Release Note for PCPro (!PC v2.13) Last Updated: 1997.12.20
==================================
This document contains the latest information on the PCPro !PC release and
its use with Aleph One or Acorn Risc PC Second Processor PC Cards. This file
assumes that you have access to an Aleph One User Guide Issue 6, or the Risc
PC 486 or x86 User Guide supplied with your PC Card. There is a copy of the
manual on our Web site, for those who have internet access and it will be
more up to date, with additional help information for the less experienced.
There is also a section on User Guide Updates at the end of this document.
If you really feel that you need a paper manual, send £5 to Aleph One for an
Issue 6 User Guide.
This code will only run on a Risc PC 2nd-processor card. It will auto-detect
all types of Aleph One or Acorn Card. If you have an Aleph One (16 bit =
A5000/A400/A300/A3000) or Acorn (8bit = A4000/A3020) podule PC card then you
need a different version of the software with the suffix 'sf', 'e' or 'a'.
You can obtain this from Aleph One direct or from our Web site. In this case
do not attempt to use the software on this disc. It will not work, and could
cause significant software/setup problems on non-RISC-PC‘s.
Technical Support First read these notes or refer to the User Guide, and any
instructions relating to the area which is giving you trouble! Note that our
responsibility does not extend to teaching you to use DOS, Windows, or
applications. Many problems are best resolved by talking to the suppliers of
the software you are using. You should generally avoid telling them that your
PC is in any way 'non-standard' as this will often be viewed as an excuse to
avoid helping you.
Note - to receive any support from Aleph One, you must quote the serial
number of your software (or hardware if you have an Aleph One PC card). The
software serial number can be found on the original disc and in the !PC info
box on the icon bar. When reporting a fault (by news, letter, mailing list or
email) it is important that you fill in the supplied 'bugrep' form with your
details, otherwise we are unlikely to be able to help. Please use EMail if
you can.
Email: support@aleph1.co.uk
Letter: Aleph One Ltd, The Old Courthouse, Bottisham, CAMBRIDGE, CB5 9BA
Fax: 01223 812713
Tel: 01223 811679 (12 noon till 6pm)
Other useful sources of info are:
The Aleph One Web site for: PC card Manual on line, Support pages and info on
PC-Card mailing lists.
Web site: http://ww.aleph1.co.uk/ FTPsite: ftp://ftp.aleph1.co.uk/aleph1
There are two public mailing lists - to subscribe send the message
'subscribe' to the given address; send 'help' for more details.
pc-card-announce (for announcing new products or updates)
mailto:pc-card-announce-request@ant.co.uk
pc-cards (for general discussion of PC-card issues)
mailto:pc-cards-request@ant.co.uk.
We recommend that all customers with email join the pc-card-announce list,
whose message are not frequent.
The Public PC cards news group: news:comp.sys.acorn.extra-cpu
PC Card Information Pages: http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/dgs/pccard.html
INDEX
-----
* Contents - Contents of this Disc
* ReadMe's, Filenames, & paths - Differences between viewing file names from
RiscOS and DOS
* PD Software - Notes on some PD software you should be aware of.
* Installation - New Installation from scratch, Updating an existing
!PC installation and Manual installation.
* Configuration - Differences in old and new !PC configuration settings.
* DOS-side memory use - Especially important for PCDOS users
* !!ROMPatch - Acorns ROMPatch for RiscPC's with RiscOS 3.6 & 3.7
* Use with StrongARM - Notes for StrongARM users
* PC card Level 2 cache- Using the cache on your PC card.
* Reset Option - New !PC reset option
* Direct SCSI and ASPI - Alternative to DOS partitions, and ASPI driver notes
* Keyboard Problems - Known keyboard problems
* Windows 95 - Installing Windows95 with and without DOS
* Windows driver - New ARMDRV 2.16 Display Adaptor information and installation
* 16bit Sound Blaster support - Sound Blaster support information and installation
* CDROM - CD Rom driver information
* Parallel & serial port- Printing, Modems and other Devices.
* Problems with TurboDrivers- PC card Printing with Computer Concepts TurboDriver
* Utilities supplied - Notes on QUIT.COM, SYNCTIME.EXE and VBETEST.EXE
* PC Card control - Control PC card from DOS
* PC software Guide - A guide to obtaining and using PC software.
* Known limitations - Limitations of !PC and PC card
* DOS filetype mapping - DOSMap showing DOS extension mapping to RISC OS file types.
* !PC versions changes - Detailed changes about the current distribution of !PC
* User Guide Updates - Some changes for older manuals, including error in
instructions for Changing partition size.
Contents
--------
This disc contains the following items:
ReadMe - This document
Readme - Text file which contains the latest information on the PC Card.
Version - Version and history of !PC
!PCInstall - The installer program
A 'Software' archive, containing:
!PC - The application needed to drive the PC card.
!PCConfig - An application to set up options & partitions for the PC Card.
!Boot - For upgrading !Boot on your hard drive
BugRep - For reporting to Aleph One
Misc - Directory containing useful programs and information.
PrintPC, Win95mode, !CDFix, !DOSmount and MkBootDsc. The RiscOS
portions of the 3rd party utilities ARMEDIT, Quieter, ASPI and ROMPatch
A 'Drivers' archive, containing:
CDROM - Directory containing a DOS PC card CDROM device driver and info.
Windows - Directories containing Instructions, Windows driver Setup
files for Windows 3.x & Windows 95
Sound - Directory containing sound drivers and setup info for
Windows 3.X and Windows 95
Mouse - Directory containing a simple DOS bus-mouse driver AMOUSE.COM.
Utils - Directory with ReadMe/txt information file about
QUIT/COM, - utility to quit the PC Card from DOS.
SYNCTIME.EXE, - utility to synchronise PC time with RISC OS time.
KEYB622.COM - replacement Keyboard driver for MSDOS 6.22
UKKEYB.COM - replacement Keyboard driver for KETB.COM
VBETEST.EXE - utility to report available VESA modes.
3rdParty - The DOS portions of the 3rd party utilities ARMEDIT,
Quieter, and ASPI And an 'Unpackers' directory containing UNZIP and
!SparkPlug for manual unpacking rather than the automatic use of !PCInstall.
Note If you have ordered the Network drivers, they will be supplied on a
separate disc. Note that you need the 'Network Links (v07)' release or later
to work with this software. Network Links (v15) is now shipping, and is the
recommended version. You can send the original disc to Aleph One with a
covering letter and SAE for a free upgrade of Network Links software. Make
clear what version of !PC you are using, please. Network Links Manual is also
available on our Web site but an updated paper manual is available for £5.
ReadMe's, Filenames, & Paths
----------------------------
DOS filenames and paths throughout these documents are given in CAPITALS.
Backslash '\' is the DOS directory separator. (e.g. C:\DRIVERS\SOUND )
Slash '/' is used for DOS command options (e.g. HPC_CD.SYS /D:MSCD000)
Dot is used to separate the DOS leafname e.g ARMDRV.DRV
Slash '/' is used to replace Dot '.' when DOS files are viewed on the RISC OS
desktop (as Dot is the RISCOS directory separator).
To view Window95 long file names and FAT 32 format you will need !Win95FS
from Warm Silence Software. Email: info@wss.co.uk Web site:
http://www.wss.co.uk/
ReadMe files are mentioned in various places. Several of these will be found
in the C:\DRIVERS\ directories. These are actually called README.TXT (which
appears as README/TXT on the Desktop). Throughout this document we just use
README to refer to these files. The .TXT part is included so that if you use
a DOS viewer to read them (e.g. NotePad in Windows) it will be able to find
and make sense of the files. Note that the files have RISCOS Linefeeds so
some DOS text editors (eg NotePad) will display the file very badly. They are
generally best read from RiscOS.
Comments on PD Software for PCs
-------------------------------
HDExtender A Module which gives access to 4 drives instead of 2 is not
compatible with !PC v2.XX and must be removed.
ASPI If this is already in use you may have to reinstall it after
upgrading.
OutToLunch This and other screen savers can cause your PC card to freeze
and should be removed. Use Screen Blank delay instead.
MouseCTRL This and other Mouse or pointer control applications can
cause problems and should be removed.
