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Service Hints & Tips |
Document ID: DJON-3FKKSW |
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Aptiva - 2136 Phase I (EMEA and Canada) Technical Limitations and Solutions
Applicable to: Canada
Service Information:
Crystal Error Message: Cannot load c:\windows\cwaudio.bin
Crystal issues this message when the firmware programmed into the Crystal EEPROM is more current than the firmware
imbedded in the driver. Aptiva has this same message and termed it as, "an unfortunate informational message."
Some of the messages from the Product Recovery CD installation program wrap onto an extra line. Words may
be cut in the middle.
We put the Aptiva Guide in the Add/Remove Programs section of the Win95 Control Panel. This gives the user a
way to delete the program and reclaim the space. After removing the program, the entry still shows up in the Add/Remove
Programs list box. If the user clicks on it, it "runs" through the delete again, although it is not really doing anything the
second time.
Most text in the Aptiva Guide has an Icon at the bottom of the text to show the user what to click on to return to the previous
level of the program. Some of these screens were modified for content. On some of the screens that were modified, the
palette for the icon at the bottom of the text is not correct. The Icon, therefore, does not match exactly the corresponding
icon at the top of the screen. The solution to the problem was found too late to get into the Golden level preloads.
On the Aptiva Demo Boot Sequence screen (this is the screen that asks the user if they are a Home, School, or Business
customer or a Store), sometimes the keyboard support does not work. The keys that should be active are the F1 key for
Help, and the number keys 1 and 2 to select the options. This was corrected on a later version of the Demo setup program,
but the fix did not make the golden preloads. If the keyboard selections are not working, the customer can still make their
selection with the mouse. And if they incorrectly choose the Store option, they are given a chance to go back to the selection
screen.
V56LA Technical Limitations
In the Disk Drives section of the BIOS Setup Utility, all of the IDE channels are set to "Auto" for Auto-detect. The channel with
the CD-ROM attached, however, does not give any indication that anything is connected to it. This seems a bit confusing to
the user since on the screen it looks like there is an open channel. If the user goes to the System Information screen, the
CD-ROM will be listed on the proper IDE channel.
QAPlus/WIN R7.0 and CheckIt Pro V4.0 display memory size 64MB even if the system memory size is less than 64MB. This
seems to be an incompatibility between the application and the system. The PC Doctor diagnostic program which is shipped
with the system works correctly.
Changing resolution, font, or colors settings while using an MGA card under Win95, without rebooting the system, may cause the
system to crash with the error "Rundll32 caused an invalid page fault in module DIBENG.DLL at 0003:00000a62". This is a
problem with the Matrox hardware/driver.
Using an MGA adapter card in 1024x768 16-bit color, dashed lines show in Freecell window when you move the window over
many other windows. Same characteristics seen in taskbar icon when you select the taskbar. This is a problem with the
Matrox hardware/driver.
Serial ports can be disabled in BIOS, but Win95 will still find them and enable them as part of the plug-and-play function of
Win95. This is Win95 spec to allow the operating system to find the port even if BIOS is set up as disabled. Even after Win95
finds the port, it will still show up as disabled if the user goes and looks in setup. The function should be consistent with BIOS
setting if running in DOS mode.
The system does not time-out into a suspend state while running some software. This was determined to be a SW limitation,
especially on SW using Modem function (example, "SuperVoice" or "Syncro Connect"). Such applications keep system
resources active (even in idle state) which prevents the system from suspending.
The API 8x CD-ROM behaves differently than other Aptiva CD-ROMs. On other CD-ROMs, the busy light will come on when
you insert a CD as the drive reads the information. When the CD drive is ready (the information has been read) the busy
light goes out, indicating that the CD is ready to be used. On the API 8x, the light stays off while reading the information,
and when the read is complete and the drive is ready to be used, the light comes on and stays on. As long as the CD stays
in the drive, the light will stay on. It will blink while the CD is being read. This is Spec for the API CD-ROM drive and could be
looked at as a feature giving you an indication if the CD-ROM drive is populated with a CD without opening the tray.
If the hard disk and display timer are set in the BIOS setup screen, the system will not suspend under Win95. These BIOS
features must be disabled before Win95 can take over this function. If the user wishes to have these functions in a DOS mode,
they can set them in BIOS.
If their primary operating environment is Win95, they should leave these settings disabled.
The system may hang up if you change the Video CD while using Active Movie.
In ActiveMovie, CD-i title could not be played under Win95. Only CD-i bridge format title could be played in the Media Player.
The sign-on process for CompuServe will not auto-detect the pre-installed modem. It tells the user that no modem was found.
The explanation from the modem vendor was that CompuServe looks for a modem to match a modem in a list, and our modem
is not in the list. Since this is Win95 code, we can't modify. If the user selects "Com1" instead of selecting "Autodetect," everything
will work OK.
The name "Acer" shows up in the ROM BIOS copyright information displayed by the system information module of PC-Doctor.
This information is in a standard location used to copyright BIOS and is being picked up by the application. This is needed
for Acer legal protection and can't be changed. If the issue arises, the customer should be informed that it is an IBM
system supported by IBM.
If you run the Modem test under PC-Doctor DOS version, no information is given on the pre-installed modem. This is because
the modem is a Plug-and-Play modem, and the function is enabled by Win95 Plug-and-Play. We added a DOS Plug-and-Play
driver to the predefined DOS modes (DOSSTART.BAT, Recovery CD, Game Boot icons in Accessories/Games folder) so that
the modem functions properly for applications that are set up to use it (know that it is on COM 1). There is another setup that is
needed to allow applications to auto-detect the modem. This setup is needed in order for PC Doctor to find, and thus test, the
modem. This was not added to the preload, however, because of the concerns for EMEA systems which may not have a
modem. If this setup is done on a non-modem system, PC Doctor will give a false error message for the modem. It was
determined to be better to disable the function for all systems than to give a false error on some systems. If the customer wants
to run the PC Doctor DOS modem test, they can type "AZTPATH.COM" at a command prompt before running the PC Doctor
program and the test will run correctly.
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Hint Category |
Considerations | |
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Date Created |
27-03-97 | |
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Last Updated |
29-12-98 | |
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Revision Date |
29-12-99 | |
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Brand |
IBM Aptiva | |
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Product Family |
Aptiva | |
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Machine Type |
2136 | |
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Model |
All | |
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