miro.plus high-speed drivers - Install Disk for Windows NT (tm) Version 4.0 operating system V1.20 miro Computer Products AG Windows NT is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. NOTE: The drivers on the disk have been developed for "Windows NT Workstation Version 4.0" (build 1381). Compatibility with other versions of Windows NT version is not guaranteed. 1.) Disk contents 2.) Single-screen configuration 2.1.) Supported boards 2.2.) Hardware installation 2.3.) Driver installation 2.4.) miro Monitor Select - Control Panel extension 2.5.) Changing the resolutions 2.6.) miro Video Address - Control Panel extension 2.7.) Special tips for miroCRYSTAL 20SV/40SV/44SV twin and miroCRYSTAL 20SD/22SD twin 3.) Deleting drivers 4.) In case of problems 5.) Special hint 6.) Anomalies and Bugs fixed in this release 7.) New Features 1.) Disk contents - README.TXT : Instructions (this file) - LIESMICH.TXT : Instructions (German) - MIROSING.INF : Installation script for SETUP program - MIRO. : File for disk identification - CRYSTAL2.CPL : Control Panel extension (for miro Monitor Select) - MLINADDR.CPL : Control Panel extension (for miro Video Address) - CARD****.INI : board specific configuration files - MONITOR.INI : configuration file - TIMING.INI : configuration file - MIROHW.INI : configuration file - MIRONAME.INI : configuration file - CRYSTALS.SYS : Miniport driver - CRYSTALS.DLL : Display driver 2.) Single-screen configuration 2.1.) Supported boards 8 Bit (256 Colours) / 15 Bit (32k Colours) / 16 Bit (65k Colours) / 32 Bit (16,7M Colours) : - miroCRYSTAL 40SV - miroCRYSTAL 20SV - miroMAGIC 80SV - miroCRYSTAL 80SV - miroMAGIC 40SV ergo - miroCRYSTAL 40SV ergo - miroMAGIC 20SV ergo - miroCRYSTAL 20SV ergo - miroCRYSTAL 20SD/2MB - miroCRYSTAL 22SD - miroVIDEO 40SV ergo - miroVIDEO 20SV - miroVIDEO 20SD - miroVIDEO 22SD - miroMEDIA view 8 Bit (256 Colours) / 15 Bit (32k Colours) / 16 Bit (65k Colours) : - miroCRYSTAL 20SD/1MB - miroCRYSTAL 12SD/2MB - miroCRYSTAL 12SD/1MB 2.2.) Hardware installation Install your graphics board as described in the Hardware Manual supplied with your board. 2.3.) Driver installation It is required that you have installed Windows NT 4.0 with a graphics driver for your VGA board. a) By using the Icon "My Computer", you can start the "Control Panel" program.. b) Start the "Display-Tool". Switch to the "Settings" section. c) Please choose the "Change Display Type" button. d) The "Display Type" window offers an overview of the currently active Display Driver. Please activate the "Change..."-button. e) The "Select Device" window offers you an overview of all display drivers supplied with your Windows NT 4.0 Installation. Please select the "Have Disk..."-button. f) In the "Install from Disk" window, please choose the driver and directory containing your installation software. You can search your drivers by using the "Browse"-button. Only files with the filename extension ".inf" are displayed. The file you have to look for is named "mirosing.inf". g) After selecting the proper file you choose the installed graphics board from the "Change Display" window. Select your board and press "OK" or doubleclick the appropriate entry in the list. h) Select "YES" in the "Third-party Drivers" messagebox. The driver files are now being copied to your harddisk. i) Close the "Display Type" and the "Display Properties" windows and reboot the computer. j) After the restart the driver which has just been installed is active with the lowest resolution (31 kHz VESA monitor: 640 x 480, 256 colours, 60 Hz). Go on with 2.4.) to select a monitor and with 2.5.) to change the resolution. If problems occur with the display driver when restarting the system, you can reselect the VGA driver by using the "Windows NT Version 4.0 [VGA mode]" option in the boot menu. If this doesn`t solve the problem use the "last good menu" option to reselect the old configuration. If your system uses another display driver, you need the installation disk to enable the miro driver again. 2.4.) miro Monitor Select - Control Panel extension a) By using the Icon "My Computer", you can start the "Control Panel" program.. b) To select a monitor, start the "miro Monitor Select"-Tool. c) The title is the name of your graphics board. d) Select your monitor from the "Monitor" list. If your monitor is not listed, select the monitor from the "Multi Frequency" monitors with the frequency which comes close to the frequency of your monitor. e) After a short while you see the "Available Resolutions" list which gives you an overview of all resolutions supported by your monitor and the horizontal and vertical refresh rates. Please make sure that you do not select a horizontal scan frequency which is higher than the horizontal scan frequency of your monitor. f) To confirm your selection, click "OK". g) In the "Monitor Settings Change" window you can restart your computer immediately by pressing the "Restart Now" button. You can also click the "Don't Restart Now" button to get back to the "Control Panel" program. Restart the system using the taskbar. h) After the restart the selected monitor is active. If the resolutions and refresh rates differ from the settings of the previous monitor, the system will notify you. Then, the 640 x 480 resolution with 256 colors and 31 kHz / 60 Hz is enabled. To change the resolution, proceed with 2.5.). i) Instad of proceeding as described under f), you can abort the tool by pressing the "Cancel" button. In this case, the settings you made will not be enabled. PLEASE NOTE: The "miro Monitor Select" icon is only available in the "Control Panel" program, if a driver installed from this disk is currently active. 