventure on your hard disk. To do this, drag the folder called My First Math Adventure to your desktop or a folder on your hard disk.
If you experience problems launching the DK CD-ROM Gallery from the product menu, this may be because you have insufficient memory. Try closing the product and double-clicking on the DK CD-ROM Gallery icon in the main product window.
5. Installing QuickTime¬ 2.5
Even if you already have QuickTime¬ installed on your system, you should run the QuickTime¬ Installer provided on the My First Math Adventure CD-ROM. The Installer automatically detects which, if any, of the system components on your Macintosh require updating.
1. Locate the QuickTime¬ 2.5 Installer folder in the System Folder Items folder on the My First Math Adventure CD-ROM, then double-click to open it.
2. Double-click on the Install QuickTime¬ icon, then follow the instructions that appear on your screen
6. Performance problems
If My First Math Adventure runs slowly or sound output is interrupted, try the following suggestions:
Ñ Running My First Math Adventure with your Macintosh in Virtual Memory mode may cause sound breakup, 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 My First Math Adventure, 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.
Ñ 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.
Ñ Running My First Math Adventure with less than the minimum amount of free RAM can cause problems (see section 3, System Requirements for running My First Math Adventure.) 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 4, Installing My First Math Adventure), then select the My First Math Adventure 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 My First Math Adventure. Allocating more memory to the program can improve performance.
Ñ 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.
Ñ Some performance problems may be caused by low memory conditions. Try reading the following chapter on running My First Math Adventure with low memory.
7. Running My First Math Adventure with low memory
My First Math Adventure requires a minimum amount of free RAM to run. You can check how much free RAM is required by doing the following:
1. Insert the My First Math Adventure CD into the CD-ROM drive.
2. Double-click on the My First Math Adventure folder to open it, then click once to highlight the My First Math Adventure 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 My First Math Adventure 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 My First Math Adventure, try the following suggestions to free up additional RAM:
Ñ Make sure you have only one application running at a time.
Ñ 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 breakup, so only switch it on if it is really necessary.
Ñ 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 My First Math Adventure enough RAM to run efficiently. Consult your Macintosh documentation for more information on how to remove these items.
Ñ If your Macintosh is set to more than 256 colors you can reduce the amount of memory My First Math Adventure 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.
Ñ My First Math Adventure 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 4, Installing My First Math Adventure) Select the My First Math Adventure 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 My First Math Adventure. 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.
Ñ 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 My First Math Adventure 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 My First Math Adventure to shut down. Do this only if the application has truly crashed; we do not recommend you try this with other applications.
2) You should try cleaning the disc before trying to run My First Math Adventure again.
3) If this does not work, use the Monitors control panel to reduce the amount of colors used by your monitor to 256 colors.
4) 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 My First Math Adventure again.
8. Sound problems
If My First Math Adventure produces no sound at all, check the following points:
Ñ Use the Sound control panel to check that the sound volume level on your machine is turned up.
Ñ If you have external speakers, check that they are on and that their volume control is turned up.
Ñ If you wish to use either the internal or external speakers, make sure that you have not left headphones plugged in.
If My First Math Adventure produces interrupted or distorted sound, check the following points:
Ñ 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.
Ñ Running your Macintosh in Virtual Memory mode may cause sound breakup. In Virtual Memory mode your Macintosh uses a section of its hard drive as RAM. Although this increases the free RAM available to My First Math Adventure, 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.
Ñ 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.
Ñ My First Math Adventure 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 My First Math Adventure when you start it up. See section 7, on Running My First Math Adventure with low memory for more details on how to set the memory allocation.
9. Screen size and color configuration
My First Math Adventure will run on any color monitor with a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels, or more, and that supports 256 colors or more. The program will work on a grayscale monitor, but is not designed to work in black and white.
My First Math Adventure is not designed to run on multiple monitors. If you have such a setup, the program will run on your primary monitor only.
