Copyright: Copyright ©  Electronic Arts Ltd 1997, All rights reserved.
Citation: Electronic Arts Ltd is a trademark or registered trademark of Electronic Arts Ltd in the United States and/or other countries. Windows 95 is either a trademark or registered trademark of the Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All rights reserved.


API

Application Program Interface. This is a group of programs developed by Microsoft for developers so that they can produce games that "talk" to the hardware via Windows 95 in a standard way. These API's make it easier to produce fast,colourful games though Windows rather than having to run the machine in DOS.


AT

An AT command is short for Attention. AT commands where originally devised by the Hayes company. These commands are used to send instruction to a modem.


 Adjust the trim wheels on your joystick

Your joystick may have trim wheels. Trim wheels are dials, or sliders, that control minute adjustments to the X and Y axis of the joystick. Check to make sure that they are centered and then recalibrate your joystick through the Windows Control Panel.

This will probably not apply to you if you are using a device like a game pad, which does not have trim wheels. If your joystick does have trim wheels, MAKE SURE THEY ARE CENTERED. Your joystick may not calibrate or work properly otherwise.

Make sure your joystick is connected properly.

Enable joystick control in your game

Be sure only one joystick port is active on your system.

Check to see that you have the correct driver loading.

Adjust the trim wheels on your joystick

Calibrate in Windows Control Panel

Disable any profilers or tray utilities

Joystick Specifics

Other Possibilities

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


After installing the game and the DirectX drivers supplied on the CD I find that:

All of these error are received when there are problems with the Video card driver that Windows 95 has been told to use, either when your Video drivers have been updated or if you have installed standard DirectX drivers for a card that need manufacturer specific drivers.

All these problems are relatively easy to correct and these problems are dealt with on another page. Please go to Problems with Display drivers for an explanation as to how to resolve them.


Baud Rate

Baud rate is the speed at which two machines will communicate via a modem or a serial connection. The speeds go from slow, e.g. 2400, to 115,200 which at the present is the fastest that can be achieved. However most games only really use 9,600 or 14,400 baud rate.


 Be sure that only one joystick port is active on your system

No more than one joystick port can be active on your system at one time unless you have a game card. If you happen to have more than one port active, your joystick will not function properly. You may have this situation if you have encountered one of the following scenarios:

You have recently purchased a dedicated game card.

You have recently upgraded your sound card.

Your Joystick is plugged into a dedicated I/O controller.

Make sure your joystick is connected properly.

Enable joystick control in your game

Be sure only one joystick port is active on your system.

Check to see that you have the correct driver loading.

Adjust the trim wheels on your joystick

Calibrate in Windows Control Panel

Disable any profilers or tray utilities

Joystick Specifics

Other Possibilities

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


Blank with driver version listed

The driver has DirectX support, but was not included with the version of DirectX which is currently on your system. These drivers will usually function properly, however, there may be some difficulties. It is recommended to check with your Machine Manufacturer/Supplier and/or your Sound card/ Video card manufacturer for any updated drivers that may be available.


Blank with no driver version listed

The performance and stability of this type of certification is basically unknown. It is most likely, drivers that certify this way, will not work properly at all. It is recommended to check with your Machine Manufacturer/Supplier and/or your Sound card/ Video card manufacturer for any updated drivers that may be available.


CD ROM

Acer	http://www.acer.com/aac/products/periph/index.htm

01628 533 422

Aztech	http://www.aztech.com

01189 814 121

Creative Labs	http://www.creaf.com

Creative Labs - UK	http://www.creative-labs.co.uk

01189 344 322

Diamond	http://www.diamondmm.com

Diamond FTP Site    UK	http://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/computing/vendor/diamondmm/

Diamond FTP Site    USA	ftp://ftp.diamondmm.com

01753 501 410

Hitachi	http://www.hitachi.com

Hitachi - Europe	http://www.hitachi-eu.com

0181 849 2087

Mitsumi	http://www.mitsumi.com

NEC	http://www.nec.com

0181 575 8080

Panasonic	http://www.panasonic.com

Panasonic - UK	http://www.panasonic.co.uk

01344 862 444

Philips	http://www.philips.com

Pioneer - Japan	http://www.pioneer.co.jp

01753 789 884

Plasmon (USA) 	http://www.plasmon.com

Plextor	http://www.plextor.com

Reveal	http://www.reveal.com

Samsung	http://www.samsung.com

Sanyo	http://www.sanyo.co.uk

01923 212 046

Sony	http://www.sel.sony.com

Sony - Europe	http://www.sony-europe.com

01932 816 000

Teac	http://www.teac.com

Home	Contents

Chip Manufacturers | Software | Controllers/Joysticks | Hardware Controllers | Hard Drives

Machine Manufacturers/Suppliers | CD ROM | Sound Card

Video Card | Modems | Other Useful Sites


CPU

CPU is short for Central Processor Unit. This is the main chip in your computer, the heart if you like and the speed of this chip is one of the main factors in how quickly programs run on your machine.

CPU's are made by many different manufacturers but the main three are Intel, Cyrix and AMD. At the present time these manufacturers produce;

Manufacturer	Chip	Speed

Intel	Pentium	120 - 200Mhz

Pentium MMX	166 - 266Mhz

Pentium Pro	150 - 200Mhz

Pentium II	233 - 300Mhz

Cyrix	686 (M1)	120 - 150Mhz (described as P166+ and the P200+)

786 (M2)	150Mhz and above (MMX compatible)

AMD	K6 MMX	166 - 266Mhz

Other Pentium speeds have been produced but they are no longer manufactured. In fact the standard Pentium chips is soon to be discontinued.


 Calibrate in Windows Control Panel

You may have done this before. However, we recommend doing this again in case any of the joystick properties have changed.

To recalibrate your joystick in the Windows Control Panel:

1.	Double click on the My Computer icon.

2.	Double click on the Control Panel icon.

3.	Double click on the Joysticks icon or Game Controllers icon (this will be called "Gaming Devices" if you have installed a Microsoft joystick, and the procedure will be slightly different.)

4.	Make sure that the proper joystick driver is selected.

If you are using a Thrustmaster, CH, or Microsoft joystick, you may have to select the driver specific to that joystick instead of the one shown above. The "2 axis, 2 button joystick" driver will not work properly for all joysticks.

5.	Click on the Calibrate button and follow the steps given by the control panel VERY CAREFULLY. If you miss a step, or press enter instead of pressing a joystick button, your joystick will not work properly and you will have to recalibrate.

6.	Test your calibration by clicking on the Test button. You should see the calibration cursor appear exactly in the center when you let go of your joystick, and the button indicators should light up when you press a joystick button.

If your joystick will not calibrate properly, please check with your joystick manufacturer or Machine Manufacturer/Supplier for information on how to correct the problem, or continue with the steps below.

Make sure your joystick is connected properly.

Enable joystick control in your game

Be sure only one joystick port is active on your system.

Check to see that you have the correct driver loading.

Adjust the trim wheels on your joystick

Calibrate in Windows Control Panel

Disable any profilers or tray utilities

Joystick Specifics

Other Possibilities

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


Certified

Your driver was tested and approved by Microsoft. Any difficulties you may be having with software are probably not related to this driver, however many hardware companies will still update these drivers in order to fix problems. It is recommended to check with your Machine Manufacturer/Supplier and/or your Sound card/ Video card manufacturer for any updated drivers that may be available.


Changing your Display Driver to Standard VGA.

 IMPORTANT; WE DO NOT RECOMMEND THAT YOU DO THIS FOLLOWING PROCESS UNLESS YOU ARE HAVING PROBLEMS STARTING WINDOWS 95.

WE ADVISE YOU TO SPEAK TO YOUR HARDWARE MANUFACTURE/SUPPLIER TO FIND OUT THE CORRECT VIDEO DRIVER FOR YOUR MACHINE.

To change your display driver to the Standard VGA driver you need to do the following;

1.	Click on the · Start button on the taskbar.

2.	Select Settings and then Control Panel. When the Control Panel window opens, double click on the Display icon.

3.	You will now see the Display Properties Window. Click on the Settings tab.

4.	You should now see a window similar to above. Now click on Change Display Type.

5.	Now this next screen will differ depending on which version of Windows 95 you have. If you have version A then go to number 6, if you have version B then go to Number 7.

6.	If you have version A then you will see this screen;

Now click the Change button in the Adapter section. Go to number 8.

7.	If you have version B then you will see this screen;

Click on Adapter and then the Change button.

8.	First check the box Show all devices at the bottom of this window. Then scroll up the left hand side of the window until you can see (Standard display types). Now on the right hand side of the window select Standard Display Adapter (VGA).

9.	Once you have selected this driver click on the OK button and follow the on-screen prompts.

10.	To finish you should be asked to reset your machine, click on the Yes button. Windows 95 will now restart.

Now please consult with your Hardware Manufacturer/Supplier  or your Video card manufacturer for detail on how your Video card should be set up.


Check Network Neighborhood
 Check Network Neighborhood for other computers

Network Neighborhood is a great way to find out if you can see other computers on the network. If you have installed the drivers and protocols recommended in the document, then you should be able to see the other computers on the network through the Network Neighborhood.

To check Network Neighborhood, double-click on the Network Neighborhood icon on your desktop. You should now see a window displaying the computers currently in your work group. If you happen to be in a different work group than the other computers on your network, go into the Entire Network icon and open the appropriate work group. If you can see the other computers that you intend to connect with, then you are probably OK.

If you cannot see the other computers, try this:

1.	Click on the · Start button, then select Find, then select Computer.

2.	In the "Named:" box, type the name of the computer you are trying to connect with. The computer should show up in the "Found" box within about 20-30 seconds.

3.	If you do not see the computer, then you will probably be unable to connect. Make sure you continue with the trouble shooting.

Part One: Network Setup

Part Two: Network Trouble Shooting

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


 Check for conflicts

Many difficulties result from hardware conflicts. A Device Conflict is where there is more than one device try to use the same IRQ channel (Interrupt Request Channel) to talk to the CPU. There can also be conflicts with your Port Address or DMA Channel.

