INTRODUCTION
The ALi M3307 is an advanced single chip for MPEG I Video Decompression.
M3307 is a PCI master device. And its software has a real time decoding
MPEG I Audio Layer I/II at sample rates 32K, 44.1K and 48KHz with mono,
stereo and separate channel modes. The software/hardware will do the
Audio/Video synchronization.
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The software will need the Video chip to do the playback function under
Windows environment. Before you install M3307, configure your Windows 3.1
video display driver with correct DCI driver or Windows 95 with correct
DirectDraw driver.
Before you install the ALi MPEG driver, please make sure that you have at
least 3M harddisk capacity to contain all the driver and application.
Windows 3.x Installation Guide:
Insert the driver diskette at appropriate drive.
Run the install utility : (Three ways)
a. At DOS prompt, type "win <drive/path>install"
b. At Windows' Program Manager, choose Run command,
then type "<drive/path>install"
c. At Windows' File Manager, choose the correct drive, double click
on file "install.exe"
Windows 95 Installation Guide:
(Never install Acer Labs. M3307 MPEG Accelerator in Windows 95 system)
Installation procedure:
1. When Windows 95 prompts "New Hardware Found" dialog box, please
insert the driver diskette at proper drive.
For example, insert the driver diskette at drive A:.
2. Select "Driver from disk provided by hardware manufacture" item,
and press "OK" button.
3. When the "Install From Disk" dialog box appears, please select the
drive/directory that the M3307.inf located. For example, select the
"A:\".
4. Now press "OK" button.
5. After press "OK" button, Windows 95 will do the installation for the
ALi MPEG Accelerator driver.
6. If there is any "Version Conflict" dialog box appears, please press
"No" button to let Windows 95 not keep the old version file.
7. When the "System Settings Change" dialog box appears, please press
"YES" button to restart your computer.
If you skip the driver installation when Windows 95 prompts "New Hardware
Found", or something wrong during the installation, you can run
install.exe to re-install driver. Please refer the Upgrade the driver in
Windows 95.
Windows 95 Upgrading Guide:
(Upgrade the driver in Windows 95)
If you have installed one copy of m3307 device driver which version
is version 1.04c/1.04d or later in your Windows, please following the
upgrading procedure listed below.
Run the install utility : (Three ways)
a. At DOS prompt, type "<drive/path>install"
b. At Start menu, click Run and type the "<drive/path>install"
c. At My Computer group, choose the proper drive, and click
on file "install" icon.
When the "Restart Windows?" dialog box appears, please press
"Restart now" button to restart Windows. After the restart, you will
go back to the installation procedure which described in "Windows 95
installation Guide".
After you restart Windows, there will appear a configure menu. And a group
called "ALi MPEG Driver" will appear and icons named "ALi Diagnostic",
"ALi MCI Media Player" will appear as well.
Executing "ALi Diagnostic" will execute a simple M3307 chip testing.
It will display the M3307 IRQ, Command Register Memory Map address and
I/O mapping port. And tell user the M3307 ROM, SRAM, DRAM testing result.
"ALi MCI Media Player" is the application which is using MCI
interface. This AP can demonstrate not only the common functions as
the most MPEG software supported, but also advanced functions of M3307 chip.
You are now ready to use this application to enjoy your Multimedia time.
***** NOTE: *****
After complete the installation, you must restart your Windows system.
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Product names used in this file are for identification purposes only and
may be trademarks of their respective companies.
No part of this file maybe copied or reproduced without written consent
from Acer Laboratories Inc.
Acer Laboratories Inc. makes no warranty for the use of its products and
assumes no responsibility for any errors which may appear in this file nor
does it make a commitment to update the information contained herein.
Acer Laboratories Inc. retains the right to make changes to these speci-
fications at any time, without notice.
Contact your local sales office to obtain the latest specifications before
placing your order.
ALi is a registered trademark of Acer Incorporated and may only be used to
identify Acer products.
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TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDE:
Q: Why I cannot upgrade my driver?
(For User's Windows 95 already installed driver version 1.04b or older)
A:
If you have installed one copy of m3307 device driver which version
is older than version 1.04b in your Windows, please following the
installation procedure listed below.
Installation procedure: (6 steps)
1. Please remove the following line in <drive/windows 95 dir>system.ini
to keep the ALi MPEG driver working correctly.
device=m3307vxd.386
2. Remove Acer Lab M3307 device
a. Executes "System" in "Control Panel" and "System properties" dialog
box would be prompted.
b. Click "Device manager" in the dialog box, you will see the
"Other device" and please double click it.
c. "PCI multimedia video device" would be prompted.
d. select this item and click the "Remove" button to remove it.
3. Restart Windows.
4. Insert the driver diskette at appropriate drive.
5. Select "the device driver diskette provided by manufacturer" item
as Windows 95 promote new hardware found dialog box.
6. After all files are copied, please restart your Windows system.
Q: Why is there an ERROR message which shows "No DCI driver found...." (in
Windows 3.x) or "No Direct Draw driver found......" (in
Windows 95) when starting to play MPEG media?
A:
The ALi M3307 driver needs the Video chip driver to do the playback
function. The Video and Audio quality will be bad without these drivers.
When you encounter this situation, maybe one of the following cases:
* Your VGA card does not support Video playback function.
* Your VGA playback driver (DCI or Direct Draw) cannot work under your
selected resolution/color/monitor refresh rate. Please check your
VGA related document about which combination the playback driver
can /cannot work.
* Your VGA playback driver is occupied by other programs. Such as other
AVI file is playing.