2.5.) Changing the resolutions a) By using the Icon "My Computer", you can start the "Control Panel" program.. b) Start the "Display"-tool to select/change the video display. c) The "List All Modes" button lists the resolutions your board and your monitor support and the number of colours and frequencies. Double-click to select a resolution. d) You can also use the "Desktop area" slider, the "Color Palette" and the "Refresh Frequency" windows to select a resolution. Keep in mind that the settings are interdependent. If you select an invalid setting, the other options change so that a valid setting is restored. e) To check the selected resolution in a testscreen, click the "Test" button and confirm. - Is the selected resolution/frequency displayed on the monitor? - Is the correct resolution specified? - Are the arrows in the testscreen margins visible? - Are the coloured and the hatched areas displayed correctly? f) After five seconds the testscreen disappears and you see the workspace again. If the resolution on the testscreen is OK, confirm the "Testing Mode" window with "Yes". g) You can restart the computer immediately by clicking "Restart Now" in the "Display settings change" window. You can also click the "Donīt Restart Now" button to go back to the "Display type" window. To close this window click "Close". To close the "Display settings" window click "OK". Use the Program Manager to restart the system. h) After the restart the new resolution is active. i) If you do not like the resolution, click "No" in the "Testing Mode" window. After another message has appeared, you are back in the "Display Settings" window. Select another resolution and continue with e) or close the Display Tool by clicking the "Cancel" button. The "Font Size" window allows you to select another font size (see d)). If you have not installed the fonts of the selected size, you are requested to insert the installation disk under A:\. Overwrite the default with the drive letter of you CD drive and enter the path \i386. Insert the Windows NT Version 4.0 CD in your CD drive so that the required files can be copied to your hard disk. 2.6.) miro Video Address (Control Panel extension) To accelerate the image output even more, activate the linear video addressing function. For this purpose an extension of the Control Panel is installed during the installation. Open the Control Panel Program and click the "miro Video Address" icon to configure the linear video address, PLEASE NOTE: Keep in mind that problems may occur with motherboards which do not decode the addresses completely and in case of address conflicts with other memory-mapped expansion boards or with the main memory. PLEASE NOTE: For the driver for Windows NT 4.0 and a computer with PCI bus your system activates this option automatically. If any problems occur with your motherboard (e.g. older motherboards with PCI bus and Vesa Local bus), disable this option. All other adjustments of this tool will be ignored by the driver. Use the "Linear Video Addressing enabled" and the "Linear Video Addressing disabled" buttons to switch the linear video addressing function on/off: - "Linear Video Addressing enabled" switches this option on. Then the video memory of the graphics board is unsegmented and can be accessed by the display driver under the address specified under "Physical address". - "Linear Video Addressing disabled" switches this option off (default setting). The linear video address is specified under "Physical address". This address can be overwritten with a hexadecimal value. Make sure that the new address is aligned with 8 MB (example of sequence of increasing addresses: 7400.000 - 7480.000 - 7500.0000). (Default setting: fe00.0000) Use the arrow buttons beside the display window to increase / decrease the video address in 8 MB steps. The "reset to defaults" enables the default settings. Confirm your settings by clicking "OK" and close the "configuration of linear video address". The settings take effect after the computer has been restarted. If the address you entered is not aligned correctly, you cannot close the window using the "OK" button. Correct the setting or click "Cancel" to abort. If problems occur with the display driver when restarting the computer, start the system with another driver as described under 2.3) and switch the linear video addressing function off. PLEASE NOTE: The "miro Video Address" icon is only available in the "Control Panel" program, if a driver installed from this disk is currently active. 2.7.) Special Notes for miroCRYSTAL/miroMAGIC 20SV/40SV/44SV/84SV twin and miroCRYSTAL 20SD/22SD twin Please note that DIP-switch 2 is NOT switched to the "ON" position if both monitor outlets are connected to monitors. For graphics output only the 2nd Board and Monitor is used. bootmessages and the fullscreen dos box are shown on the 2nd board/monitor. 3.) Deleting drivers Delete drivers you do not need anymore by enabling another driver using the Display Tool of the Control Panel program and by restarting the sytem afterwards. Then, use the File Manager to delete the display driver (extension .DLL) under \WINNT40\SYSTEM32 and the miniport driver (extension .SYS) and the configuration files (extension .INI) under \WINNT40\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS. 4.) In case of problems In case of problems with the VGA DOS box in the fullscreen mode ask your dealer or miro for an update of the BIOS-ROM. In some cases an unsynchronized image may stabilize by switching between the window and the fullscreen mode of the VGA DOS box. The VGA DOS box only supports the resolutions available for a 'standard VGA', e.g. display modes of up to 320x200 pixels with 256 colors or 640x480 pixels with 16 colors. If a DOS application tries to use a higher resolution, the VGA DOS box, or, in the worst case, the hole system might crash. 5.) Special hint Please do not try to install drivers or system-relevant tools which are suited for Microsoft Windows 3.x or Microsoft Windows 95. Windows NT 4.0 does not support these drivers or tools. In the worst case, this may cause a system crash. 6.) Anomalies and Bugs fixed with this release - Problems with mainboards which do not support switching off VGA PALETTE SNOOP are fixed - Design Alert from Microsoft has been incorporated 7.) New Features: - FastRes: THIS TOOL IS UNSUPPORTED Features: + Fast resolution and/or colordepth switching without reboot + Uses Systemtray thus minimizing screen area covering + Shows full mode information for all available modes + Can switch driver to only display a monochrome picture + Provides a shortcut to the Display Settings Dialog + Gives you fast information about the currently selected mode by just positioning the mousecursor above the icon - Userhint: After first installation, this program guides you to the monitor selection to avoid often encountered problems with non-available high resolutions after installing the driver. - Grayscale support This is only possible for 256 color modes. This feature, only accessible when using the FastRes Program mentioned above, can be used for switching the complete windows desktop to a grayscale representation. This can be useful for a preview of color art and pictures subject to be printed on a monochrome printer. - eof