The Device Manager, located in the System Properties, can report such conflicts.

To open System Properties:

1.	Right-click on the My Computer icon and select Properties.

2.	Click on the Device Manager tab at the top of the window.

In the Device Manager  window you will be able to see if you have any conflicts. A yellow "!" or a red "x" indicates a conflict with another device, or a device that is not functioning properly. Devices in this state may cause system instability, so you may want to check your computer documentation or contact your Machine Manufacturer/Supplier for information about those devices.

Problem with a modem connection?

 Advanced users only may try deleting the conflicting devices and letting Windows re-detect them. If Windows doesn't re-detect the com ports, use the "Add new hardware" applet in Control Panel and let Windows search for everything.

Checking the status of DirectX

Manually switching video modes

Re-starting your computer

Shut down all applications

Shut down applications in the system tray

Check for conflicts

Check your virtual memory settings

Re-installing  DirectX

Restoring Video Drivers or Audio Drivers

Disable hardware acceleration

Update your drivers

Get the latest version of DirectX

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


 Check to see that you have the correct driver loading

Sometimes difficulties can arise if the wrong joystick driver is loaded. Check the driver in the Windows Control Panel to make sure the correct one is installed:

1.	Double click on My Computer.

2.	Double click on the Control Panel icon.

3.	Double click on the Joysticks icon (this will be called Gaming Devices if you have installed a Microsoft joystick or Game Controllers if you have DirectX 5 or above installed). The standard "2 axis, 2 button joystick" will work fine for most controllers. If you are having difficulty with joystick response, you can try to load this driver and see if it helps; however the driver intended for your joystick is most likely to give the best performance and reliability. Make sure you choose the driver that your joystick manufacturer recommends. Please check your joystick documentation for your manufacturer's recommendation.

4.	Calibrate your joystick by pressing on the calibrate button. MAKE SURE YOU FOLLOW THE STEPS GIVEN IN THE CONTROL PANEL VERY CAREFULLY. It is very easy to miss a step by pressing enter instead of clicking one of your joystick's buttons. If this happens, your joystick will not work properly and you will have to recalibrate.

5.	Test your joystick by clicking on the test button. The buttons should light up when you press them, and the calibration cursor should be exactly in the center when your joystick is centered.

Make sure your joystick is connected properly.

Enable joystick control in your game

Be sure only one joystick port is active on your system.

Check to see that you have the correct driver loading.

Adjust the trim wheels on your joystick

Calibrate in Windows Control Panel

Disable any profilers or tray utilities

Joystick Specifics

Other Possibilities

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


 Check your virtual memory settings

Virtual memory is disk space allocated by Windows that allows your system to "pretend" it has more RAM memory than it really does. Even if you have 32 Mb or more of RAM, Windows will be using a virtual memory swap file.

Not having enough disk space will affect your virtual memory; this situation will cause programs to crash or not run correctly. See "Regular Maintenance"

To check your disk space and virtual memory settings:

1.	Double-click on the My Computer icon.

2.	Click once on the "[C:]" drive. There is a status bar at the bottom of the My Computer window that will tell you the free space on your hard drive:

If you have less than 50 Mb or so of disk space you will probably experience problems with games or other programs. Try to free at least 50 Mb or more of disk space and run the Scandisk and Defrag utilities located in your · Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools menu. This will help assure you have no disk errors and that your drive is optimised. Also see the section "Regular Maintenance"

 WARNING: If you are not sure what to delete on your drive, do not delete anything. Check your computer documentation or contact someone who can help you choose the right files. EA Technical Support will be unable to help you delete files on your hard drive.

1.	Close the My Computer Window.

2.	Right-click on the My Computer icon and select Properties, then click on the Performance tab.

3.	Click on the Virtual Memory button.

Make sure that the first option "Let Windows manage my virtual memory settings" is selected. If you think you know what you are doing, you can specify your own settings, but for this trouble shooting session we recommend the first option. Make sure to click "OK" to finish changing the settings.

If you have made any changes Windows will ask you to restart your computer.

Checking the status of DirectX

Manually switching video modes

Re-starting your computer

Shut down all applications

Shut down applications in the system tray

Check for conflicts

Check your virtual memory settings

Re-installing DirectX

Restoring Video Drivers or Audio Drivers

Restoring Video Drivers or Audio Drivers

Disable hardware acceleration

Update your drivers

Get the latest version of DirectX

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


 Checking the status of DirectX

In order for DirectX games to run on your system, the DirectX drivers need to be properly installed and certified. The program DXSETUP.EXE is a utility that will check driver certification and let you know if all DirectX components are properly certified. Running DXSETUP is easy, just follow these steps:

1.	Put the game CD in your CD-ROM drive.

2.	From your Windows 95 desktop, left-click the · Start button, highlight Find, then left-click on Files or Folders.

3.	In the Find window, set the "Look In:" box to your CD-ROM drive (it will probably display the name of the game and a drive letter such as "D:" or "E:").

4.	In the "Named:" field, type in DXSETUP.EXE and press enter. This will search the game CD for the DXSETUP.EXE file.

5.	When the file appears in the results box, simply double-click on it.

You should now see the DirectX Setup window displaying its results similar to the picture above (depending which version is supplied on the game CD). You will see a list of the DirectX components along with their version numbers and whether or not they have been certified. The items you need to pay attention to are the Display driver and the Audio driver. Here is a brief summary of what may appear in the third column:

No Hardware Support  	Blank with no driver version listed	Blank with driver version listed	Certified

Please make a note of how your Display driver and Audio driver are certified and with what version number, as it may help you determine if you need to update your drivers.

It is difficult to tell whether or not your display and audio drivers are causing you difficulty, so please continue with the trouble shooting steps below before updating your drivers. However, if the listings are "No Hardware Support" then it is recommended to check with your Machine Manufacturer/Supplier and/or your Sound card/ Video card manufacturer for any updated drivers that may be available.

Checking the status of DirectX

Manually switching video modes

Re-starting your computer

Shut down all applications

Shut down applications in the system tray

Check for conflicts

Check your virtual memory settings

Re-installing DirectX

Restoring Video Drivers or Audio Drivers

Disable hardware acceleration

Update your drivers

Get the latest version of DirectX

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


 Checking your Regional Setting

To check that your Regional Settings have been correctly set,

1.	Click on the · Start button on the taskbar.

2.	Select Settings and then Control Panel. When the Control Panel window opens, double click on the Regional settings icon.

You will now see a window as above. Please make sure that box just above the map displays the correct setting for your country. If for example is says "English (United States)" and you live in the UK then click on the arrow to the right of the box and select the correct setting which would be "English (British)".

Return to Support Information page


Chip Manufacturers

AMD	http://www.amd.com

Cyrix	http://www.cyrix.com

Intel	http://www.intel.com

Intel FTP site - USA	ftp://ftp.intel.com

Home	Contents

Chip Manufacturers | Software | Controllers/Joysticks | Hardware Controllers | Hard Drives

Machine Manufacturers/Suppliers | CD ROM | Sound Card

Video Card | Modems | Other Useful Sites


Clusters

A Cluster is the smallest segment of a disk that DOS can write to. Clusters are made up of a varying number of 512 byte sectors. Cluster sizes are bigger on larger disk partitions. This makes disk access more efficient, but is more wasteful of space.


Controllers/Joysticks

Advanced Gravis Europe	http://www.gravis.com

01703 653 377

Logic 3	http://www.logic3.com

0181 900 0024

Logitech	http://www.logitech.com

LMP	http://www.leda.co.uk

01992 503 133

Microsoft (USA) 	http://www.microsoft.com

Microsoft UK	01189 271 000

Thrustmaster	http://www.thrustmaster.com

01189 787 087

Quick Shot	http://www.quickshot.com

0181 365 1993

Home	Contents

Chip Manufacturers | Software | Controllers/Joysticks | Hardware Controllers | Hard Drives

Machine Manufacturers/Suppliers | CD ROM | Sound Card

Video Card | Modems | Other Useful Sites


Credits

Original help guides written by	James Abney and Chris Beron.

Complied by 	Ian Hawkins.

Additional information 	Ian Hawkins, Jason Berisford and Chris Chaplin.

Special thanks to 	Fiona Hawkins.


DMA

This stands for Direct Memory Access. This allows a piece of hardware (sound card, video card, etc) to talk directly to the RAM in your machine without having to go via the CPU.


 Deciding which type of cable to use

There are a few different types of cable that you could use to connect your computers to a network; we will be dealing with 2 types in this guide: Thin Coax and 10base-T.

Thin Coax

Thin coax is a great way to connect PC's quickly and inexpensively. If you do not have a need to transmit huge amounts of data across the network, such as from a server, then coax is the way to go.

It is cheaper and easier than 10base-T. Here is how you would see the coax connected to the net card. Note that the connector type you need to use is a BNC type connector.

The terminating resistor, seen above, is absolutely necessary in order for computers to see each other on the network.

10base-T

This type of cable looks similar to a phone line. The advantage to 10base-T is that it can carry more data. It is also easier to add and remove computers on a large network. You may want to go with this type of cabling if you are setting up a big network, but for a games network, this is probably overkill.

NOTE: This type of cabling requires the use of a "hub". A hub is a device that allows networks using 10base-T to communicate on the network. Expect to pay lots for a networking hub.

Part One: Network Setup

Part Two: Network Trouble Shooting

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


 Detecting the Network adapter in Windows

As far as the network adapter goes, we recommend following the card manufacturer's recommendations and instructions on how to install your Network adapter in Windows 95. Every manufacturer has a procedure that will allow you to install the drivers in Windows 95 as easy as possible. The manufacturer will also provide instructions on how to properly seat the card into your computer's BUS.

How the driver installs will depend on the manufacturer and whether or not the card is Plug 'n Play compatible.

If you are unable to obtain instructions on driver installation:

Plug 'n Play card

After the adapter has been seated on the BUS, power up the computer and let Windows start. When Windows detects the device, it will ask you for a driver. Insert the manufacturer provided driver disk into your floppy drive and point Windows to the driver disk.