Installation:
-------------
The software & drivers are now supplied in ZIP files along with the utility
!PCInstall, to unzip and install them, or for updating your old version of
!PC and your PC system files. You should use this installer. These
instructions supersede any instructions in any manual that makes no mention
to using !PCInstall. Note that the !PCConfig application is still used for
setting !PC options, and creating DOS partitions, as in previous versions.
Read the sections relevant to your needs:
* New Installation - For first time installers
* Updating an existing !PC installation - For method of updating PC card software or Drivers
* Manual Installation - Only for users who can not use above
* Installer details - For users who wish to be informed
* New Installation from scratch ( 1 to 10 )
1) Insert the !PCPro floppy disk
2) Run !PCInstall on the floppy, select 'Install PC card software', only
and select 'Install'
3) You will be asked to enter your serial number, found on your floppy
disk label, then click 'Continue'. Select the directory you want the !PC
application and associated files to be installed in, by dragging the !PC icon
into that directory. Then select 'Continue', and the !PC software will be
unzipped into the specified directory.
4) You must next copy the !Boot structure from the directory you have
installed the software into, over your existing !Boot structure on your boot
drive. This will update you with necessary utilities & modules: DOSFS,
PCSleep, Shared Sound support, Toolbox modules for !PCConfig. It will not
alter your RiscOC Boot structure
5) Reboot your computer, to clear system variables.
6) DON'T FORGET THIS BIT! Now you must follow the instructions in
Chapter 4 of the Aleph One User guide for configuring your PC card with
!PCConfig. This involves creating a bootable DOS partition and specifying
other aspects of your system (RAM, video mode, Parallel and Serial port). You
should also read about Partition Management and "Direct SCSI and ASPI"
7) Now you can run your card (referring to Chapter 5) and install DOS.
Note that it is possible to load Windows95/98 without any DOS. You need to
read the section on Windows95 and !MkBootDsc (Windows95/98 without DOS) and
follow the instruction. DOS users should also read the sections relating to
the DOS-side memory use. If you have completed loading DOS you should Quit
!PC to complete the RISC OS side of the installation.
8) Run !PCInstall again to update your DOS installation. You should
select 'Install drivers into DOS partition', & 'Install CDROM support
software' if you have a CDROM,.
9) Run !PC again and install Windows if required. The default
installation options can be used throughout for Windows 3.X or Windows 95/98.
10) DON'T FORGET THIS BIT! Once Windows is installed you should install the
Aleph One Windows driver. If you have a 16bit sound system then you can also
install the Sound Blaster Emulation software. Read the relevant sections for
the Windows driver and 16bit Sound Blaster support installed.
* Updating an existing !PC installation (1 to 7)
1) To upgrade an old version of !PC1.XX/!PCx86/!PC486, Run its !PCconfig and
take notes of all your settings. Then you must make a backup copy of it on a
floppy disk, or in a directory that will not be seen by the filer, before
deleting it. You must also Shutdown and Restart (Reboot) your machine, to
remove system variables set up by !PC before continuing the upgrade.
2) After reboot insert the PCPro floppy disk.
3) Run !PCInstall, and select the options you want to install/upgrade.
PC card software and/or update drivers to a DOS partition. Users upgrading
the first time will need 'Install PC card software', and 'Install drivers
into DOS partition'. If you have a CDROM then also select 'Install CDROM
drive support software'. If you currently have Windows installed and already
have installed the Windows Driver using previous installation then select
'Update existing Windows driver'. Then click 'Install'.
Note that the installer can not install or update drivers to an
existing DOS partition if your Drive_C (C:) is not accessible from the
Desktop. ( eg If the DOS drive is compressed, if you have multiple boot
options or if your Drive C is a direct SCSI device). In this case you must
use the 'Manual Installation' of the drivers, below.
4) You will be asked to enter the serial number from the floppy disk,
and then be led through the process of installation. If you have selected to
install the PC card software you will have to drag the !PC icon to a
directory where you wish it to be loaded (This is normally to a directory
called PC). If you have selected to install or update any of the drivers you
will be asked to drag your DOS partition (normally called Drive_C) into the
installation window for the drivers to be installed as required. Note also
for drivers that if you have a Windows 95 only installation (ie you never
installed DOS), then when asked, you should delete DOS and enter
WINDOWS.COMMAND.
5) You should now copy the !Boot structure from the directory you
installed !PC into over your existing !Boot on your boot hard drive. This
will update the relevant modules and utilities: DOSFS, Shared Sound support,
PCSleep, DOSMap and Toolbox modules. Note that because of changes in the
software you may get an error relating to a file being locked or that a
directory could not be created because a file of the same name has been
found. In such cases you will need to unlock & delete the related file
before the copying will proceed.
6) DON‘T FORGET THIS BIT! If you have a new installation of the PC card
software you will need to Run !PCConfig. Refer to your configuration notes.
If this is a PCPro upgrade then take the config file from within your old
copy of !PC 2.XX and copy it into the new installation before using
!PCconfig. Alter settings and save them before running !PC. If you are using
the PD ASPI drivers you will also need to reinstall the RiscOS side of the
software for it.
7) Once Windows is installed you should install the Aleph One Windows
driver. If you have a 16bit sound system then you can also install the Sound
Blaster Emulation software. Read the relevant sections for the Windows driver
and 16bit Sound Blaster support installed.
* Manual Installation (This is not recommended but some users will need it)
Expert users, or those with unusual configurations, may prefer or need to do
the installation manually, in which case look at the ReadMe file in the
'UnPackers' directory for instructions. This directory includes the RISCOS
and DOS tools for manual unzipping and installation.
Examples of configurations which !PCInstall will not correctly deal with are:
Multiple config.sys setups chosen by menu, compressed drives (Doublespace,
Stacker, Drivespace, Superstor), Direct SCSI drives with older SCSI cards,
as these are not accessible from RISCOS.
Note that you must at least run !PCInstall to add your serial number to your
copy of !PC, even if you then use the manual tools for the rest of the
install. Note that the Drivers are supplied in a ZIPfile to preserve the
full DOS filenames and to make transfer to the DOS world easier. Do not unzip
the files into a RISCOS directory as this will truncate many of the filenames
and make them unrecognisable.
* Sound Blaster Installation
You need to complete the installation under Windows. See the Readme file in
C:\DRIVERS\SOUND for details for Windows 3.X, Windows 95, and Manual
installation. If this directory is not present then either you haven't
selected & run 'Install Drivers into DOS partition' in !PCInstall, or there
is a problem, in which case you should read the ReadMe in the UnPackers
directory.
* Windows Driver Installation
You need to complete the installation under Windows. See the Readme file in
C:\DRIVERS\WINDOWS for details for Windows 3.X, Windows 95, and Manual
installation. If this directory is not present then either you haven't
selected & run 'Install Drivers into DOS partition' in !PCInstall, or there
is a problem, in which case you should read the ReadMe in the UnPackers
directory.
* Installer Details (This is not compulsory reading but it is always nice to
know what an installer is doing to your machine , especially when associated
with Microsoft and PC setups, so here are details )
'Install PC Software' This asks you for you serial number to personalise your
version, then asks you to specify an installation directory, where it unzips
the 'Software' ZIPfile which contains !PC, !PCconfig, !Boot, Misc directory
of utilities, and the BugRep fault reporting form. Your !Boot is not updated
automatically, so you need to copy this !Boot over your !Boot yourself, or
update specific files as required.
'Install Drivers into DOS partition' Asks where your DOS partition file is,
then unzips the 'Drivers' ZIPfile into it to produce C:\DRIVERS containing
CDROM, UTILS, SOUND, MOUSE, WINDOWS & 3RDPARTY subdirectories. The line 'SET
BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 H5 P330 T6' is added to your AUTOEXEC.BAT, if a 16-bit
soundsystem is present (according to 'Status'). This is only required if you
have the Sound Blaster support installed, but won't do any harm if you don't.
