ReadMe.txt Driver File Contents (203to213p.zip)

Aleph One Windows Driver Release Notes
--------------------------------------

Files supplied for the Windows driver:

Oemsetup.inf    Information needed by Windows 3.X Setup
Win95Vid.inf    Information needed by Windows 95 'Display'
ARMDRV.DRV      The Windows Driver

These are now supplied in two directories 'Win3' and 'Win95'. You must select
the correct one when doing the installation under Windows.

These files will be copied into your DOS partition by the !PCInstall
application in C:\WINDOWS\DRIVERS\


The Windows Drivers
-------------------
The enhanced Windows Driver provides a substantial increase in speed for many
common Microsoft Windows (3.0, 3.1, 3.11 & 95) drawing functions, by using
the Archimedes as a Graphics Co-processor. This driver supports 16, 256, 32
thousand and 16 million colours in any resolution that your system can
display. It replaces the standard VGA driver VGA.DRV. It also gives full
palette support, so everything will have the correct colours, if a palette
mode is used.

The Driver supplied is:
 ARMDRV.DRV:  (v2.16 1996.10.16) 
 To use this driver, you will need !PC version 2.03 or later.

This driver is compatible with StrongARM.

The drivers should be installed using Setup in Windows 3.X, or Control Panel,
Display in Windows 95. See below for details. Manual installation is also
possible for Windows 3.X.

After installing the driver you need to use !PCconfig to specify the RISCOS
mode that the driver will use.

Installation for Windows 95 
---------------------------
This driver now supports Windows 95, apart from the DirectX library, which we
are working on currently.

 * Already have ARMDRV installed in Win95: *

!PCInstall will update your files automatically with the 'Update existing
Windows driver' option. You need do nothing more.

This is an explanation should you need to do it manually:
If you have already installed the Windows driver into Win95 then you can just
copy the new ARMDRV.DRV into the Windows/system directory. If you experienced
'stripy' or miscoloured icons (due to incompatibilities in earlier versions
of the driver) then you need to reset the Icon DIBs, as well as installing
the new driver, to remove the problem.

The 'stripy icon' problem will happen if you have run Win95 in a 256p mode
with a driver older than than v1.99 (which was first supplied with !PC
v1.993). The easiest fix is to delete the file C:\WINDOWS\SHELLI~1 (called
ShellIconCache if using Win95FS). This is a hidden system file so it is
easiest to remove it via RISCOS. Make sure !PC is not running, access your
WINDOWS directory via the RISCOS desktop, and delete this file. From
henceforth Windows 95 should look right. If this is not possible, you need
to: Quit !PC, Run !PCConfig, and change your video mode to a 16 colour mode,
Save settings, Start Windows 95, Close it down, Quit !PC, Change your video
mode back to 256p, Save Settings, Restart !PC. Windows 95 icons will now stay
correct.


 * Fresh installation of ARMDRV: * 

If you are installing this driver under Windows95 for the first time then you
should proceed thus:

1) Ensure that !PCInstall has copied the driver files from your !PC software
disk to the DOS partition, as detailed in the 'Installation' section of the
Readme file.

2) Run !PC and start up Win95. You are now going to actually install the
driver.

3) Click Start and go to Settings, Control Panel. Click on that to run it.
Then double click on 'Display' in the control panel. 

4) In the Display properties dialog click the Settings tab, then the 'Change
Display Type' Button. In the Change Display Type dialog click the 'Change'
button after Adaptor type.

5) In the Select Device Dialog click the 'Have Disk' button to get the Install
from Disk Dialog. Here you can either type in C:\DRIVERS\WINDOWS\WIN95 or use
the Browse button to find that directory. Then press return or Click OK to
confirm.

6) This should give you another Select Device dialog containing the single
option 'Configurable ARM driver (4,8,16,32 bpp)'. Click OK and it will copy
the driver files, thus installing the new driver.


Installation for Windows 3.x
----------------------------
Note that if you have already installed the Windows Drivers, then !PCInstall
should have updated your driver automatically, and you need do nothing
further. If not you need to install them either when installing Windows, or
afterwards, using Setup; see the relevant section below.

The OEMSETUP/INF file supplied with this version has to assume a particular
version of windows when prompting for floppies. This version assumes version
3.11 (of both Windows and Windows for Workgroups). If you have a different
version (3.1, or 3.0), or even a version supplied by a manufacturer other
than Microsoft, then some of the files required may be on different floppies. 
Insert the disk containing the requested file, rather then the prompted disk
if this is the case. Setup will then proceed.