Non Plug 'n Play card

After you start Windows with the card properly seated in the BUS, open Control Panel (located in My Computer) and double-click on "Add new hardware". Windows will ask you if you want to search for new hardware, say "Yes" and proceed. You will be asked to provide the driver disk at the end of the installation.

If Windows is unable to detect your card, double-click on "Add new hardware" again and this time say "No" when Windows asks you if you want to search for new hardware. You will be presented with a list of devices to choose from; choose "Network Adapters" and click the "Next" button. Now click on the "Have Disk" button and make sure your driver disk is in the floppy drive. Windows should now be able to install the driver for the card. You may however, if you do not have your network card documentation, have trouble configuring the resource settings of the card. It is very important that you obtain instructions for how to configure your network adapter.

Part One: Network Setup

Part Two: Network Trouble Shooting

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


Device

A Device is a piece of hardware such as a Sound card, CD ROM, Video card, etc which is connected to your machine. With Windows 95 these devices use specific Windows 95 drivers. This means that if you then quit to DOS you need to load DOS specific drives. Otherwise these devices will not work.


Direct Draw error

This often happens on Compaq PC’s. In order to overcome this problem you must have DirectX installed and update your video drivers. Try manually changing your desktop settings in the control panel so that the number of colours and resolution is 16 bit and 640X480 respectively. See "Manually switching Video Mode" for further instructions.


 Disable Compression and Error correction

Data compression and error correction are often the culprit when it comes to connection problems. Although these modem features often allow faster and more reliable data transfer, they can cause difficulty when trying to connect. Sometimes this is due to the fact that the protocols need to be the same on both ends, so if one user's modem is using a certain type of compression, the modem on the other end will have to use the same compression.

There are other types of problems that compression and correction cause, specifically with the data that games use. The data transferred by modem games is often difficult to compress, so using compression can actually make a connection slower instead of faster, resulting in connections being dropped when trying to connect.

To disable error correction and data compression:

1.	Open Control Panel, located in My Computer.

2.	Double-click on the Modems icon.

3.	Select your modem and click on the Properties button.

4.	When the modem properties window opens, click on the Connection tab, then click the Advanced button at the bottom.

Now un-check the boxes for "Use error control" and "Use flow control".

5.	Now click OK and restart your computer. Once your computer has restarted try to connect again.

What is a COM port?

Check and make sure you don't have a device conflict

See which COM port your modem is using

Make sure no other devices are using your COM port or IRQ

Disabling serial ports if using COM 1 or 2

Perform a test connection with HyperTerminal

Enter in your modem's correct INIT string

Disable compression and error correction.

Other Possibilities

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


 Disable any profilers or tray utilities

Some joysticks, when installed, will add a joystick utility to the system tray:

These can sometimes cause problems when trying to get a joystick to work properly. Try disabling these utilities if you are having problems. If you are using the Gravis utility, please check their web site at http://www.gravis.com to obtain an update. Your difficulty may be related to an outdated Gravis utility.

Make sure your joystick is connected properly.

Make sure your joystick is connected properly.

Enable joystick control in your game

Be sure only one joystick port is active on your system.

Check to see that you have the correct driver loading.

Adjust the trim wheels on your joystick

Calibrate in Windows Control Panel

Disable any profilers or tray utilities

Joystick Specifics

Other Possibilities

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


 Disable hardware acceleration

Disabling hardware acceleration may help you get your game running. This has worked for some of our customers and usually yields little or no difference in game performance. If disabling hardware acceleration works to get the game running, there is most likely a problem with your display driver. Please contact your Video card manufacturer or your Machine Manufacturer/Supplier for an updated, DirectX compatible display driver.

Hardware acceleration is controlled by Windows 95 through the System Properties. To open System Properties and view  graphics settings:

1.	Right-click on the My Computer icon and select Properties.

2.	Click on the Performance tab at the top.

3. 	Now click on the Graphics button at the bottom.

You probably will see your hardware acceleration set to Full. No matter what this is set to, try sliding the pointer to "None" and clicking "OK".

4.	Restart your computer by clicking on " · Start" button, and then "Restart the computer?". Wait till Windows 95 loads up again and  then run the game again.

Checking the status of DirectX

Manually switching video modes

Re-starting your computer

Shut down all applications

Shut down applications in the system tray

Check for conflicts

Check your virtual memory settings

Re-installing DirectX

Restoring Video Drivers or Audio Drivers

Disable hardware acceleration

Update your drivers

Get the latest version of DirectX

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


 Disabling Serial ports

The external serial ports on your computer use COM 1 and 2; these serial ports allow you to plug in devices like serial mice and external modems. If the mouse on your computer is a serial mouse then it is using a COM port, probably COM 1. The serial mouse plugs into your computer via a serial port which is assigned to a COM port. Usually Serial Port 1 will be assigned to COM 1 and Serial Port 2 will be assigned to COM 2.

If you have an external modem, then you probably have your modem plugged into Serial Port 2 which is using COM 2 and your mouse plugged into Serial Port 1 using COM 1 as shown below:

For this configuration to work properly, you need to have both external serial ports enabled in your CMOS set-up utility.

 Important Note: Only advanced users capable of completely restoring their system should attempt to change settings in CMOS. Please refer to your system documentation or contact your Hardware Manufacturer/Supplier for information on your CMOS set-up utility.

IF YOU ARE USING AN INTERNAL MODEM ON COM 1 or 2:

You will need to make sure that no external serial ports on your system use the same COM port as your internal modem. In many cases, modem difficulty may be caused by having external serial ports enabled to COM 1 or 2 when your modem is using COM 1 or 2.

If your modem is on COM 1 or 2, make sure that any external serial ports which use the same COM port are disabled through the CMOS set-up utility.

 Important Note: Only advanced users capable of completely restoring their system should attempt to change settings in CMOS. Please refer to your system documentation or contact your system vendor for information on your CMOS setup utility.

If your computer's motherboard does not support integrated I/O devices such as COM ports, you will need to enable and disable external serial ports with jumpers on your I/O card. Please contact your Hardware Manufacturer/Supplier before attempting to make any changes.

What is a COM port?

Check and make sure you don't have a device conflict

See which COM port your modem is using

Make sure no other devices are using your COM port or IRQ

Disabling serial ports if using COM 1 or 2

Perform a test connection with HyperTerminal

Enter in your modem's correct INIT string

Disable compression and error correction.

Other Possibilities

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


Driver

A Driver is a small program which allows Windows 95 or DOS to "talk" to the hardware you have in your machine. Each piece of hardware has it's own specific driver. Some are standard drivers supplied by Microsoft and some are supplied by the manufacturer of the hardware (eg Sound cards, Video cards, CD ROM drives,etc).


Electronic Arts Help Guide

Ok, so where do you go from here? If you are relatively new to computers or you are receiving a particular error message when trying to run a game then we suggest that you try the "So, what is the problem?" section This section lists common problems that can occur with all Windows 95 games and then points you in the right direction to fixing it quickly. If there are words (jargon) that you do not understand, and the words are in green, then just click on the word and an explanation will "pop-up" on the screen. We have not given specific error messages that relate to specific game titles as the error messages listed can apply to all Windows 95 games.

Otherwise if you are clear on what it means then read through the relevant Trouble Shooting Guides as they hold the information you need to get that game working on your machine.

Contents

So, what is the problem?

Trouble Shooting Guides

Hardware Manufacturer/Supplier Links

Support Information


 Enable joystick control in your game

Games will often not assume that you want to use a joystick. If you want joystick control in your games, make sure it is enabled. Many games will give you an option to select Joystick, Keyboard, or Mouse. Check your game's documentation to see how to enable joystick control.

Make sure your joystick is connected properly.

Enable joystick control in your game

Be sure only one joystick port is active on your system.

Check to see that you have the correct driver loading.

Adjust the trim wheels on your joystick

Calibrate in Windows Control Panel

Disable any profilers or tray utilities

Joystick Specifics

Other Possibilities

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


 Entering in your Modem's correct INIT string

An "INIT" or initialisation string is a command line that tells your modem which settings to use when it dials. Some modem difficulties may be caused by having the wrong init string entered in the modem properties.

Just to give you an idea of what an init string does, look at the example AT Command options listed below: (some of these may not apply to your modem)

AT S0=n	Sets the modem to answer in "n" number of rings

AT &Cn	Enables/disables data compression n=0 or 1 (may differ from modem to modem)

AT &F	Resets the modem to factory defaults

AT DTn	Dials a phone number, n

AT Mn	Turns speaker on/off n=0 or 1

So if you put these together into an AT command line, it may look something like this:

AT S0=0 &F &C0 &M0 DT5551234

The above command string does the following: Turns auto answer off, resets the factory defaults, disables data compression, turns the modem speaker off, and dials the number 555-1234.

Your modem's init string shouldn't be quite so complex, especially since you won't include a dial string (DT5551212) with your init string.

Before you change the init string, check your modem documentation and make a note of which init string they recommend.

To change your init string:

1.	Open up Control Panel (located in My Computer or Click on Start, Settings ).

2.	Double-click on Modems.

Make sure your modem is selected and click on the Properties button.

3.	Click on the Connection tab at the top of the window.

Now click on the Advanced button.

4.	You should see the following window:

 IMPORTANT: Make a note of everything that appears in this window so you can restore to your original settings if need be.

You can enter in the manufacturer's recommended init string under the Extra settings field, but make sure not to include AT in front of the command. So if your manufacturer recommends AT &C1&D2, just enter in the &C1&D2 part.

You can also try just the restore command as the init string. This will work in many cases: AT&F is the AT string to restore factory default settings, so in the extra settings box, just enter &F.

Usually the "Extra settings" box is left blank. If none of these solutions work for you, make sure you restore the Advanced connection options to their original settings.

What is a COM port?