If you have PCDOS (ie. the files IBMBIO.COM & IBMDOS.COM exist in the root
directory) then any line containing 'EMM386' in your CONFIG.SYS file (so long
as it doesn't start with 'REM') is replaced with the line:
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE /NOMOVEXBDA
This is necessary because PCDOS EMM386 is incompatible with the shared memory
used by !PC v1.99 or later, unless the /NOMOVEXBDA option is added. The path
will be whatever you specified for your DOS directory. If you specify that
your DOS directory is Windows.command, then this EMM386 change is not made,
as it is not relevant to Win95-only installations. 'Install CDROM drive
support software' Asks you to specify your DOS directory. The contents of
C:\DRIVERS\UTILS, HPC_CD.SYS and MSCDEX (if not already present) are put into
it. If a 'DEVICE=<path>A1CD.SYS' line exists in your CONFIG.SYS file then it
is removed. Finally the line
DEVICE=C:\DOS\HPC_CD.SYS
is added to the end of the CONFIG.SYS file, and the line
C:\DOS\MSCDEX /D:MSCD000
is added to the start of your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. The paths will be whatever
you specified for your DOS directory. If you do not have AUTOEXEC.BAT &
CONFIG.SYS files (most likely because you installed Windows 95 without DOS),
then you will need to create them, e.g by copying them from the Windows 95
boot floppy.
'Update existing Windows Driver' Asks you to specify your WINDOWS directory.
If the WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory already contains ARMDRV.DRV, then it is
renamed to ARMDRV.OLD, and the new ARMDRV.DRV is copied there. If you have
more than one Windows directory (eg 'WINDOWS' and 'WIN95'), then you will
need to run this option once for each directory. If the SHELLI~1 file is
found in the WINDOWS directory then it is deleted. This is to fix a problem
caused by using earlier versions of ARMDRV than v1.99 with Windows 95 in 256p
modes. It will automatically be regenerated correctly next time you run
Windows 95. The above means that if the Windows Driver was already installed
then it has been automatically updated. This will not update the version
number reported by Windows 95. This doesn't matter, except for neatness, but
if you want that to be right then you need to install the driver using the
Windows 95 instructions in the DRIVERS\WINDOWS\README file.
Configuration
-------------
A number of config settings used in older versions of !PC are no longer used,
so you may need to set up your config file using !PCConfig, with reference to
the manual. Config options no longer supported are: VGAAttached,
UseLoResText, InitInMono. One config option default has changed:
RetraceEmulation is now set to 2, rather than 0. This should make DOS video
slightly faster. Games that use the retrace registers to generate random
numbers (Civilization is the only one we know of) need this set to 0 to work.
You can change it in the 'Advanced Options' menu of !PCConfig (Click 'Menu'
on the Icon Bar icon, then 'Open' > 'Advanced Configuration'. Two new
Advanced options have been added to the 'Advanced options' menu of !PCConfig.
* SharedMemFlags:
This setting determines which PC card functions use shared memory to transfer
data. Using shared memory will always be faster so they should normally be
enabled. You are only likely to want to disable it for diagnostics. The
setting is a flag. Setting bit 0 disables PC-side disk shared memory Setting
bit 1 disables PC & ARM-side disk shared memory Setting bit 2 disables
Windows Video shared memory So these are the useful values:
6 - Turn all shared memory off - slowest
5 - Shared Video off, only ARM side disk
4 - Shared Video off, shared disk on
2 - Shared Video on, shared disk off
1 - Shared Video on, only ARM side disk
0 - All shared memory on - fastest
* PreserveVidMem:
When switching between 16-colour VGA modes and other modes, like text mode or
256colour modes, the format of video memory changes significantly. Normally,
if you're changing the mode and then immediately clearing the screen, this
doesn't matter, but there are a small number of rare situations where the PC
will write some data in, say, text mode, then switch to VGA (without clearing
the screen) and expect it to come out as a picture. In particular, this is
what the Windows 3.1 VDDVGA.386 did. Since v1.99, !PC has sensed when the
mode was changing and had the routines to alter the video memory
appropriately. This is a bit time consuming, especially on a slow machine, so
you can turn it off. PreserveVidMem controls this feature, and has the
following values:
3 - convert memory on all mode switches
2 - convert memory switching from VGA to non-VGA, but not the other way round
1 - (default) convert memory when switching to VGA, but not when switching back
0 - don't convert memory on mode switches
For a strictly accurate emulation, it should be set to 3, but in practice
setting 1 is sufficient for the Windows VDDVGA.386. If you have problems
where the screen contents seem corrupted after a mode switch of some form,
try setting 3.
* Disablefloppies:
Setting this option 'on' prevents access to the floppy drive fomr !PC.
Useful in a school situation, or for virus security. The drive letter may
still appear (there is no such thing as a PC with no floppy drive), but it
will not work.
* ForegroundSlice, backgroundslice, BackgroundHoldoff
The speed config settings are for when !PC is multitasking in a window.
'Foreground' is when !PC has the keyboard focus, 'background' is when it
doesn't. The 'Slice' value determines how long !PC spends running before
letting other applications have a go. The Holdoff value is how long (in
wimp-polls) !PC waits after running before running again). Setting this to 0
(and the fore- & back-ground slice values the same) makes the with-focus
behaviour the same as the without-focus behaviour. Defaults (or no entry in
the file) give the same behaviour as currently. Typical values are givin in
the comments in the config file. This facility will be made dynamically
adjustable as some point.
DOS-side memory use:
--------------------
The Extended BIOS data area is now used for all disk accesses. PCDOS EMM386
on versions 6 and 7 will try to use this area by default. This will
completely stop your PC card from working, as it can no longer access the
hard drive. Adding the \NOMOVEXBDA option to the EMM386 line in CONFIG.SYS
will stop this behaviour. !PCInstall should do this for you. If not, you will
have to do it yourself using Windows Notepad, or the DOS editor E. If you
cannot start !PC because of this problem, then you can use !Zap or !Edit to
make the changes from the RISCOS side. See Chapter 5.5 'Editing DOS text and
System files' before you do this.
The line in CONFIG.SYS should look like:
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE /NOMOVEXBDA
(although you may want to add other options as well)
Note that if you run the RAMSETUP utility, this will remove the /NOMOVEXBDA
option during its tests and thus will stop your PC card from working. Do not
use this utility - you must make changes to the EMM386 driver manually
instead, by editing the CONFIG.SYS file.
The new shared memory drivers use an area of DOS upper memory. You must
ensure that EMM386 or other extended memory managers (e.g. QEMM, 386MAX) are
not also attempting to use this area. The area is E000-EFFF. Make sure that
this is not included in relevant lines in your CONFIG.SYS file. The PC card
ROM area is above this (F400-FFFF), so that area must be excluded too. If you
need to use EMM386 (for supplying expanded memory and loading drivers high)
then, for PCDOS, if the default status does not suit your requirements, you
will need to add options manually; the automatic configuration provided by
RAMSETUP will not work. For other DOSes (MSDOS, DRDOS) or memory managers
(QEMM, 386MAX), if you have been using a version of !PC before 2.00, we
recommend you run the relevant memory setup program again on installing this
version of !PC (e.g MEMMAKER for MSDOS). For manual editing you should remove
any i=AAAA-BBBB option where AAAA or BBBB is greater than or equal to E000.
!!ROMPatch
---------
Acorn's ROMPatch should be used for all RiscPC's fitted with RiscOS 3.6 & 3.7
and you should obtain the current version from Acorn direct or from their Web
site. A version is supplied in the software ZIP file on the PCPro floppy
disk, and after you have used !PCinstall it will be located in your hard
drive in your selected directory in a subdirectory Misc.ROMPatch. It will
containing the ROMPatch v 2.02 together with the Installation instructions.
If you are unsure of your RiscOS version press the middle menu button over
the Acorn icon on the icon bar and follow the info > for the RiscOS version.
Use with StrongARM
------------------
The important things needed for successful use with StrongARM are:
* Ensure that the SSound module in $.!Boot.Resources.!System.Modules is
updated to the 0.24 version supplied; otherwise !PC will not start if you
have a 16-bit sound system and you will get a Data Abort error message on
starting !PC. Note that all other !System.200.Modules, !System.300.Modules,
etc directories must also have any old SSound modules removed.
* You also need to use version 2.03 or later of !PC and the corresponding
version of ARMDRV.DRV.
A normal installation (see 'Installation' section above) of this version of
!PC will ensure these things for you automatically.
If after installing this software you have problems, you need to determine
whether they are software or hardware before reporting them. If !PC is prone
to 'general crashes' and unreliability with StrongARM, but not when you use
your old ARM card, then this is probably a hardware problem. Software
problems usually reveal themselves at a consistent point in an application.
If you believe the problem is hardware then you should talk to the ART
StrongARM helpline. Tel:01223 577878.
PC Card Level 2 cache
---------------------
Selecting the correct Level 2 128KB and 512KB cache option for !PC and the
Risc PC cards.