Using Setup when installing Windows 3.X
---------------------------------------

1. !PCInstall should have copied the ARMDRV.DRV & OEMSETUP.INF files to your
   DOS partition in the DRIVERS\WINDOWS\WIN3 directory as detailed in the
   'Installation' section in the main Readme file - henceforth referred to as
   the 'Aleph One Windows Driver directory'

2. Start to install Windows as described in the PC Card Manual, using the
   'Custom Installation' option. 

3. When you get to the screeen that displays your settings, do not choose the
   'VGA (version 3.0)' display option as described in the Manual, but go to
   the bottom of the list and select the 'Other display (Requires disk from
   OEM)...' option, at the bottom of the list.

4. Enter the path of the Aleph One Windows Driver directory,
   C:\DRIVERS\WINDOWS\WIN3'

5. Select the driver 'Configurable ARM driver v2.16 (4,8,16,32 bpp)'.
 
6. Continue with the installation, supplying disks as prompted.
   Note that when asked for original Windows disks you will have to change
   the drive back to A:\, and then (because Windows Setup is not terribly
   clever, and has forgotten what you just told it) when it asks for the
   'Aleph One Windows Driver Disk' tell it to look in C:\DRIVERS\WINDOWS\WIN3
 


Using Setup after Windows 3.X is installed
------------------------------------------
You can change the display driver at any time by running Windows Setup either
from DOS (with your Windows directory as the current directory) or from
within Windows. You will also need to do this if you receive updated versions
of the Windows Drivers.

Select the 'Change System Settings...' menu item from the 'Options' menu, and
then proceed from step 3 above (Not forgetting step 1 first).

You will have to restart windows for the changes to take effect.

Note that if you already have the driver installed then the 'Update existing
Windows driver' in !PCInstall is the easiest way to get your driver updated.
 
Manual installation:
--------------------
To install the driver, first copy the driver file (ARMDRV.DRV) into your PC's
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory. Next, load the file SYSTEM.INI (in your PC's
\WINDOWS directory) into a text editor or SYSEDIT. Find the line in the
[boot] section which reads

   display.drv=vga.drv

and replace it with the line

   display.drv=armdrv.drv             

Don't worry if your SYSTEM.INI file has something other than 'vga.drv' after
the '=' sign. The new driver will be used the next time you start Windows. 

To change the description as well as the driver (not necessary, but
recommended) you also need to change the display.drv line in the
[boot.description] section of the SYSTEM.INI file to:

   display.drv=Configurable ARM Driver v2.16 (4,8,16,32 bpp)


!PCconfig options:
-----------------
You need to specify the mode for the Windows Driver to use. This can be
either a decimal RISCOS mode number, or a RISC-PC style mode specifier of the
form x640y480c16 - Note that spaces aren't currently allowed, and neither are
the optional eigen and refresh values. Here are the
strings used to represent the different colour depths:

BitsPerPixel Palette   Colours    String
4            Fixed      16          c16
8            Fixed      256         c256
8          Definable    256         c256p
16           Fixed  32 thousand     c32K
32           Fixed  16 million      c16M

eg x640y480c16M for a 640x480 display in 16 million colours

Then you must allocate enough RAM for this mode. To find out how much memory
a mode uses change to it on the desktop and use the Task Manager to display
the 'Screen Memory' value. Note that we recommend allocating an extra 10-60%
if you can spare the RAM as this will improve performance. This memory is
used for blitting when Windows puts up a dialogue box or menu. If there is
enough memory to keep the whole of the display area under the box/menu then
update will be much quicker than if it has to go back into PC card memory.
It is sensible to allocate more extra for small modes (eg 60% for 640x480),
and less for big modes (eg 10% for 1280x1024), because a given dialogue
covers less screen area in a bigger mode.

Note that values below 256K are not valid, as at least this much must always
be allocated.

Some example modes:
Modes  Colours    Memory needed    Memory recommended
12	16		80K		105K (256K)
15	256		160K		210K (256K)
27	16		150K		200K (256K)
28	256		300K		400K
31	16		235K		300K
39	16		154K		200K
40	256		308K		400K

These options appear like this in the !PC.Config text file:

 WinDrvMode <mode string> 

 VideoRAM   nn 
Download Driver Pack

How To Update Drivers Manually

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.

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