Check and make sure you don't have a device conflict

See which COM port your modem is using

Make sure no other devices are using your COM port or IRQ

Disabling serial ports if using COM 1 or 2

Perform a test connection with HyperTerminal

Enter in your modem's correct INIT string

Disable compression and error correction.

Other Possibilities

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


Error message saying "tDDraw:tPrimarySurface"

This message indicates that you will need to update to the latest drivers available for their video card or re-install the latest drivers. It is recommended to check with your Machine Manufacturer/Supplier and/or your Sound card/ Video card manufacturer for any updated drivers that are available.


FAT

No, this has nothing to do with the size of the computer. It stands for  File Allocation Table. This is the part of the disk that contains data on the free and used space on the disk. The FAT is very important because in order for your operating system to find the file it is looking for, it must use the FAT. If the FAT becomes damaged or corrupted, data loss will occur.


 Finding the right Ethernet adapter

An Ethernet adapter, usually referred to as a network card, is a peripheral device that plugs into your PC and allows for the networking of two or more computers. This device plugs into your computer's BUS just like a video card or sound card and allows the network to communicate with your computer.

Finding a network card is as easy as getting an "Ethernet adapter" for your IBM compatible PC from your local computer store. Most computer stores will carry the cards and other items to set up a network. In fact it is now possible to buy complete kits.

There are different manufacturers of ethernet adapters. Some adapters are very inexpensive and fairly reliable, such as generic "NE2000" compatible adapters. Others are more expensive but provide a higher degree of reliability. Sometimes "Sync" problems can occur with the generic cards, resulting in the occasional "dropped signal".

Deciding which adapter to choose depends on how serious you are about your network. If you are using your network for business and will rely on it heavily, you probably want to spend the extra money for reliability. If you intend to use your network for fun, the inexpensive solution should work fine and give you little trouble.

In addition, we recommend making sure your Ethernet adapter is a "Combo" type card. A combo card will allow you to connect to a network using thin coax, or 10base-T type cable (Cabling is described in the section;"Deciding which type of cable to use"). Make sure you either get a combo card, or a card that accepts the type of cabling you intend to use.

Part One: Network Setup

Part Two: Network Trouble Shooting

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


 Force a Frame type

Often a peer to peer network is set up and installed properly, but the computers still can't see each other. This is sometimes due to computers using different frame types. A frame type is basically the way the computers will communicate to each other. If two computers are using different frame types, they will be unable to communicate with each other.

 IMPORTANT: Do not make these changes if you are on an administrated network. If you did not set up your own network, you may cause damage if you proceed. Please check with your network administrator before changing your Frame Type.

To check your frame type:

1.	Double-click on the My Computer icon.

2.	Double-click on Control Panel.

3.	Now double-click on the Network icon.

4.	Highlight the "IPX/SPX-compatible Protocol" and click on the Properties button. Then click on the Advanced tab at the top of the window. You should see a screen similar to this:

There are several choices under the Properties window, highlight "Frame Type" then look at the Value. We recommend using "Ethernet 802.3" on all computers. If the computers on the network have different frame types, you will not be able to connect.

Part One: Network Setup

Part Two: Network Trouble Shooting

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


France (EA France)
Centre d'Affaires Telebase

3 rue Claude Chappe

69771 Saint Didier au Mont d'Or Cedex

Lyon

Tel No  04 72 53 25 00


 Freeing Hard Disk space

No matter how big your hard drive is, you will eventually have to free up space by removing programs and folders that you are no longer using. Whether it be a game that you're no longer playing, or some graphics and videos that your just not using anymore, there will come a time to get rid of some old data.

You can check your hard drive space by opening the hard drive properties:

1.	Double click on the My Computer icon.

2.	Right click on the [C:] drive (or the drive you want to check) and select "Properties."

The drive properties will give you total capacity, used space, and free space. The used space is indicated by the blue area of the pie and the free space is the pink section. The drive above still has over 200 megabytes of free space left, which is plenty for now.

If you have less than 100 megabytes, or 100 Mb of free disk space, you may want to think about freeing some up. If you have less than 50 Mb, you will definitely want to free space so that your computer can function properly; Windows 95 uses disk space to create virtual memory, which is used for loading programs. If you don't have enough virtual memory, you may experience program errors and crashes.

The first place you want to look in order to free hard drive space is in the Control Panel. The "Add/Remove programs" applet will let you see many of the Windows 95 programs you have installed on your computer.

To open the Add/Remove programs applet:

1.	Double click on the My Computer icon.

2.	Double click on the Control Panel icon.

3.	Now double click on the Add/Remove programs icon.

Most of the Windows 95 programs that you install will allow you to un-install them from this window. If you see anything in this window that you are sure you don't need anymore, you can click on that program then click the Add/Remove button.

 IMPORTANT: Be very sure of what you are removing. Once you remove a program from your system using this method, it's gone, and you will have to reinstall the software to get it back.

Some of the programs on your hard drive will not show up in the Add/Remove programs applet. DOS programs specifically will usually have to be deleted manually.

To see the folders on your hard drive:

1.	Double click on the My Computer icon.

2.	Now double click on the [C:] drive (or the drive you want to browse.)

You may run across some folders that contain programs or files that you don't need anymore. If this is the case, you can delete the folder; but before you do, let's look at how to delete a folder and what happens when you do.

To check the size of a folder:

Right click on the folder you want to check and select Properties.

To rename a folder:

Right click on the folder you want to rename and select Rename.

To delete a folder:

Right click on the folder you want to delete and select Delete.

 IMPORTANT: Be careful of what you are deleting. Do not delete an item unless you are sure you don't need it.

When you delete files by this method in Windows, they are moved to the Recycle Bin. This gives you a chance to change your mind in case you make a mistake. You can look at the files in the Recycle Bin by double clicking on it. (The Recycle Bin is located on the desktop.)

Items that you see here can be restored by dragging them back to their appropriate folder. If you deleted something by accident, you may be able to restore it by choosing Undo from the Edit menu.

Once you are sure you don't need the items in the Recycle Bin, you can permanently delete them by choosing Empty Recycle Bin from the File menu. Doing this will free up some disk space.

 WARNING: Once you empty the Recycle Bin, the files contained within are permanently deleted!

After you have removed programs from your hard drive it is recommenned that you run Defrag to optimise the free space on your hard drive. For more information see the section Running Defrag

Running Scandisk

Running Defrag

Freeing Hard drive space

Updating Drivers

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


Germany (EA Germany)

Internet Mail: desupport@ea.com

Pascalstrasse 6

52076 Aachen

Tel No  02408 940 555.


 Get the latest version of DirectX

It is usually best to have the latest version of DirectX on your system. The later releases give better performance and stability. There are also more recent drivers for your video and sound card provided by the manufacturers. You can find a standard version of DirectX at Microsoft's web site at http://www.microsoft.com or contact your Hardware Manufacturer/Supplier or Sound card/ Video cards manufacturer for drivers specific for your machine.

Checking the status of DirectX

Manually switching video modes

Re-starting your computer

Shut down all applications

Shut down applications in the system tray

Check for conflicts

Check your virtual memory settings

Re-installing DirectX

Restoring Video Drivers or Audio Drivers

Disable hardware acceleration

Update your drivers

Get the latest version of DirectX

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


Hard Drives

Conner	http://www.conner.com

Fujitsu	http://www.fujitsu.com

Fujitsu - Europe	http://www.fujitsu-europe.com

Fujitsu (Japan) 	http://www.fujitsu.co.jp/index-e

Maxtor	http://www.maxtor.com

Quantum	http://www.quantum.com

Seagate	http://www.seagate.com

Home	Contents

Chip Manufacturers | Software | Controllers/Joysticks | Hardware Controllers | Hard Drives

Machine Manufacturers/Suppliers | CD ROM | Sound Card

Video Card | Modems | Other Useful Sites


Hardware Controllers

Adaptec	http://www.adaptec.com

Adaptec - UK source	http://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/computing/vendor/adaptec/pub/BBS/adaptec

Adaptec FTP site - USA	ftp://ftp.adaptec.com

Promise	http://www.promise.com

Promise - FTP site	ftp://ftp.promise.com

Home	Contents

Chip Manufacturers | Software | Controllers/Joysticks | Hardware Controllers | Hard Drives

Machine Manufacturers/Suppliers | CD ROM | Sound Card

Video Card | Modems | Other Useful Sites


Hardware Manufacturers/Suppliers Links

Please select the link you require;

CD ROM

Chip Manufacturer

Controllers/Joysticks

Hard Drives

Hardware Controllers

Machine Manufacturers/Suppliers

Modems

Other Useful Sites

Software

Sound Card

Video Card

Home


I don`t seem to be able to use my joystick within the game what may be wrong ?

There are several things that may be causing this problem. Please read the following sections:

Make sure your joystick is connected properly.

Enable joystick control in your game

Be sure only one joystick port is active on your system.

Check to see that you have the correct driver loading.

Adjust the trim wheels on your joystick

Calibrate in Windows Control Panel

Disable any profilers or tray utilities

Joystick Specifics

Other Possibilities


I have just installed a game, the intro starts, the screen then goes black and nothing happens.

This can be attributed to either not having DirectX or one of it's components loaded or not having the correct version of DirectX installed. Try running DXSETUP from the games CD to give you the details of what DirectX drivers are loaded and which version is installed on your PC. Before you install the DirectX drivers that are supplied on the CD we do strongly recommend that you contact either your Machine Manufacturer/Supplier or the manufacturer of your Sound card/ Video card as some Video cards (such as Diamond, Matrox and Creative Labs) need specific drivers and can not use the standard drivers supplied to us by Microsoft.

It could also be that your Video card Drivers are having some problems switching to a specific screen resolution. Most DirectX applications use a resolution of 640x 480 as a default and if the desktop isn’t set to this resolution, then the DirectX drivers will need to run a palette translation routine; this will generally slow down graphics speed and may even lead to black screen lockups with cards that have problems switching resolutions. As before, we recommend that you contact your Machine Manufacturer/Supplier or the manufacturer of your Video card for updated drivers.