All original Gemini I and Gemini II versions of the PC cards produced for the
Acorn Risc PC computer were fitted with a 128KB level 2 cache. Recently the
size of the cache has been increased to 512KB on newer PC cards, including
those supplied by Aleph One Limited since April 1997. PCPro is able to take
advantage of this increase in the size of cache, but can not automatically
detect the size of the cache fitted. This section helps you know how to
recognise a PC card fitted with 512KB cache and how to change the Advanced
Configuration settings of !PC to make best use of your PC card.
Visual recognition by inspecting the PC card, by the following method:-
Ensure that your computer system is shutdown in the normal way. Switch off
and unplug the power lead from the electrical power socket. You can now
safely remove the top cover of the Risc PC computer. (See page 87 of your
Acorn Risc PC Welcome Guide for instructions). Viewing from the rear of the
Risc PC, the PC card is standing upright on the right hand side of the case
with the components facing you. To identify if a 512KB cache is fitted, look
at the PC card now facing you.
On a Gemini II PC card 'IC2' & 'IC3' are at the top right hand side of the PC
card.
If 'IC2' and 'IC3' are not in these locations you have an original PC Gemini
I card with 128KB cache.
If these ICs have 28 pins (4 pads left uncovered) then you have a Gemini II
PC card with 128KB cache.
If they have 32 pins (no uncovered pads) then you have a Gemini II with 512K
cache.
There is a DOS utility to test what cache size is fitted to your card on our
Web site at ftp://ftp.aleph1.co.uk/3rdparty/cct386.zip Gemini II PC cards
with 128KB cache can be upgraded to 512KB by First SMT Ltd; see end of this
section.
To change or check the cache settings using !PCconfig:
1) Run !PCConfig and Click 'menu' on the icon-bar icon and select
'advanced configuration'.
2) Click 'OK' on the warning message that appears.
3) Then look near the end for the 'Size of External cache fitted to your
card' option and select '512'.
(Earlier versions of !PC config had no cache size options, so if they
do not appear read the section on changing the cache settings manually)
4) Then save the settings and Quit !PCconfig. Changed settings will be
used the next time you run !PC.
Changing the cache settings manually. You should only change the settings
manually if the 'Size of External cache fitted to your card' option did not
appear in the list when using !PCconfig.
1) Find your !PC application.
2) Shift-double click on it, to see the files inside.
3) One of them is a text file called 'config'.
4) Edit it by double-clicking on it.
5) Add a line to the end of the file like this: L2size 512
(Check that there isn't already a line saying L2size 128 and if there
is change the 128 to 512) 6)
Then save the file. These settings will be used the next time you run !PC.
What happens if it is set wrong?
If you set 128KB on a 512KB card it just goes a bit slower than it should, as
the full 512KB is not being used. If you set 512KB on a 128KB card it will
give memory test errors immediately on start-up, such as:
ERROR: ROM failed checksum =001F, and
ERROR at address 00001000H : Wrote 0001 Read 0000
AMD CJE cards gives a ERROR: ROM failed checksum =00FC error but the exact
addresses vary with CPU type, cache settings and version of !PC.
Upgrading to 512KB cache for Gemini II Cards only.
This upgrade is carried out on behalf of Aleph One by First SMT Ltd,
Spirella Building, Bridge Road, LETCHWORTH SG6 4ET Tel: 01462 483 360
Phone First SMT Ltd to find current pricing. Please note this is not a
repair service; your card must work when it arrives there.
Reset Option
------------
The !PC Icon has had a new option added to its Icon Bar menu, from V. 2.00:-
'Reset'. This is the equivalent of pushing the Reset button on a normal PC.
It is equivalent to Quitting !PC and restarting it, except that config file
changes are not re-read, but it saves you having to wait during the memory
allocation/check process that must occur. This can take a long time on
systems with a lot of memory allocated to the PC Card.
Partition management
--------------------
The business of partition management is too complex to be dealt with here. In
general it is possible but quite difficult to modify an existing partition,
and fairly simple to create an additional one; doing that can simplify some
sorts of difficulty with Windows. We hope to develop a useful discussion of
the factors invovled and put it on our Web site. We can handle Email
enquiries about it. While it is not normally possible to reduce or enlarge an
existing partition, there is software called TBAFS which can do so. Its use
is fraught with risks, and it has real benefits. You use it at your own risk.
It is supplied by TBA Software, Mead Farm, North Road, Timsbury, BATH BA3
1JH, Tel 01 761 470 003 Email sales@tbalond.demon.co.uk Web site at
http://www.tba-software.co.uk/
Direct SCSI and ASPI
--------------------
*Direct SCSI
Drives up to 4GB can be accessed with !PC v2.00 or later using Direct SCSI,
without any new RISC OS modules being needed. Direct SCSI is also faster than
a RISCOS partition file. The main disadvantage is that, on older SCSI cards,
you cannot access the drive with DOSFS or Win95FS from the Desktop. Some
manufacturers such as Castle Technology, Alsystems and Cumana, offer
utilities to do this, and there is a freeware utility called DOSMount
included in the 'Misc' folders, but it is not StrongARM compatible.
You will also need to manually install and upgrade the drivers supplied with
PCPro (See manual installation section). Note that there is no need to enter
the shape of the drive. The SCSI ID is normally all that is required. The
drive will automatically be interrogated for its shape. You are limited to
the maximum values for tracks, heads, and sectors and tracks that DOS & SCSI
will allow, normally 4096, 256 & 64 respectively. The tracks value is
determined by what the drive, or you, specify for the other two.
Direct SCSI currently only supports Hard Discs, so you cannot use it to
access other SCSI devices such as scanners, or removable drives; you will
need to use the ASPI drivers for that. (But Castle Technology SCSI cards
allow DirectSCSI and RiscOS partitions on the same drive - see their
instructions for how to use this.)
*ASPI Driver
The ASPI driver is Public Domain software, and is supplied on this disc but
not supported by Aleph One Ltd. It will allow additional SCSI devices
including additional SCSI disc drives to be used, so long as you have 16-bit
(ie DOS/Windows 3.x) ASPI drivers. Installation details can be found in the
Misc.ASPI.UserGuide text file which, after using !PCinstall, will be found in
the directory with !PC.
Changing partition size
To create a new bigger partition
1) Use !PCConfig to create a new partition file of the required size as
drive D, but call it NewDrv_C. If you have a second partition file already,
make sure that the new one you are creating has a different name, otherwise
you will overwrite your existing file.
2) Start up !PC. Your old file is drive C:, the new one drive D:
3) At DOS prompt type SYS D:
4) Quit !PC.
5) Copy all files from old Drive_C to NewDrv_C.
6) Use !PCConfig to set the Root for the PC side as NewDrv_C and not to use
drive D:.
7) Run !PC. You should now have the new bootable partition file as Drive C:
Keyboard problems
-----------------
From version 2.13 of !PC, we have added support for Win95 keyboards, and
Extended Keyboard key scan codes have been improved. Some software can
experience problems with the Extended keys like cursor & insert, home, pageup
and so on. If you find this a problem then it is almost certainly due to the
way the Microsoft/IBM KEYB UK driver identifies the keyboard on startup. We
have been unable to cure this for all cases, and so have supplied an
alternative which may work better and uses less memory. This is called
UKKEYB.COM and is in the C:\DRIVERS\UTILS directory. Change the KEYB UK line
in your AUTOEXEC.BAT to UKKEYB instead.
Obviously this only applies to UK keyboards. If you have MSDOS 6.22 then we
supply a replacement KEYB.COM to deal with this problem. This is in the
C:\DRIVERS/UTILS directory as KEYB622/COM, and should be copied/renamed over
the KEYB.COM in your DOS directory.
If you find that Windows stops responding when left multitasking for extended
periods, press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to get the Task Manager, and then click on
Cancel. This problem will be fixed in the next release of !PC.
Windows 95
----------
* Installation:
You should simply use the default Win95 installation procedure. If you intend
to use Direct serial or Direct parallel support with Windows 95, then you
should enable them before installing Windows 95, otherwise it will not find
the ports when doing its hardware checks. If you forget this you can re-run
'Add new Hardware' in Control Panel after changing the Direct serial &
Parallel settings with !PCConfig, and re-running !PC.