Note: In Windows 3.x, we name the playback driver - DCI driver.
In Windows 95 , we name the playback driver - Direct Draw driver.
Q: Why does the MPEG Video Frame Rate suddenly slows down and not smooth
after playing?
A:
The ALi M3307 driver needs the Video chip driver to do the playback
function. The playback driver fails to work in some cases. Such as
Video playing window is overlapped by other window or the Video playing
window size is scaled down. These situation is dependent on different
VGA chips. Please check your VGA related document about which condition
the playback driver can/cannot work.
So, when the playback driver reports that it encounters the case which it
cannot work properly, the M3307 driver will skip the Video frame and keep
the Audio feel comfortable to user.
You can open the MCI driver's configuration box and check the display
item. The display item will show DCI or Direct Draw when the DCI or
Direct Draw driver is activated. Otherwise, it will show GDI.
Q: Why is the MPEG Video Quality not good in the full-screen size in some
VGA cards?
A:
The M3307 driver only outputs the same size as original MPEG data video
size. The full-screen is stretch from original size to full-screen size.
This stretch function is done by Video playback driver. Please check
your VGA chip capability/quality for the video stretch function.
By the way, the Video quality of the video size which is smaller than
the original MPEG data video size depends on VGA chip also.
Q: Why is the Audio Quality not smooth ?
A:
The M3307 is a Video decoder and the Audio decoding is a software decoder.
This software decoder performance will depend on CPU computing power. The
Audio quality also depends on Sound Card chip.
If you encounter the audio is discontinuous, please select an acceptable
(decrease the computing power consumed percentage) Audio decoder sampling
rate.
Note:
* The computing power consumed percentage is
44K > 22K > 11K
Stereo > Mono > Left/Right
Best > Normal
* If your Sound Card only has 8-bit DMA capability (such as OPTI 930),
we suggest you select 22K/Stereo in configuration box.
* If your CPU is 486, we suggest you select 22K/Stereo in configuration
box. If even 22K/Stereo is not acceptable in your machine, please try
11K/Stereo or 11K/Mono.
* If your audio selection is out of order, please press "Default" button.
After pressing this button, the default audio quality selection will
restore the optimal combination with your card or system maker.
Q: Why the CD-I cannot be played under Windows 95?
A:
The Windows 95 cannot support read the CD-I data. So, the M3307 driver
cannot play CD-I title.
But the Windows 3.x will work fine with CD-I title.
Q: When I use the Media Player, only "ALi MPEG Driver" appears in Device
menu. Why I cannot see the "ALi VCD/CDI Driver" in Device menu under
Windows 95?
A:
If there is no VCD title in CD drive and you open the Media Player, this
situation will happen. This is the limitation of Windows 95 Media Player.
It will not happen under Windows 3.x.
Q: How to uninstall ALiMPEG driver under Windows 95?
A:
Please execute the Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel dialog box to
find out the "ALi M3307 Accelerator for Windows 95" item. And double
click it to remove ALiMPEG driver.
Q: How to recover the uninstalled ALiMPEG driver under Windows 95?
A:
You can refer to "Upgrade the driver in Windows 95" in the Installation
Guide.
Or if you are expert at Windows 95 driver, you can use the following
way to upgrade your driver:
Upgrade procedure: (8 steps)
1. Insert the driver diskette at appropriate drive.
2. Execute "System" in "Control Panel", then "System Properties" dialog
box would be prompted.
3. Open "Device Manager".
Click "Sound, video and game controllers" in the dialog box, you
will find the "Acer Labs. M3307 MPEG Accelerator" and please
double click it.
4. The "Acer Labs. M3307 MPEG Accelerator properties" dialog box would
be displayed and select "Driver" option.
5. There would be "Change driver" button below the dialog box, please
click it.
6. The "Select Device" dialog box would display and please click the
"Have disk" option below it.
7. Select the appropriate drive/directory where the M3307.inf located.
Then Windows 95 would upgrade the driver for you.
8. After complete the upgrade procedure, please restart Windows system.
Q: Why there's one "!" mark on my Acer Labs. M3307 MPEG Accelerator in
"System Properties" dialog box?
A:
There're three reasons can cause the "!" mark on Acer Labs M3307 MPEG
Accelerator.
1. Installation procedure is illegal.
Please read the article that described above.
2. The ALiMPEG driver is uninstalled.
Please read the article that described above.
3. The resource allocation to ALi M3307 is conflicted with others.
Please contact with the local retailer to help you to solve this
problem.
Q: Why there's no Acer Labs. M3307 MPEG Accelerator in system property
dialog box?
A:
Please check out your "Sound, video and game controllers" item in the
system property dialog box to find out the "Acer Labs. M3307 MPEG
Accelerator".
If you didn't install the ALiMPEG driver for Acer Labs. M3307, there's
one "?" unknown device on system property dialog box. Please install the
installation package and the unknown device would disappear.
Q: Why my Acer Labs. M3307 MPEG Accelerator can't work anymore although it
works fine before?
A:
If you have installed ALiMPEG driver, please execute the diagnostic
program to detect any trouble to ALi M3307 MPEG Accelerator. If there's
some error messages displayed, please contact with the local retailer.
Q: Why sometime there will no video displayed when I use M3307 MPEG
Accelerator with ATI 264VT under Windows 3.x?
A:
Please check your ATI Win 3.x driver version. M3307 can work with ATI
Win 3.x driver V2.22 or later.
Please check the ATIDCI.INI file under your WINDOWS directory.
If there is no "doublebuffer=0" description under [CONTROLS] section,
please add it.
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.