This can also occur if you have another program running such as the Office Shortcut Bar or a game controller profiler. If you have any of these things running then close them down and try running the game again. See the sections "Shut down all applications" and "Shut down all applications in the systems tray" for more details.


I receive an error message "Application error ..."

This error message is an indication that your computer either does not have DirectX installed or that you need to update your DirectX driver for your video card to run the game. We recommend contacting your Sound card/ Video card manufacturer and or your Machine Manufacturer/Supplier to obtain the latest DirectX compatible driver.


I receive an error message "BAD WINDOW FIELD"

This error message is an indication that your computer may need an updated DirectX driver for your video card to run the game. We recommend contacting your Sound card/ Video card manufacturer and or your Machine Manufacturer/Supplier to obtain the latest DirectX compatible driver.


I receive an error message "GETCPUSPEED" (or similar)

This error message is an indication that your computer may need an updated DirectX driver for your video card to run the game. We recommended that you check with your Machine Manufacturer/Supplier and/or your Sound card/ Video card manufacturer for any updated drivers that are available.

COMPAQ users: We have found that a work around for a sound issue with Compaq PC's that may also resolve this problem. If it does not work, we recommend updating your video or sound card driver as mentioned above. See another section on this page called "Not gettingany sound effects in the game, Compaq users"

Pentium MMX users: We have found that this error may occur when the machine the game is being installed/run on does not have DirectX 3.0a or higher installed ( this is the version with MMX enhancements). A possible solution is to install DirectX 3.0a of higher, which can be found on the game CD (see "Re-installing DirectX"). We also recommended that you check with your Machine Manufacturer/Supplier and/or your Sound card/ Video card manufacturer for any updated DirectX drivers that are available.


I still can not get the game to work

Well if you are on this page it means you are still having problems. If so then read on.

Today's PC's run with a multitude of different hardware and software combinations. Because of this there will be times when, even with these guides, you will not be able to get your game to work. So, what then? Well then it is time to call our Customer Service number. But before you reach for that phone please obtain the following information so as this will help us resolve your problem as quickly as possible.

If you have access to E-mail or you have a fax/modem connected to your machine then you can go to the section "Support Information". From there use the button "Contact Tech Support", a program will then run where you can enter your details and the details of the problem you are experiencing.

Alternatively if you do not own a Fax/Modem or you do not have E-mail support, you could use the same program we supply to examining your hardware but in a different way. Simply click on the button below, fill in the required boxes and the save to your desktop by clicking on the button "Save to Desktop" or you can send the information to your printer by selecting the "Print" button.

Otherwise the following information must be obtained from either the manufacturer of your PC or from within your enclosed documentation BEFORE calling our technical support line. Alternatively you could do a little detective work yourself and with the aid of the section below, find the information required.

1.	The error message displayed when the problem occurred (if any).

2.	A listing of your machine details, including:-

Processor speed and make	 	CD-ROM speed and make

Sound card make and model	Video card make and model

Amount of RAM available

Hard disk size and amount of free space

How to obtain the required Information.

1. 	Right click on My Computer.

2. 	Left click on Properties.

3. 	The "General information" screen will detail how much RAM you have free for the system use and also what processor you have installed (with Windows 95 version 4.00.950a, a Cyrix  processor will be detected as a 486, with version 4.00.950b a Cyrix will be described as "CyrixInstead" and AMD K6 chips will be "Authentic AMD").

4. 	Click on Device Manager.

5. 	Click on the "+" symbol next to the relevant category

CD-ROM driver

Display adapters

Sound video & game controllers.

You will then be able to see the manufacturer of these devices . Once you have this information click on the "Cancel" button to close the window down.

6. 	Double left click on "My Computer" then click square symbol to maximise screen.

7. 	Left click on your hard drive (C:\) and this will list how much Free disk space you have and the Total amount of disk space you have on the system.

8. 	Now close all the windows down. The next piece of information you need is the processor speed. The processor speed can be seen if you reset your PC, so if you close down your PC and when it re-starts look towards the top left or top right corner of the screen. You should see a processor clock speed eg 166 MHz. This is the processor speed that you need.

If you have any problems acquiring the above information then please contact your Machines Manufacturer/Supplier for further details.

Support Information

Machine/Hardware manufacturers


I/O card
A I/O card (Input/Output) is a separate card in your machine that contains extra hardware than normal. In this example it is a game controller. These cards normally have two joystick connectors on them. If you use one of these cards then the joystick connector on your sound cards must be disabled. Please check your documentation or contact your Sound card manufacturer for details.


IPX over two servers

For players to see a created IPX session we use a method devised by Novell known as SAP (Service Advertising Protocol). Players query the SAP socket (eg 0452hex) to see if there are any created sessions available. If, when you have create a session, you receive a message telling you that the SAP socket cannot be opened then another socket is already opened and therefore the players on the other servers cannot see the session.

Players using the same server should be able to see each other whether or not the SAP socket is open.


IPX setup

Make sure you are connected to the network or the network loop, that you have a Ethernet card plugged in and the correct drivers installed. Make sure you have the IPX/SPX drivers installed. Also make sure the IPX packet properties are the same frame type eg Ethernet 802.3. For more information see "Trouble Shooting Networks " section.


IRQ

Short for Interrupt Request Channel. Each piece of hardware is allotted a IRQ address, this then makes it easier for your system to know where to send information to that piece of hardwares has it's own "person address", so that instructions do not get "lost". If you have more than one piece of hardware using the same IRQ address then this can result in a conflict as your machine does not know what instructions it should send to which piece of hardware at that one address.


ISA

This is short for Industry Standard Architecture. This type of interface has been around for a very long time. It is used to plug in extra hardware, such as Video cards, Network cards, sound cards, etc. This interface is only a 16 Bit slot and therefore is slower than the PCI slot.


In DXSETUP DirectPlay is not certified.

This means that your machine is not setup for muliplayer games using IPX networks, serial link or Internet connection, or DirectX does not support your existing systems setup. Have a look at the section "Trouble Shooting Networks" to see if you have missed something when you installed IPX drivers onto your machine.

Another possibility could be if you installed DirectX 3 as the first DirectX installation on your PC (DirectX 2 was not previously installed), you will be unable to run many DirectX2 games that use DirectPlay. The reason is that DirectX 3 or higher uses different components.

DPLAYX.DLL

DPMODEMX.DLL

DPWSOCKX.DLL

whereas DirectX2 uses:

DPLAY.DLL

DPSERIAL.DLL

DPWSOCK.DLL

"No problem, just install DirectX 2, right?". Sorry, that doesn't work, since the DirectX 2 installer notices the more recent version of DirectPlay it refuses to install the older version of DirectPlay, even though they are separate files. The result of this is that DirectX 2 games will try to start, the game will try to run DirectX2's DirectPlay API but because it can not find it the game will fail to load. The only way to correct this is to manually copy the DirectX 2 DLL's into your C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory (change this path to where ever Windows is installed). This can very easily be done through Explorer.


 Installing IPX drivers and configuring protocols

After the drivers for the network card have been set up, you need to make sure that the proper IPX drivers and protocols are configured.

To see your network properties:

1.	Double-click on the My Computer icon.

2.	Double-click on Control Panel.

3.	Now double-click on the Network icon.

You should see at least the drivers shown above:

Client for Microsoft networks

your network card driver (yours may not be NE2000),

IPX protocol

NetBEUI

File and printer sharing for Microsoft networks

This configuration will allow you to share files, printers, and play network games with your family and friends.

Also, make sure you click on the Identification tab to give your computer a name and specify a work group. Computers that are in the same work group will all show up in network neighborhood, which is located on your desktop.

If you do not see all of the drivers and protocols listed above, use the "Add" button to install them. After the installation is complete, you will need to reboot your computer.

If you don't see any drivers or protocols at all, then your network adapter is not installed properly. Please read your network card's documentation for installation instructions.

Part One: Network Setup

Part Two: Network Trouble Shooting

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


Introduction

Welcome to Electronic Arts' Product Support help guide. This guide is designed to assist you with any difficulty you may be having getting your game to run. Trouble Shooting information and support information have been provided. Please take the time to go through the Trouble Shooting Guides if you are having difficulty, as we have provided solutions to the most common problems. In addition, other valuable support information is available on our web site at http://www.ea.com/techsupp/ which is updated weekly. Thank you for purchasing Electronic Arts software, we are pleased to have you as a customer.

Please note : This guide is best in a screen resolution of 800 x 600 by 256 colours or higher. It can be displayed in a lower resolution but some of the graphics may not be displayed in the right place.

Contents

This document is copyrighted. All rights are reserved. No part of this document may be copied, reproduced, translated, or reduced to any electronic medium or machine-readable form without the prior written consent of Electronic Arts, Customer Service Department, PO Box 835, Slough, Berkshire, England, SL3 8XU. © 1997 Electronic Arts. All rights reserved.


 Joystick Problems, Other Possibilities

Make sure the proper gameport driver for your sound card or game card is installed

Check your sound card and game card documentation to make sure you have the correct driver installed. Having the wrong driver will result in your joystick not working properly. You can usually find the gameport driver under  "Sound, video and game controllers" in the Device Manager. (Right-click on the My Computer icon and select Properties.)

Some customers have had luck installing the Microsoft Gameport joystick through the "add new hardware" applet in Control Panel. This may or may not work for you.

Power Management

Joystick calibration relies on timing. If the CPU speed of a system changes, so does the joystick calibration. Sometimes power management will activate and change the CPU speed to conserve power. This will cause erratic behavior from the joystick. You may want to try disabling power management temporarily to see if it is causing you difficulties.

Older sound cards, I/O cards, speed-fixed game cards.

If you have an older game card, sound card or I/O card, you may want to upgrade to a dedicated, speed-adjustable game  controller. The joystick ports on older game controllers can't handle the speed and timing requirements of newer games. These joystick ports were designed for a slower system and may cause problems on faster 486s or Pentiums.