Note you should disable the option for Windows 95 to automatically adjust for
your time zone, as RISCOS will also do this, and thus the PC time will be
changed by 2 hours! On completion it may tell you that your system is
operating in 'DOS compatibility mode'. Win95 thinks that this is a bad thing,
and that it could do better with its own drivers. This is not true - our
drivers get maximum efficiency out of the RISC OS host. You can ignore this
message. It is also found in 'Control Panel', 'System' under the
'Performance' tab. Windows 95 will also mis-identify a Cyrix/IBM 5x86 CPU as
an '80486', as it does not recognise the CPU ID.
* !MkBootDsc (Windows95/98 without DOS)
!MkBootDsc is an application to allow a user to install a CD ROM version of
Windows 95 or 98 without the need to install DOS first. The application
creates a bootable floppy that initiates your CD ROM drive ready for use.
After installing the PC Card software using !PCinstall on the PCPro floppy
you will have a Misc directory and within it you will find the !MkBootDsc
application.
1) Format a HD floppy disc to 1.44 DOS, then leave the floppy in the drive
and double select on !MkBootDsc.
2) Next start !PC, which will now boot from the floppy and end with an A>
prompt.
3) Type in CD ROM drive designation letter (This will be D: or E: depending
on number of partitions) and type SETUP and return.
4) The default installation options can be used throughout for Windows 95 or
98.
5) After Windows has finished installing close down Windows and Quit !PC
from the icon bar and remove the floppy disc
6) Open up Drive_C, use Edit to save two empty files in the root of Drive_C
called AUTOEXEC/BAT and CONFIG/SYS.
7) Close Drive_C window.
8) Run !PCInstall again, you should select 'Install drivers into DOS
partition', and 'Install CDROM support software'.
Select install and drag Drive_C in to window when asked also you should
delete DOS and enter WINDOWS.COMMAND.
9) Take disc from floppy drive and start !PC
10) Once Windows is installed you should install the Aleph One Windows
driver. If you have a 16bit sound system then you can also install the Sound
Blaster Emulation software. Read the relevant sections below.
Finally you can restart !PC and install the Sound and Windows drivers.
Installation details are in the relevant sections.
Notes
*Startup screen mode:
On startup the banner screen uses a 320x400x256 display. Your monitor
definition file may not have this mode defined as it is not a standard RISC
OS. In this case the PC Card will revert to multi-tasking. To prevent this
you must define an appropriate mode. An example mode is included in the Misc
directory.
*DOS Box hangs after RISC OS multitasking:
You may find that if you have a DOS Box running within Windows 95 when you
multitask the PC Card on the RISCOS desktop, then on return to single tasking
Windows 95 will appear to be 'hung' with the mouse moving, but no response.
CTRL-ALT-DEL will 'catch Windows' attention'. If you cancel the Tasks box
that comes up, you can return to normal use. We expect to fix this in the
next release of !PC.
*ARMDRV upgrade:
If you have been using Win95 with versions of ARMDRV before v. 1.99, such
that you have 'stripy icons' then see C:\DRIVERS\WINDOWS\README.TXT for how
to fix it.
*CDROMs
Do not try to use the built-in Windows CDROM driver support, or detection, as
it doesn't understand that your CDROM drive really lives under RISC OS. Use
!PCInstall and CD ROM driver option to make the necessary changes to your
system. Note that the CDROM icon shown in 'my computer' or the Explorer will
not change automatically when you put in a new CD. You need to press 'f5', or
select 'View' > 'Refresh'. For the same reason the AutoRun file will not
automatically execute on inserting a disc - you need to double click on the
CD icon to run it.
*Sound Blaster Emulation:
If you have any sound problems reload sound driver (see relevant sound
section). The SBE/INF file supplied with this version now prevents problems
with the 'device=vsbpd.386' line in SYSTEM.INI being removed but, should the
problem still occur after reloading, then use this workaround: You must
change the name of the VSBPD.386 file so that Windows 95 doesn't know about
it. This requires you to change the reference in SYSTEM.INI, and rename the
file itself.
To do this:
1) Edit the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.INI file.
At the end of the [386Enh] section add the line
device=special.386
2) Rename the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\VSBPD.386 file to C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SPECIAL.386
This should make your sound permanent.
*Direct Serial & Parallel support
Note that if you change the serial or parallel settings with !PCconfig. e.g.
change from 'Use RISCOS print stream for LPT1' to 'Use parallel port
directly', then you need to make Windows 95 aware of the changes by running
'Add new hardware' autodetection in 'Control Panel'. This is because so far
as the PC is concerned you have changed the PC hardware.
*Windows 95 Plus Pack
This is compatible with !PC except for the 'high colour' desktop icons. This
is enabled by default and will mean that all your desktop icons will
disappear. Go into Control panel, Desktop and turn off the 'Use Maximum
Colours for Icons' option, to remove the problem.
Windows driver
--------------
A new ARMDRV 2.16 Display Adaptor fixes a problem with clipping on
RLE-encoded DIBs (device independent bitmaps). This particularly affected
'Perfect Plants' CD, and probably others by Macmillan Interactive Publishing.
Note Various problems remain: Slow 32K colour icon rendering, white -> green
(eg pointer) in 32K multitask, wrong animation background colour in 32K, only
16 backdrop colours restored after DOS box in 256 colour modes, missing
Hebrew text in Win95, VESA2 and DirectX support.
* Windows Driver Installation
You need to complete the installation under Windows.
Windows 3.xx
1) Start Windows go to "Windows" and down to Select "Main" and then Select
"Windows Setup".
2) Select "Options", "change System Settings" and "Display"
3) Scan down list and Select "Other Display (Requires disc from OEM)"
4) Delete A:\ and type C:\DRIVERS\WINDOWS\WIN3
5) Follow any on-screen instructions (You may need disc 2 of your Windows
3.xx set at this point).
6) Close Windows and restart for changes to take effect.
Windows 95/98
(There are several versions of Win95 a,b,c and different Win98 Beta versions
thus not all the buttons are as stated)
1) Go to My Computer and Control Panel.
2) Select "Display" > "Settings" > "Change Display Type"
3) "Change" "Adapter Type" (Do not change monitor type) Select "Have Disk"
4) Delete A:\ and type C:\Drivers\Windows\Win95 and Select "OK".
5) Should find "Aleph One configurable ARM driver" Select "OK".
6) Select "Close" then "Apply" then you will have to restart and select "Yes".
16bit Sound Blaster Support
---------------------------
* RiscOS 16-bit sound hardware
* RiscOS MIDI PC sound support and DOS sound support
* Sound Blaster Installation (For windows 3.xx and Windows 95/98)
* RiscOS 16-bit sound hardware This version is shipped with Sound Blaster
Support. This requires 16-bit sound hardware in your RISC-PC. RPC 700s and
new RPC 600s with Product Codes ACB6x and ACB7x have this built in. Older RPC
600s with Product Codes ACB1x, ACB2x and ACB4x need the Minnie 16-bit sound
card. Once installed you will get Sound Blaster support for all Windows
software.
Note To see if you have 16-bit sound hardware press F12 and type
*Con.status soundsystem
If no error encountered you have 16-bit sound capability. If it reports 8 bit then type
*Con. soundsystem 16bit Oversampled
* RiscOS MIDI PC sound support and DOS sound support
If you have a MIDI interface card or RiscOS MIDI support from ESP called
'MIDI Synthesizer' you will also be able to get MIDI sound from the PC card
in addition to the general WAV files, MPC II (output only), and anything else
which complies with the Microsoft Windows virtual sound interface. Both 8 &
16 bit sound are supported. With Sound Pro from R-Comp you can have MIDI
input and 16 bit sound support for some DOS programs.
ESP (Expressive Software Projects).
Email: sales@exsoftpr.demon.co.uk
Letter: ESP 21 Beech Lane, West Hallam, Ilkeston, Derbyshire, DE7 6GP. Tel:
0115 9295019
R-Comp
Email: rcomp@rcomp.co.uk
Letter: RComp 22 Robert Moffat, High Legh, Knutsford, Cheshire, WA16 6PS.
Tel: 01925 755043 Fax: 01925 757377
* Sound Blaster Installation
You need to complete the installation under Windows.
For Windows 3.xx
1) Start windows Run Filer C:\DRIVERS\SOUND\UPDATE
2) Select "Windows" and down to Select "Main" and then Select "Control
Panel" and "Drivers".
