From: failsafe@cellar.org (Failsafe)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Re: Win 3.1 mostly OK here
Date: 14 Apr 92 23:36:28 GMT
Organization: The Cellar BBS and public access system

andyross@infopls.chi.il.us (Andrew Rossmann) writes:

> 
>   So far, I've had no serious problems with Win 3.1. I did an upgrade to
> the same directory. ATM and TrueType get along fine. Things defintely do
> seem to go faster.
> 
>   Of course, there were a few minor glitches:
> 
>   IdleWild 2.0 (screen saver that comes with the Entertainment Packs)
>     The 'active' icon doesn't always work. Most often only the name is
> visible. Sometimes the miniature screen works, but the icon is still
> absent. Every once in awhile, it shows up complete. The saver itself works
> fine.

I've noticed this also. Mostly only the animated screen and icon title only
are visable. Strangely, the whole icon is intact when running Winword 2.0a.



 
>   FM Player, driver version 1.00
>     This program plays AdLib songs. It BOMBS (totally locks up the
> computer, need to hit RESET) with an error message. The message varies.
> 
>   WinFract 16.11.
>     At first it wouldn't work. It would launch, but nothing showed up. Task
> Manager showed it there, but no icon or screen. For no apparent reason, it
> now seems to work!!

Haven't tried either of these yet.


 
>   ATI VGA Wonder XL drivers
>     I downloaded the drivers from ATI's BBS. Even though I had a 9600 baud
> connection, SEVERE line noise made the modems drop to 4800. I ended up with
> a 240 cps transfer rate.
>     The README.1ST and the ZIP comment screen seem to say they are the
> accelerator drivers. The self extracting .EXE (an LHARC file) and the
> Install files are actually the VGA ones, though.
>    The setup includes small and large font setups for ALL video modes,
> including 640x480x16!  (it requires 512K, and may be faster than the stock
> VGA.)  I noticed one quirk, the 640x480x32K Small Font driver seems to be
> setting the font used for icon labels and such wrong.  It is much too big,
> and is the same size as the 'Large' font setting.  The setup file is
> correct, as far as I can tell. Also, SYSTEM.INI shows all of the fonts
> being VGA.
>   There is an entry for 800x600x32K commented out, but it doesn't work on
> my card.
>   The installation often wanted to find something on Windows disk #2, but
> couldn't find it. I tried different ones, and it was on #1. I have the 1.4M
> disks, if anyone wonders.


I had an interesting experience with the installation of the ATI drivers. I
installed the 800x600x256 driver (small font BTW anyone know what the large
font driver is like?). The system asked for the OEM disk but was looking for
a file that was on a Windows disk! I had to do this for several files,
seemingly font (*.FON) files, on different Windows disks determined by trial
and error. But in the end, the driver was installed successfully. It is MUCH faster than the previous
driver I was using , the 800x600x256 older driver (? 63H), and particularly
noticeable when playing solitare where the cards "snap" to place on the
screen without much drag seen. Very nice!!
 

Steve Roth
Philadelphia, PA.


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