Recently upgraded to a faster CPU

If you upgraded your CPU to an overdrive, you may have some ISA timing issues. You may want to check your motherboard manual and make sure the system settings in CMOS are the motherboard manufacturer's recommendation for your CPU. We strongly recommend consulting a specialist or your Machine Manufacturer/Supplier before attempting to alter your setup.

 ALTERING YOUR CMOS MAY RESULT IN YOUR SYSTEM NOT FUNCTIONING PROPERLY.

Make sure your joystick is connected properly.

Enable joystick control in your game

Be sure only one joystick port is active on your system.

Check to see that you have the correct driver loading.

Adjust the trim wheels on your joystick

Calibrate in Windows Control Panel

Disable any profilers or tray utilities

Joystick Specifics

Other Possibilities

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


 Joystick Specifics

Gravis Gamepad Pro

You must have the Gravis Grip driver installed for this joystick to work properly. Make sure that keyboard emulation is disabled if you are having problems. You can access this through the Grip icon in the system tray (located on the right side of the taskbar). Obtain the latest driver from http://www.gravis.com to fix joystick port problems.

Thrustmaster FLCS F-16

You can use the "2 axis, 2 button joystick" driver, the "2 button flight yoke" driver, or the "Custom" driver. You may have to use the TM utility to download a FLCS program that does not utilise the Trigger or button S2. If these buttons are mapped to the keyboard, you may not be able to calibrate properly.

Microsoft Sidewinder 3D Pro

You must have the Microsoft Sidewinder 3D Pro driver installed through the Windows Control Panel. Unload the Microsoft Device Profiler if you are having difficulty.

Microsoft Sidewinder Gamepad

Make sure that the Microsoft Sidewinder Gamepad driver is installed through the Windows Control Panel. Unload the Microsoft Device Profiler if you are having difficulty. Make sure the green light above the Mode button is on. This can be toggled with the Mode button on the game pad.

Logitech Wingman Extreme

Make sure this is configured as a Thrustmaster FCS in the Windows Control Panel. This joystick can also be configured as a 2 axis 2 button controller. You can find help on how to change joystick drivers in the documents: Check to see that you have the correct driver loading and make sure you calibrate the joystick in Windows Control Panel.

Make sure your joystick is connected properly.

Enable joystick control in your game

Be sure only one joystick port is active on your system.

Check to see that you have the correct driver loading.

Adjust the trim wheels on your joystick

Calibrate in Windows Control Panel

Disable any profilers or tray utilities

Joystick Specifics

Other Possibilities

Troubleshooting Guides

Support Information


Joystick still not working after it has been calibrated in Windows

If you have calibrated your joystick/controller in Windows 95 and are still having problems then the first thing you need to look at is DXSETUP. This is because if you have not installed DirectX in some form then you will not have the required software installed for the game to work correctly with a joystick/controller. Try running DXSETUP to confirm that you do have all the required software installed.

Otherwise check that the joystick/controller is enabled in the game and whether or not you need a specific driver for your joystick/controller to work correctly in Windows 95. Another page to look at is "Joystick problems, other possibilities".


Machine Manufacturers/Suppliers

Acer - UK	http://www.aceruk.co.uk

01628 533 422

Akhter - UK	http://www.akhter.co.uk

AST	http://www.ast.com

0990 611 611

Compaq	http://www.compaq.com

Compaq (UK) 	http://www.compaq.co.uk

0990 232 425

Dan - UK	http://www.dan.co.uk

0181 830 1100

Dell	http://www.dell.com

Dell - USA	http://www.us.dell.com

01344 720 000

Gateway - UK	http://www.uk.gw2k.com

Gateway - USA	http://www.gateway2000.com

0800 142 000

Hewlett-Packard	http://www.hp.com

Hewlett Packard	http://hpcc998.external.hp.com

01344 773 100

IBM Europe	http://www.europe.ibm.com

IBM USA	http://www.pc.ibm.com

01256 840 818

ICL	http://www.icl.com

Mesh - UK	http://www.meshplc.co.uk

0181 452 1111

NEC	http://www.nec.com

Packard-Bell	http://www.packardbell.com

Simply Computers	http://www.simply.co.uk

0181 523 4020

Tandem Computers	http://www.tandem.com

Tekram	http://www.tekram.com

Texas Instruments	http://www.ti.com

Time	01282 777 111

Tiny	0171 636 7613

Toshiba	http://www.toshiba.com/tais/csd/products/

Viglen	http://www.viglen.co.uk

0181 758 7000

Home	Contents

Chip Manufacturers | Software | Controllers/Joysticks | Hardware Controllers | Hard Drives

Machine Manufacturers/Suppliers | CD ROM | Sound Card

Video Card | Modems | Other Useful Sites


 Make sure that you have no other devices using your COM port or IRQ

Some resource problems may not show up in Device Manager as conflicts. This is because the devices seem to be sharing IRQs reliably. Some devices can share IRQs in certain situations, however this has been known to cause problems with modems. If you were able to get the COM port information from the previous step, you can use that information to check if any other devices are using the IRQ channel.

To check IRQ information:

1.	Right-click on the My Computer icon and select Properties.

2.	Click on the Device Manager tab at the top of the window.

3.	Double-click on the "Computer" icon at the top.

You should now see a screen similar to this:

Make sure that none of your COM ports are sharing an IRQ with any other device.

 Note: Only advanced users should attempt to change the resource settings of their devices.

If you do find that you do have a COM port sharing an IRQ then contact your Hardware Manufacturer/Supplier for details on how and what you can change.

What is a COM port?

Check and make sure you don't have a device conflict

See which COM port your modem is using

Make sure no other devices are using your COM port or IRQ

Disabling serial ports if using COM 1 or 2

Perform a test connection with HyperTerminal

Enter in your modem's correct INIT string

Disable compression and error correction.

Other Possibilities

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


 Make sure your joystick is connected properly

This may seem really basic, but believe it or not many joystick difficulties are caused by the joystick connector not being firmly seated on the joystick plug. Some joystick connectors fit loosely on the plug and will become dislodged if the cable is pulled just a little. Check the connection first to make sure your problems are not being caused by a dislodged connector:

1.	Shut down your computer FIRST.

2.	Make sure the joystick connector is firmly seated on the plug.

3.	When you have finished checking the connector re-start your machine.

 IMPORTANT: The joystick plugs into a 15 pin connector. Sometimes there is more than one 15 pin connector on the back of your computer, such as the connector on a network card. Make sure your joystick isn't plugged into the wrong connector.

You also may have a connector from an older, disabled joystick port. If you are using a dedicated game card, make sure the joystick is plugged into the game card instead of your sound card.

Make sure your joystick is connected properly.

Enable joystick control in your game

Be sure only one joystick port is active on your system.

Check to see that you have the correct driver loading.

Adjust the trim wheels on your joystick

Calibrate in Windows Control Panel

Disable any profilers or tray utilities

Joystick Specifics

Other Possibilities

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


 Manually switching Video modes (Screen resolution)

One of the most common problems with DirectX games is Mode Switching. When a DirectX game starts, DirectX tells the video driver to switch modes to match the resolution and colour depth supported by the game. Some Drivers will have a problem with this Mode Switching and yield a crash error or blank screen lockup. If you are having any difficulty starting your game, you should try manually switching video modes.

To manually adjust your video mode:

1.	Right-click on a clear section of your desktop (not over an icon such as the "My Computer" icon) and choose Properties.

2.	Click on the Settings tab at the upper right of the window. (see example below)

3.	Now adjust the Color palette option to what ever the game needs to run. For example 256 colours and the Desktop area to 640 by 480 pixels. If your driver lets you alter the viewport size separately, sometimes referred to as "virtual desktop", make sure it is also set to 640x480 or you may encounter problems.

NOTE: Some games may support higher resolutions and colour depths, such as 800x600 with thousands of colours (16-Bit colour). Make sure that if your game supports other video modes, that you manually set your desktop to the modes supported by the game.

Checking the status of DirectX

Manually switching video modes

Re-starting your computer

Shut down all applications

Shut down applications in the system tray

Check for conflicts

Check your virtual memory settings

Re-installing DirectX

Restoring Video Drivers or Audio Drivers

Disable hardware acceleration

Update your drivers

Get the latest version of DirectX

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


Modems

Creative Labs	http://www.creaf.com

Creative Labs - UK	http://www.creative-labs.co.uk

Creative Labs FTP Site - USA	ftp://ftp.creaf.com

01889 344 322

Diamond	http://www.diamondmm.com

Diamond FTP Site    UK	http://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/computing/vendor/diamondmm/

Diamond FTP Site    USA	ftp://ftp.diamondmm.com

01753 501 410

Hayes - UK	http://www.hayes.co.uk

Hayes - USA	http://www.hayes.com

01252 775533

Pace	http://www.pacecom.co.uk

01274 537031

Psion Dacom	http://www.psiondacom.com

01908 261686

U.S.Robotics	http://www.usr.com

U.S. Robotics   UK	http://www.usr.co.uk

01189 441 000

Zoom	http://www.zoomtel.com

01493 748818

Home	Contents

Chip Manufacturers | Software | Controllers/Joysticks | Hardware Controllers | Hard Drives

Machine Manufacturers/Suppliers | CD ROM | Sound Card

Video Card | Modems | Other Useful Sites


 Modems Problems, Other Possibilities

Put your modem on COM 1 or COM 2

Although modems should work fine on any assigned COM port, we have seen modems function best on COM 1 or 2. If your modem is on a COM port other than 1 or 2, and you are having modem difficulty, consider moving it to COM 1 or 2.

 NOTE: Only advanced users should attempt to modify the resource settings of their devices.

Force a lower baud rate on your modem.

Sometimes noisy phone lines can give you difficulty connecting at higher speeds. Generally, games don't use higher transfer rates than 9,600 or 14,400 anyway. So if you are having problems connecting, try forcing a lower baud rate in your modem properties.

What is a COM port?

Check and make sure you don't have a device conflict

See which COM port your modem is using

Make sure no other devices are using your COM port or IRQ

Disabling serial ports if using COM 1 or 2

Perform a test connection with HyperTerminal

Enter in your modem's correct INIT string

Disable compression and error correction.