3) "Add" then select "Unlisted or Updated Driver" 4) Delete entry and type
C:\DRIVERS\SOUND\WIN3 5) You need to install the "Acorn SBE16 Auxiliary
Audio" select "OK" 6) Do not restart after this installation 7) Go back
and install the "Acorn SBE16 Auxiliary MIDI" select "OK" 8) "Restart
Windows Now" after both have been installed and are listed.
For Windows 95/98
(There are several versions of Win95 a,b,c and different Win98 Beta versions,
so not all the buttons are as stated)
1) Go to My Computer and Control Panel.
2) Select "Add New Hardware" > "Next" button and the "No" option then "Next".
3) Select from Icon menu "Sound, video and game controllers" Select "Next".
4) Select "Have Disk" Delete A:\ and type C:\Drivers\Sound and Select "OK".
5) Should find "Aleph Sound Blaster Emulation" Select "OK".
6) Select "Finish" then you will have to restart select "Yes".
Note that the Sound Blaster uses interrupt 7, Port 220, Midi Port 330, 8-bit
DMA channel 1 and 16-bit DMA channel 5. Give these values if any software (eg
DOS games) asks for it. Normally software will use the BLASTER environment
variable to find out this information.
For Games you should generally choose 'Sound Blaster compatible', (and
General MIDI if you have MIDI facilities) when asked to specify a sound card.
If these are not options then try all the 'Sound Blaster' options to see
which gives best results. If you get 'clicking' type effects from game sound
then you should use the 'Advanced Configuration' menu on !PCConfig to turn
Level 2 caching to 'write-through' mode. This fixes this problem, at the
expense of some speed.
With Windows 95, you may find that the sound works when initially installed,
but stops working after you have installed other applications and you may
need to reload the sound driver.
Interrupt 7 can also be used by devices which use the parallel port
bidirectionally. If you have one of these, and enable Direct parallel to use
it, then there may be a conflict with the sound drivers. Changing the RiscOS
configuration of the soundsystem to 8bit and Shutdown then Reset would
disable the Sound Blaster until the configuration is returned to 16bit and
system reset again.
CDROM
-----
Use !PCInstall and "Install CD ROM driver support software" option to make
the necessary changes to your system to enable the CDROM drive. The driver
looks at the RiscOS CDROM Configure Drives number which must always show the
number of CD drives available. If the RiscOS CDROM Drives number returns to
0 you will need to contact your CDROM drive supplier.
Note that the CDROM driver has changed from A1CD.SYS to HPC_CD.SYS in version
1.99. Each version will only run on the appropriate version of !PC. If you
try to use the old A1CD.SYS with this version of !PC you will get the error
'Cannot find DOS->RISCOS services, you are running this on a PC Card aren't
you?'. Remove the DEVICE=c:\DOS\A1CD.SYS /D:MSCD000 line from your CONFIG.SYS
file, to get rid of it.
CDROM Audio is now supported. It lets you control Audio CDs from Windows. The
sound is played out of the CDROM analogue output (eg the headphone jack on
the front). This can also be connected to the Risc PC sound system (contact
your CDROM supplier for details). You will need to install the '[MCI] CD
Audio' driver in Drivers, Control Panel, in Windows. This driver is supplied
on your Windows disks.
Note that the Cumana/Acorn internal IDE drive (using the !BootSLCD drivers
under RISCOS - common on the RISC PC 600) has a bug in the driver when used
for CD Audio from the PC Card. Once you press STOP the drive cannot be used
again until it is opened and closed.
Parallel & serial port use
--------------------------
* General
With Windows95 any time you change the way you intend to use the ports using
!PCconfig you will have to run the "Add New Hardware" with auto detect YES
selected. This can be found in the Control Panel Directory.
1. Use !PCconfig to change/select method of port use, Save and Quit.
2. Run !PC and go to My Computer and Control Panel.
3. Double select on Add New Hardware
4. Select NEXT button
5. Leave on YES and Select NEXT button. You may be asked to Reset Windows after this process.
* Parallel port
If you intend printing direct you will need to ensure that you have the
correct updated PC printer driver software for the printer connected. Many
modern printers and their printer driver software have codes passed from the
printer to the computer, such as Paper out etc. Thus you must also ensure
that you have an IEEE 1284 standard printer cable as not all printer cables
are correctly wired and do not allow bidirectional communication between the
printer port and the printer.
Note With parallel port set to direct you are able to connect other devices
that need a bi-directional printer port. Some devices need to know the port
address which is 378h and the its IRQ which is 7. Note that the sound Blaster
emulation also uses IRQ7, so you may need to set RISCOS soundsystem to 8 bit,
which stops the modules being loaded, which then stops the Windows sound
driver loading for the session. As long as any driver for a devices are
suitable for DOS or Windows 3.XX they should work without fault. For more
current information on devices using the printer port visit the Aleph One Web
site.
* Serial port
If Direct serial is enabled then the PC Card takes over the serial port.
Obviously it is impossible for both !PC & RISCOS applications to use the
serial port at the same time. However, the Serial port status is saved and
restored when the PC Card is frozen/unfrozen. This means that RISC OS
software should be able to use the serial port whilst the card is frozen.
The serial port is presented to !PC as an unbuffered (8250-type) port. The
actual RISCOS hardware is a buffered (16550-type), so high-speed data
transfers up to 115 200bps are possible. The port type reported to the
PC-side does not affect the actual performance. The software transfer from
the PC virtual port to the RISC PC actual port does impose an overhead,
especially on interrupts. In practice we find that modems up to 28.8K work
well, but voice modems do not work properly with this version of !PC (The
sound playback is slow & chopped) If you do not have Direct serial turned on
then Windows 3.X will give an error 'Unable to initialise ports' when you
enter some sections of Control panel. This is normal, and will not cause
problems.
Note that some versions of the ANT Internet Suite have to be quit to release
the serial port from its control to allow the PC card to use the serial port
correctly.
Problems with TurboDrivers
--------------------------
The PC Card printer mechanisms interact with Computer Concepts Turbodrivers
in ways that can cause problems.
1. If you have a TurboDriver cable and use Direct parallel to print with,
then everything will be completely garbled by the cable, as the data does not
get appropriately pre-scrambled by the TurboDriver modules (Direct parallel
bypasses them). You must either change the cable for PC printing (eg with a
data switch) or not use Direct parallel and TurboDrivers.
2. If you use the RISCOSPrinter redirection, then everything works but can
go very slowly, because !PC prints a byte at a time, and this causes the
Turbodrivers to work very inefficiently.
Versions 4.04 or later of the TurboDrivers include optimisations designed to
increase the efficiency of the data transfer. Contact Computer Concepts for
upgrade details.
The best way to print is to set the PC driver to print to FILE: (set the file
to C:\PRINTOUT) and once it has finished, return to the desktop, freeze the
PC and run the BASIC program 'PrintPC' (found in the Misc directory). This
will copy the 'Printout' file to the RiscOS printer stream. You should have
a TurboDriver selected. Alternatively, if this is too complex, the
throughput can be increased by pausing the TurboDriver queue until all the
data has been transferred (Alt-select on the TurboDriver icon followed by
Adjust on the 'Queue...' button then hit the 'Pause queue' button).
Utilities supplied
------------------
QUIT.COM - This program will exit from the PC Card and get you back to RISC
OS if you type QUIT at the DOS prompt. If you use this to quit the PC Card
whilst the mouse is connected, then you will not get your mouse back! Fix due
very soon.
SYNCTIME.EXE will synchronise the time on the PC with RISCOS. This is useful
as the PC Card loses time when frozen, and can lose time during other I/O
operations - e.g. lots of floppy access slows the PC clock.
VBETEST.EXE reports the available VESA video modes There is now also a Misc
directory of useful third party utilities. These are not supported by Aleph
One but may be useful. See the readme in that directory for details. Some of
the utilities contain DOS files. These will be found in the
C:\DRIVERS\3RDPARTY directory. They are put in here to preserve the full DOS
filenames, which would be truncated under RISC OS.
PC Card control
!PC can now be stopped or made to go multitasking from DOS program control - the calls are
Int 15h with AX = BA00h: go into multitasking mode
Int 15h with AX = BA01h: quit !PC (may not have immediate effect!)
both return AX = 00BAh, carry clear for success.
This latter is now in a DOS file QUIT.COM in the C:\DRIVERS\UTILS directory.