10. Printing and copying
The copyright for all images in My First Math Adventure is owned by Dorling Kindersley. All screens and print-outs are licensed to you for personal, home, school or college use. The screens and print-outs must not be used in any products for commercial sale or for distribution by any commercial organization in any form.
Screens in My First Math Adventure are stored and displayed as color pictures. They are optimized for screen rather than print reproduction. Screen images can be printed, however, and will be of the same quality as a picture made with a screen-capture function.
Black and white prints will be of poor quality. If you have a laser printer, better quality images will be achieved by using the color/grayscale option.
Both Print and Copy functions may be affected by low memory. Refer to section 7, Running My First Math Adventure with low memory.
11. Error Messages
If the error message: "Unable to increase the system memory allocation" is displayed whilst running My First Math Adventure, or if the error message: "The application My First Math Adventure could not be opened because QuickTimeLib could not be found" is displayed whilst starting My First Math Adventure then you should try the following:
If you are a PowerPC user you should check that the QuickTime¬ Powerplug extension is turned on. Do this by selecting Control Panels from the Chooser and then selecting Extensions Manager. Make sure that the QuickTime¬ Powerplug extension is switched on and then restart your Macintosh and try to run My First Math Adventure again.
If this does not work, or if you are not a PowerPC user, you should:
1) Try turning on Virtual Memory from the Memory control panel. Restart your Macintosh and try to run My First Math Adventure again.
2) If this does not work, copy the My First Math Adventure Folder onto your hard disk.
3) Whilst no programs are running, find out the amount of free memory by opening the About This Macintosh dialog box from the Apple menu, and noting down the "Largest Unused Block"
4) Set the preferred memory size of My First Math Adventure to the value of the Largest Unused Block minus 500K. To do this, select the My First Math Adventure icon on your hard disk, 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 preferred memory.
5) Make sure that QuickTime is installed on your system. If it is not, run the QuickTime¬ Installer provided on the My First Math Adventure CD-ROM. The Installer automatically detects which, if any, of the system components on your Macintosh require updating.
1. Locate the QuickTime¬ 2.5 Installer folder in the System Folder Items folder on the My First Math Adventure CD-ROM, then double-click to open it.
2. Double-click on the Install QuickTime¬ icon, then follow the instructions that appear on your screen
This will allow the System Software to expand when it needs to.
12. Connecting to the Internet and registering your disc
Please note: If you would normally pay telephone charges to connect to your Internet Service Provider, or for the time that you use the Internet, these charges will continue to apply while you are using the Online feature in this product. You should always ask permission from the person who will pay the bill before you use the Online feature described below.
If you are able to connect to the Internet from your computer, and if you have a Web browser installed, then you can take advantage of a feature of My First Math Adventure that lets you register your disc via the Internet and visit DK's Web site. If you do not have a functioning Internet connection or Web browser, then you will NOT be able to make use of this feature.
Warning: If you already have one Web browser window open, and try to open more browser windows, this may cause your computer to run out of memory and may result in your computer crashing. Therefore, we recommend that you run only one browser window at a time.
The first time that you connect to the Internet from your disc you will be shown dialog boxes that will allow you to configure your Web browser. If you need to reconfigure your browser in the future you can do this by clicking on the 'Online Setup' button.
If your Internet connection is not successful check the following:
Ñ That you can connect to the Internet and use your browser in the normal way. If you cannot do this, then there is a problem with your Internet connection. For example, make sure that your modem is correctly connected and switched on.
Ñ Try starting your Internet connection and Web browser first, and then start up My First Math Adventure
13. Game play in My First Math Adventure
User and game information is stored on the hard disk of the computer you are using. If you use My First Math Adventure on a different computer you will not have access to previously saved user and game information unless you copy the game and user database files to the System/Preference folder of the computer you are currently using.
The database files are located in the System/Preference folder. Copy a file called Adding and Subtracting Prefs and a folder called Adding and Subtracting Users.
Please note that deleting these database files will result in all previously saved user and game information being lost. This means that you will have to log on and start the games again from scratch.