Other Possibilities

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


My Video card has lost some of its normal functions after I have loaded DirectX from the game CD.

When you install DirectX you may find that certain makes of Video cards do not work at their best if you use the standard DirectX or Windows 95 Video drivers. These cards, such as Diamond, Matrox, Creative Labs and a few others, need the drivers specifically written for them by the manufacturer.

If you have installed DirectX and have found that your card has lost some of its normal functions, then re-install the driver specific for your Video card (this can be done by running DXSETUP again and choosing Restore Video Drivers ). If you are uncertain which driver you should be using, or you just want to check that you are using the most up to date driver there is for your card, then contact either your Video card manufacturer or your Machine Manufacturers/Suppliers.

It is best to do this regularly as new drivers are released frequently. These new drivers are revised to fix problems in older drivers or to add newer features, such as to include the latest version of DirectX, so they are worth acquiring.


No Hardware Support

The driver does not support DirectX, so Hardware Emulation will be performed. This may work fine, but processor power must be used to perform this emulation and game performance may suffer. In some cases, it will not work at all. It is recommended to check with your Machine Manufacturer/Supplier and/or your Sound card/ Video card manufacturer for any updated drivers that may be available.


Not enough free memory

We have found that although some machines are fitted with 16 Mb of RAM some of this RAM is used by the machine for other pieces of hardware, such as Video cards, and so is not free to run programs with.

To check this :

Click the · Start button in the Task bar and then select Settings, Control Panel.

From the Control Panel window double click on System.

To the bottom right of this new window you will see a section called Computer. Here it will list the type of CPU and the maximum available RAM to the system. If it only shows 15 Mb (or less)  then you will not be able to run games that need 16 Mb of RAM.

The only thing you can do is to upgrade your machine, either by adding more RAM or adding a separate Video card, or you take the game back to where you purchased it for a refund. However you will find that more and more games will need 16 Mb of RAM or more to run, so in the long run it would be worth looking at upgrading in some way.

Another possiblity is that you have a game controller, such as a Microsoft 3D game pad, that is using a profiler that is running in the system tray. If this is the case try unloading the profiler from the systems tray by right clicking on the profiler icon and then selecting "Unload". This is because the profiler can take as much as 512K of RAM memory, which can be enough to stop a game from running.


Not getting any sound effect in the game, Compaq users

Compaq has released a new driver that will certify under Microsoft's DirectX. You will need to obtain this driver in order for DirectX to work properly. Compaq's web site has two files (SP3184.EXE & SP3183.EXE) which contain updated DirectX drivers for the ESS 1888. These files can be downloaded from http://www.compaq.com/support/files/allfiles.html. Be sure to check the Presario production date to ensure downloading of the proper file. After installing this new driver it will be necessary to uninstall the game, then reinstall the game so it will be able to pick up the hardware driver change. In addition, if you are still having problems getting sound try using the following steps.

1.	Click on the · Start button, highlight Settings, then Control Panel.

2.	In the Control Panel, double-click the Multimedia icon.

3.	In the window that appears, make sure that the AUDIO tab is selected.

4.	In the PLAYBACK section, under "Preferred Device:", change the selection to "Game compatible device". If you do not see this option, please see below!

5.	At the bottom left of this window, also make sure that the box labeled "Use preferred devices only" is CHECKED.

6.	Click on the APPLY button and the speaker icon should disappear from the right corner of the taskbar.

Most DirectX games should now install, load & run correctly, with sound, and without error messages.

The draw back for this setup is that you will no longer be able to change the volume from the speaker icon, since it will no longer appear on the taskbar. You will still be able to control the sound manually with the monitor knob, through the START\ENTERTAINMENT\COMPAQ MULTIMEDIA\COMPAQ AUDIO MIXER setting, or through the START\PROGRAMS\ACCESSORIES\MULTIMEDIA\VOLUME CONTROL (both are through the Start menu). This setting will also cause the DirectX install program to show the Audio Driver as "No Hardware Support" - this is expected with the "Game Compatible" setting and does not cause any problems.


Not getting any sound effects in the game.
The first thing you need to do is to run  DXSETUP and make sure that you have a Certified Audio Driver installed. Obtain DirectX certified driver from Sound card manufacturer or your Machine Manufacturer/Suppliers

Otherwise other things to check are :

Make sure that your speakers are turned on.

The volume is turned up.

That the speakers are plugged in to your sound card at the back of your machine.

These soulutions sound simple but they can be missed.

Compaq users


Others Useful Sites

Windows 95 Drivers	http://www.cobb.com/w95/software/drivers

Frank Condron's Windows page	http://www.conitech.com/windows

Home	Contents

Chip Manufacturers | Software | Controllers/Joysticks | Hardware Controllers | Hard Drives

Machine Manufacturers/Suppliers | CD ROM | Sound Card

Video Card | Modems | Other Useful Sites


PCI

This stands for Peripheral Component Interconnect. This is a type of expansion slot on your mother board that allows you to plug in extra hardware, such as Video cards, Network cards, etc. This slot is a 32 Bit interface and it uses Plug and Play.


Part One: Network Setup

Finding the right Ethernet Adapter

Deciding which type of cable to use

Which Bus type to choose

Terminating the first and last computer

Detecting the Adapter in Windows

Installing IPX drivers and configuring protocols


Part Two: Network Trouble Shooting

IMPORTANT: These trouble shooting steps are written for people who are on a "Home-type" IPX networks and are not intended for computers on administrated networks. Please check with your network administrator before attempting any changes described in the following documents.

Force a frame type

Check Network Neighborhood for other computers

Specify a network address

Verify that the network is terminated on both ends


 Perform a test Connection with HyperTerminal

HyperTerminal is a Windows 95 utility that lets you connect to a BBS (Bulletin Board Services) and other computers. In order to run a connection test, you will need to make sure HyperTerminal is installed on your machine and that you have another willing party to connect with.

To see if HyperTerminal is installed:

1.	Click on the · Start button

2.	Highlight Programs, then Accessories. You should see HyperTerminal in the accessories menu. If you do not, you will need to install it through the "Add/Remove programs" applet in Control Panel.

If you have HyperTerminal Installed:

For the dialing computer:

1.	Click on the · Start button.

2.	Highlight Programs, then Accessories, then click on HyperTerminal. You should now see the Hyper Terminal window.

3.	Double-click on the HYPERTRM icon. This may or may not appear with an EXE at the end.

You will be greeted with this window asking you to name your connection:

Enter in any name you like, such as TEST and then click OK.

4.	Now enter the phone number of the computer you are dialing:

Once the number is entered, click OK.

5.	Now get ready to dial. You should see a window similar to this:

Before you click dial, make sure that the party at the other end is ready to answer and has followed the instructions below:

For the answering computer:

1.	Click on the · Start button.

2.	Highlight Programs, then Accessories, then click on HyperTerminal. You should now see the Hyper Terminal window.

3.	Double click on the HYPERTRM icon. This may or may not appear with an EXE at the end. You will be greeted with this window asking you to name your connection:

Just hit the Cancel button and you will end up in front of the Hyper Terminal program window. You should see a blinking cursor in the top left corner.

4.	You will need to enter in an AT command string so that your modem will know to answer the phone. Type the following command exactly as you see it and press the Enter key:

AT S0=1

Note: That's a zero, so make sure you don't enter the letter "o" in it's place.

Once you press enter, you should see the word "OK" telling you that the command has been accepted.

To turn answering off, enter AT S0=0. Make sure to do this after you are done, or your modem will try to answer every incoming call. To check the status of answering, enter AT S0=?. You will see 001 or 000 indicating On or Off.

5.	Now wait for the other computer to call.

Both computers should see the word CONNECT on their terminal window. Once this happens, both users should be able to see what the other is typing. You may not be able to see your own typing, but should see the typing of the other user.

If you are not able to connect or see the typing of the other user, one of the computers may have a conflict with the modem. HyperTerminal is one of the easiest ways to connect via modem and should work if the modem is functional. Check with your Machine Manufacturer/Supplier or the Modem manufacturer for a resolution if you are not able to connect.

What is a COM port?

Check and make sure you don't have a device conflict

See which COM port your modem is using

Make sure no other devices are using your COM port or IRQ

Disabling serial ports if using COM 1 or 2

Perform a test connection with HyperTerminal

Enter in your modem's correct INIT string

Disable compression and error correction.

Other Possibilities

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


Problem with a modem connection?

If Device Manager reports a conflict with a COM port or your modem, you will need to resolve this as this is most likely why you are having difficulty connecting.


Problems opening a com port

For some reason Windows 95 can not open the com port that you have told the game to use. Make sure that you have specified the correct com port ( com 1 is normally used by the serial mouse). Try closing all applications, such as messaging systems ( do you have fax software installed that runs at startup) or try installing/reinstalling the com port. Check which com port your modem is using by selecting · Start, Settings, Control Panel and then Modems. Now highlight your modem and select Properties, on this screen it will tell you what com port your modem is using.


Problems with Display drivers

If you are using a computer that is running Windows 95, you will eventually have to update your video/sound drivers and install DirectX in order to maintain compatibility with current software. Occasionally these updates can cause Windows 95 not to start properly. This is not a serious issue and can usually be resolved through Windows 95 Safe Mode. If you are having problems starting Windows after installing DirectX or updating your video driver, you are probably experiencing one of these symptoms:

Windows starts normally, but reports an error that your display adapter is not installed properly.

Windows starts, but your display is scrambled or is otherwise unreadable.

Windows tries to start, but hangs with a blank screen.

Checking the status of DirectX

Manually switch video modes

Re-starting your computer

Shut down all applications

Shut down apps in the system tray

Check for conflicts

Check your virtual memory settings

Re-installing  DirectX

Disable hardware acceleration

Update your drivers

Get the latest version of DirectX

Troubleshooting Guides

Support Information


RAM

This is short for Random Access Memory. This is the memory your machine uses to load and run programs in.