Copy this file to your root directory on Drive C if you want to use it. It is
very useful for getting out of !PC if your mouse is not working. Do not use
this if the mouse is currently 'connected' to !PC, as you will not get it
back on exit! Click the middle button first.
PC Software Guide
-----------------
* General
We are unable to test all the hundreds of PC programs and upgrades that get
published every week but are able to give some guide lines. Seek software
that states that it will function with Windows 3.XX and Windows 95, and not
just Windows 95 or above. This is especially true for CD ROM based software
because many new CD's use a Microsoft extension to the ISO9660 standard
called Joliet. The PC Card's CDROM driver doesn't care about this, but
because it is a 16-bit driver, Windows 95 assumes that 'somthing might go
wrong' and won't give it access to the long filenames on the CD. The result
is that filenames are truncated or installers may fail.
You may be able to work around this by copying the offending files (or the
whole install section) to your Hard Drive and installing from there, or using
the latest version of ARMEdit. A new driver will be released in 1998.
At Argonet there are some pages which relate to PC software running on the PC
card including GAMES. Worth a look; after all not all PC software work on
all PC's so you would not expect any difference for your PC card.
PC Card Information Pages: http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/dgs/pccard.html
* Games
Games are the main culprits for compatibility problems for the PC card, as
they use all sorts of bizarre and interesting program-mers' tricks to get the
desired effects with maximum speed. !PC is now sufficiently mature that most
things will work, but you may still experience problems. Here are some
pointers. The VESA standard (v1.2) for video modes beyond the VGA limit of
640x480x16 is now supported, which will enable many more things to run. If
you have difficulties try and find out what mode it is trying to use. Then
check with the VBEtest utility (in Driv-ers\Utils) to see if that mode is
available. Note VESA 2 is not supported yet, but should be available during
1998 and DirectX is not yet supported but will be some time after VESA2.
* Joysticks
Joystick support has been added to BIOS
Known Limitations
-----------------
* !PC's maximum memory limit 32Mb
* !PC only runs DOS & Windows up to 98 Beta versions. No other
operating systems are yet supported. OS/2, Xenix, Windows NT, etc
will not work. Some unsupported Linux drivers for v1.72 of
!PC/!PC486 are available from
ftp://ftp.ph.kcl.ac.uk/pub/acorn/Linux/v040/
* Applications (usually games) which program up unusual modes via the
video controller can only be supported if such a mode is supplied by
RISCOS. You can add modes to your Monitor definition file to allow such
applications to multi-task. Where a mode does not exist, !PC will revert to
multitasking and show the display in a window.
* The floppy driver obviously does not have a real PC hardware
controller and thus must be accessed via the BIOS. Software that does not do
this will not work. Known offenders are (a) copy-protection schemes
involving non-standard floppy formatting, and (b) backup software (MSbackup,
Norton Backup, PCTools, Backup, Fastback). We recommend the use of PKZIP v2
instead for backing up.
* CMOS settings are constructed on boot, not saved in real CMOS, so
applications which save their status in this area will forget each time you
Quit !PC.
* The DPMI extended memory access system used by Novell DOS 7 stops the
PC Card from resetting when CTRL-ALT-DEL is used. You must live with this, or
stop using DPMI until this is fixed
* The Sound Blaster emulation is designed for use with Windows
software. DOS software, such as games, which use the sound card in
non-standard ways, may give poor quality sound or make no sound at all.
* Whilst most movies now work well Quicktime movies still suffer from
stuttery sound. We are working on this problem.
* Direct-X, the library for games under Windows 95, is not yet supported by
the Windows driver.
* Windows 95 animated pointers will not work on the PC card, as they only
operate in the presence of 32-bit disk drivers. These would be very slow with
the PC Card and thus are not supported.
* Devices which make synchronous use of the Asynchronous serial port
may not work with the PC Card. Known examples of this are the 'Video
Director' video control cable, satellite weather receivers and PIC
programmers.
Upgrading from previous versions of !PC
---------------------------------------
The distribution format has changed since version 1.995 of !PC. The RISCOS &
DOS-side software are supplied in separate datafiles (in ZIPFILE format)
called 'Software' & 'Drivers' respectively. These are normally unpacked and
installed by the !PCInstall application.
If you have problems with this then you can use the manual unpacking methods
detailed in the Unpackers directory.
It is wise to save a copy of your old !PC/!PCx86/!PC486 in case you have
difficulties with the upgrade. You should make sure that this is not seen by
the filer, as !PCConfig will then not know which copy to save changes in.
Config files & !PCConfig
Although !PCInstall makes changes to your system, it is basically responsible
for copying the software and drivers supplied into the specified RISC OS
drive and DOS partition respectively. !PCConfig is still used for all
configuration of !PC.
Note that the most reliable way to make the new !PC recognise your existing
DOS partitions is to drag them into the relevant text boxes in !PCConfig.
This eliminates typing errors.
New !PCConfig
From version 1.89l there is a new-style !PCConfig. Options are now arranged
in the same way as the RISC OS !Configure utility. More obscure options are
in the 'Advanced Configuration' section, accessed from the Icon bar menu. A
few salient points:
1) The screen section suggests an amount of video RAM to use which is 25%
more than the minimum needed to use the mode. This is because this will
increase the speed of Windows blitting. It will not let you select a value
lower than the minimum needed. See the file C:\DRIVERS\WINDOWS\README.TXT for
details of optimum VideoRAM settings.
2) You still need to take care to Reset, after copying a new version off the
floppy and before running !PCConfig.
3) This version needs a set of Toolbox modules. These are included in the
!Boot directory of the release floppy and are copie d into your
!Boot.Resources.!System.modules directory.
Config options
The A20gate option stressed in v1.73l-v1.85l is now automatic - remove it
from your config file. Coprocessor detection is now automatic - remove the
coprocessor option from your config file.
The cache configuration options are now automatic - Check your config file.
The 'cache config' option has been superseded by 'L1cache', 'L2cache' &
'ASICoptions'. The last of these if only for diagnostic use and so will not
appear in your setup. L2 cache size can be set with 'L2size' this would be
128 or 512.
The amount of PCRAM is now configured in MB rather than KB. Check your Config
file. 'VGAEnabled', 'UseLoResText' & 'InitInMono' have all been discontinued.
Remove them from your config file.
CDROM driver
This changed from A1CD.SYS to HPC_CD.SYS at version 1.993 of !PC. The new
driver must be used with this new software. !PCinstall should make changes
for you, otherwise see C:\DRIVERS\CDROM\README.
Module versions Recent releases have had a number of changes in the support
modules. This means that you need to be very careful about which modules are
loaded. The 386PCsupport module has been renamed to PCsupport. If you ever
manage to get both loaded then weird stuff will happen. !PCv2.00 onwards
makes sure that the old module is not also loaded, but if you go back and
then run an old version it will try to load the old module too, with
unpredictable results.
Thus if you are trying things with both old & new software you must always do
a <ctrl-reset> when going back to earlier versions.
Windows Drivers:
The windows driver now support 4,8,16,& 32 bits per pixel, and palette
control in 256 colour modes. The extra mode strings that are permitted are
detailed in the C:\DRIVERS\WINDOWS\README.TXT file.
If Windows 3.X starts up, and then after the banner, flashes a message on the
screen before returning to DOS, then you are using a version of ARMDRV that
is too early or late for the version of !PC you are running. Re-install
ARMDRV as detailed in the C:\DRIVERS\WINDOWS\README file, or use !PCInstall
to 'Update existing Windows driver'.
From v1.99, ARMDRV is compatible with Windows95. See the Win95 section for
details of the update process.
V2.03 fixes a problem where bits of windows furniture do not appear, or
appear incorrectly rendered or positioned. This occurred mostly with
StrongARM, but also sometimes with 710s. The current version of ARMDRV.DRV is
2.16.
Network Drivers
If you use these then you will need to have version 07 or later to run with
PCPro (ie !PC1.80 or later), as the SWI numbers have changed from earlier
versions. Return your Network driver disc to Aleph One, specifying the
version of !PC that you want to use them with. This exchange is free.
Support for DCI4 networking has now been added and DCI2 will be developed no
further. The move needs to be complete and changing from DCI2 to DCI4 may
imply changes/updates for other networking software you use. For the time
being you have the choice of which setup to use. See the Network Links
Net_Readme file for more details.
To use DCI4 drivers then you will need Network Links v11 or later. We
recommend using Network Links v14 with PCPro as the install setups match.
The easiest way to keep your network functionality when upgrading to PCPro
FRPM !PC BEFORE V.2.00 is to extract the network initialisation lines from
the !PC !Run file of your old !PC version. Put these lines into the !NetRun
file in the new !PC version, replacing the default lines supplied. Also
uncomment the 'Run !NetRun' line in the new !Run file. You will also need to
copy across any modules used for networking from your old !PC to your new
!PC. (typically PCNE2, and sometimes MbufManager & an Ethernet driver such as
EtherB). Thus exactly the same software and initialization as you used
previously will work, it is simply that it is started by the !NetRun file
instead of in the middle of the !Run file. This should make future upgrades
simpler.
DOS filetype mapping
--------------------
Included in the !Boot structure is a file of DOSMap commands. This allows DOS
partitions viewed with DOSFS to have their extensions mapped to RISC OS
filetypes and thus appear with the appropriate icons. Eg BAT, TXT, & C files
are mapped to Text. There is also a set of commented-out Aliases for starting
applications. You need to change the paths of these to suit your personal
setup if you want to use them. *DOSMap will give you a list of the current
mappings. Here are some examples and details of useful ones:
DOSMap TXT FFF Plain text files can be exported from almost all word
processors and loaded into even the simplest text editors, such as RISC OS
Edit
DOSMap RTF C32 Microsoft Rich Text Format files can be exported from many
Windows word processors and loaded into RISC OS word processors, such as
Fireworkz, unaided, or Impression Style & Publisher when using the CC RTF
Loaders.
DOSMap CSV DFE CSV Files can be exported by most spreadsheets and databases,
such as Fireworkz (and presumably Resultz & Recordz)
DOSMap WKS DB0 Lotus 123 WKS files will load into most RISC OS spreadsheets.
Those which read them directly, like FireWorkz, (and presumably Resultz) are
more convenient than those which use a separate converter, like Pipedream3.
DOSMap WK1 DB0 The above applies to this later type of Lotus 123 file
DOSMap XLS BA6 Microsoft Excel files will load into RISC OS spreadsheets
such as Eureka3 and Fireworkz
DOSMap FWK BDF Fireworkz letter, sheet and database documents may be saved
from FireWorkz for Windows, and loaded directly i nto FireWorkz for RISC OS
DOSMap FWT C1D FireWorkz templates may be saved from FireWorkz for Windows,
and loaded directly into FireWorkz for RISC OS
DOSMap DXF DEA The simpler 2D AutoDesk DXF files will load into RISC OS
Draw. More complex 3D DXF files can be imported into Oak WorraCAD via their
DXF Translator
DOSMap AFF AFF Acorn Drawfiles (NOT containing sprite bitmaps) can be
imported into, and exported from, OakDraw for Windows, and will load into
Acorn Draw for RISC OS
DOSMap FF9 FF9 Acorn sprites can be imported into OakDraw for Windows, but
the only bitmap format it can export is Windows BMP DOSMap TIF FF0 TIFF
files can be loaded by Photodesk unaided, or via ImageFS into other bitmap
editors, such as Paint. They may also be dropped into frames in Impression
Style and Publisher, even without using the CC Graphics Loaders
DOSMap SEP FF0 The above should apply to TIFF separation files (not tested)
DOSMap CMY FF0 The above should apply to TIFF CMY files (not tested)
DOSMap JPG C85 JPEG files can be loaded by PhotoDesk unaided, or dropped
into frames in Impression Style and Publisher, when using the CC Graphics
Loaders
DOSMap PCD BE8 PhotoCD files can be loaded by PhotoDesk unaided, or dropped
into frames in Impression Style and Publisher, when using the CC Graphics
Loaders
DOSMap WAV FB1 Microsoft Wave sound files can be loaded into, played back
in, and exported from AudioWorks (and probably other sound sample editors)
With the help of ImageFS from Alternative Publishing Ltd (Tel 0141 248 2322)
the following graphics formats can be downloaded by most RISC OS bitmap
editors such as Paint & PhotoDesk:
DOSMap BMP 69C Windows Bitmap files
DOSMap DIB 69C Device Independent Bitmap, a variant of the above
DOSMap GIF 695 Graphics Image Format Files
DOSMap PBM 69E Portable Bitmap Plus files
DOSMap PPM 69E A variant of the above (not tested)
DOSMap PGM 69E A variant of the above (not tested)
DOSMap PWM 69E A variant of the above (not tested)
DOSMap TGA 69D Targa files
With the help of MovieFS, from Warm Silence Software (Tel 0585 487642), the
following movie formats can be loaded and run by Acorn Replay (ARPlayer and
ARMovie). One exception at present is the Indeo variant of Video for Windows,
which is used in the Microsoft Encarta CD-ROM.
DOSMap AVI FB2 Microsoft Video for Windows files, using almost all known
codecs
DOSMap MOV FB2 Apple Quicktime for Windows files, using all known codecs
DOSMap FLI B9F AutoDesk Animator for DOS files
DOSMap FLC B9F AutoDesk Animator for Windows files
DOSMap MPG BF8 Motion Picture Expert Group files, as used in video CDs
The above list is by courtesy of Gordon Taylor
User Guide Updates
------------------
Some sections of your manual have been superseded by this software. Here are
some notes.
If you currently have Aleph One Issue 6 User Guide: Chapter 3 is replaced by
the 'Installation' section above. Section 5.6 'Transferring supplied
drivers' is also replaced by 'Installation', above. Section 5.7 Changing
partition size page 36 step a new step 2b should be added to read "At DOS
prompt type SYS D: step 6 is not required. Section 5.8 'Using Microsoft
Windows': Custom installation is no longer required for Windows 3.X
Appendix A 'Advanced Configuration Options'.
Some of these are no longer supported, and there are new ones. See 'Config
Options' above for details.
If you currently have Acorn PC x86 User Guide
'Basic Software Installation' p7-p8
is replaced by the 'Installation' section above.
'Using Microsoft Windows' p37
Custom installation is no longer needed for Windows 3.X
'Installing extra drivers' p39-p43
is replaced by the 'Installation' section, and the ReadMe‘s in
C:\DRIVERS\WINDOWS, C:\DRIVERS\SOUND, & C:\DRIVERS\CDROM
'Error Messages from A1CD.SYS' p52-p53
these now come from HPC_CD.SYS. The 'cannot find BIOS services' error has
changed to 'cannot find DOS->RISCOS services', and indicates that the wrong
version of !PC is being used for the CDROM driver.
'Where to go for Support' p54
Superseded by the 'Technical Support' section of this ReadMe, page 1.
If you currently have Acorn PC 486 User Guide
'Installing the software' p4-p6:
is replaced by the 'Installation' section above.
'Setting up a DOS partition' p6-p11:
The format of !PCConfig application is different, but the options
correspond. Note that the PC memory size is now specified in MB instead of
KB. Also the example Screen Mode string is wrong. You now select resolution
and colour depth from menus. Note that for 256 colour modes you should make
sure that the palette option is ticked otherwise some software may not work.
'Using the Windows 3.1 Screen Driver' p22:
Superseded by the C:\DRIVERS\WINDOWS\WIN31\README
'CD-ROM Drivers for PC systems' p23:
Superseded by C:\DRIVERS\CDROM\README
'Error Messages from A1CD.SYS' p30:
these now come from HPC_CD.SYS. The 'cannot find BIOS services' error has
changed to 'cannot find DOS->RISCOS services', and indicates that the wrong
version of !PC is being used for the CDROM driver.
'Where to go for Support' p31:
Superseded by the 'Technical Support' section of this ReadMe, page 1.
Download Driver Pack
After your driver has been downloaded, follow these simple steps to install it.
Expand the archive file (if the download file is in zip or rar format).
If the expanded file has an .exe extension, double click it and follow the installation instructions.
Otherwise, open Device Manager by right-clicking the Start menu and selecting Device Manager.
Find the device and model you want to update in the device list.
Double-click on it to open the Properties dialog box.
From the Properties dialog box, select the Driver tab.
Click the Update Driver button, then follow the instructions.
Very important: You must reboot your system to ensure that any driver updates have taken effect.
For more help, visit our Driver Support section for step-by-step videos on how to install drivers for every file type.