 Re-installing DirectX

DirectX is a Microsoft games API and is considered a part of Windows 95. It must be installed in order for games and other applications that use DirectX to function properly. At the time this document is being created there are several versions of DirectX-- 1, 2, 3, 3a and 5.0. Most likely, if you are running one of our games, you have version 2, 3, 3a or 5.0 on the game CD (we always supply the newest available).

Newer versions of this API have been released by Microsoft to fix problems and improve performance over earlier versions. If you are using an earlier version of DirectX and are experiencing problems, you will probably want to upgrade to a later version. You can find DirectX at Microsoft's web site at http://www.microsoft.com.

 IMPORTANT: In very rare cases the installation of DirectX will overwrite your display driver and cause Windows to not start properly. Although this is usually not a serious or common occurrence, it may require that you restore your video drivers or re-install Windows, which will only restore any corrupted files it will not change anthing else. It is recommended that you check with your  Machine Manufacturer/Supplier to see if your system is DirectX compatible. If you experience similar difficulties, please consult your Video card manufacturer or system vendor for information on how to ensure that your system will work properly with DirectX. You can also check out the section Problems with Display drivers.

To re-install DirectX:

1.	Put the game CD in your CD-ROM drive.

2.	From your Windows 95 desktop, left-click the · Start button, highlight Find, then left-click on Files or Folders.

3.	In the Find window, set the "Look In:" field to your CD-ROM drive (it will probably display the name of the game and a drive letter such as "D:" or "E:").

4.	In the "Named:" field, type in DXSETUP and press enter. This will search the game CD for the DXSETUP.EXE file.

5.	When the file appears in the results box, simply double-click on it.

6.	You should now see the DXSETUP window. You can re-install DirectX by clicking on the Reinstall DirectX button and restarting your computer.

You can also try unchecking the "Use 3D hardware acceleration" box and clicking "OK".

Checking the status of DirectX

Manually switching video modes

Re-starting your computer

Shut down all applications

Shut down applications in the system tray

Check for conflicts

Check your virtual memory settings

Re-installing DirectX

Restoring Video Drivers or Audio Drivers

Disable hardware acceleration

Update your drivers

Get the latest version of DirectX

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


 Re-starting your computer

Believe it or not, some unknown problems such as lockups, crashes, sound difficulties, etc. can be resolved by a simply restarting your machine (known as a Cold Boot). If your computer has been on for a while and you are having problems starting a game, try a cold boot:

1.	Shut down your computer from the · Start menu, then shut off the power to your computer for 10 seconds or more.

2.	Now turn the computer back on, let it boot up, and then try to start the game again

Checking the status of DirectX

Manually switching video modes

Re-starting your computer

Shut down all applications

Shut down applications in the system tray

Check for conflicts

Check your virtual memory settings

Re-installing DirectX

Restoring Video Drivers or Audio Drivers

Disable hardware acceleration

Update your drivers

Get the latest version of DirectX

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


 Regular Maintenance

Regular maintenance is an important part of owning a computer. Like the family car, computers need to be checked and maintained regularly. If you've owned your computer for a while and have never done any maintenance or updates, you might run into difficulties. Use the tips in the following sections to help you perform some of the tasks that will help your computer run smoother, and help you prevent errors and data loss.

 IMPORTANT: The tips below are intended to make you aware of some of the maintenance procedures that should be performed regularly. As always, we suggest getting your Machine Manufacturer/Suppliers recommendation on maintenance and updates.

Running Scandisk

Running Defrag

Freeing Hard drive space

Updating Drivers

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


Removing Windows 95 Programs

There are two ways to remove the game fully from your computer . The first method is to use the un-install program that comes with most, is not all of our games. This can normally by found in the · Start menu in the same place as where you would normally start the game. The second method is to use Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel. First, click on the. · Start button on your taskbar, then Settings , Control Panel. Now click on Add/Remove Programs. Select the program you wish to remove from the menu and then click in the Add/Remove box. Also see the section "Freeing Hard Disk space"


 Restoring Video Drivers or Audio Drivers

If you are having problems after installing a standard version of DirectX from a game CD then you can restore your old Audio or Video Drivers by running DXSETUP.

To Do this follow the procedure below.

1.	Put the game CD in your CD-ROM drive.

2.	From your Windows 95 desktop, left-click the · Start button, highlight Find, then left-click on Files or Folders.

3.	In the Find window, set the "Look In:" field to your CD-ROM drive (it will probably display the name of the game and a drive letter such as "D:" or "E:").

4.	In the "Named:" field, type in DXSETUP and press enter. This will search the game CD for the DXSETUP.EXE file.

5.	When the file appears in the results box, simply double-click on it.

You will now see a window similar to above.

6.	To restore either your Audio or Video Drivers simply click on the required button at the bottom of the window, either " Restore Audio drivers" or "Restore Display drivers". DXSETUP will now restore your original drivers.

7.	When it has finished it will prompt you to restart your computer, just click on the "Yes" button to complete the process.

Checking the status of DirectX

Manually switch video modes

Re-starting your computer

Shut down all applications

Shut down apps in the system tray

Check for conflicts

Check your virtual memory settings

Re-installing  DirectX

Restoring Video Drivers or Audio Drivers

Disable hardware acceleration

Update your drivers

Get the latest version of DirectX

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


 Running Defrag

Having a regularly defragmented hard drive can help prevent disk errors. Since disk errors lead to data loss, this is a good thing. The fragmentation of data occurs over time as files are added and deleted from the hard drive. Having too much fragmentation can increase the chance of disk errors and data loss.

A file becomes fragmented if it is copied to an area of the disk that is not big enough to hold it. In order for the file to fit, the remaining part is copied to another area on the disk. Although this data is readable, the hard drive has to perform multiple seeks to find the whole file. This creates more work for the hard drive, and increases the time it takes to read files. When writing data to the drive, fragmentation increases the chance of errors.

Notice the data representation above. Files will always be copied to the next available set of clusters on the disk. If you defragment your hard drive, the files will be organised so that they occupy contiguous clusters, as shown by the dark blue rectangles.

Windows 95 has a built in utility for defragmenting your hard drive. There are also third party utilities available for defragmenting.

Defrag can be run through your · Start menu by highlighting Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and clicking on Disk Defragmenter.

Choose which drive you want to defragment and click OK. Defrag will report the status of fragmentation and give you the option to defragment. We recommend defragmenting your hard drive(s) every week.

Running Scandisk

Running Defrag

Freeing Hard drive space

Updating Drivers

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


 Running Scandisk

There are many components on your computer that are accessed many times each second, but not like your hard drive. The hard drive on your computer is accessed every time you load a program, and every time your programs needs to process data, store or retrieve it. The hard drive also has moving parts: a motor that moves the read/write head across the disk's platters. The calibration on this read/write head has to be extremely precise. Although hard drives are very reliable, occasionally errors occur when data is being written to the disk.

These errors will be referred to as lost clusters, cross-linked files and directories, incorrect file sizes, and the most serious: errors in the FAT table (file allocation table). Errors in the FAT table are particularly dangerous because this table is where all information is stored about the clusters that your files occupy. If the FAT table loses track of where your data is, it's as good as gone. Although some errors are not as serious as others, all errors should be detected and corrected as soon as possible.

 IMPORTANT: Disk maintenance is good, but nothing is as good as BACKING UP YOUR DATA! If the data on your computer is important to you, back it up! Nothing can guarantee that you won't lose data unless you have it backed up to a safe place. If you own a computer, there is a chance you will experience data loss at sometime or other. Don't let this be an "I told you so" situation.

Windows 95 has a built-in utility for detecting and repairing these errors. You can also obtain third party utilities for disk maintenance and repair, but for this document, we will be dealing with Scandisk.

Scandisk can be run from your · Start menu by highlighting Programs, Accessories, System Tools, then clicking on Scandisk. You can select the drive you wish to check and click on the Start button on the Scandisk window. Scandisk will report if it finds any errors and will give you the option to repair them.

We recommend running Scandisk once a week or more depending on how much you use your computer.

Running Scandisk

Running Defrag

Freeing Hard drive space

Updating Drivers

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


Safe Mode

Windows 95 Safe Mode is where your machine will boot up but will only load the minimum amount of drivers required for Windows 95 to work. For example, it will just load a standard VGA driver for your video card rather than your manufacturer specific driver, this allows you to boot up and correct problems with video card drivers, for example, when they become corrupted or if the wrong driver has been loaded by mistake. The only problem with booting into Safe Mode is that your CD ROM drive will not be recognised unless you are loading a DOS driver for the CD ROM in your startup files (the Config.sys and the Autoexec.bat).


Section 1


Section 2


Section 3, Harware Manufacturers/Suppliers
Section 3, Hardware Manufacturers/Suppliers


 See which COM port your Modem is using

In order to establish that no other conflicts exist, we need to check to see which COM port your modem is using.

To check your modem's COM port:

1.	Right-click on the My Computer icon and select Properties.

2.	Click on the Device Manager tab at the top of the window.

3.	Expand the "Modem" branch by clicking on the "+" next to the modem.

Now left click once on your installed modem so as to highlight it, and then click on the Properties button. Once the window comes up, click on the Modem tab at the top of the window. Some modem properties may appear differently than shown below. If your modem is using a COM port other than 1 or 2, make sure you get the IRQ channel information by clicking on the Resources tab (not seen below.)

The modem in the example shown above is using COM 2. Please use the following table to determine which IRQ your modem is using:

COM 1 uses IRQ 4

COM 2 uses IRQ 3

COM 3 uses IRQ 4

COM 4 uses IRQ 3

 IMPORTANT: If you have a device on COM 1, like a mouse, then you may have conflicts with devices using COM 3 because they share the same IRQ. Likewise, devices on COM 2 may conflict with devices on COM 4. Interrupt sharing does not usually work well; we recommend that you use the COM 1 or COM 2 port for your modem. If you have other devices that use a COM port, make sure the port is using an interrupt other than 3 or 4.

 Note: Only advanced users should attempt to change the resource settings of their devices.

If you do find that you do have a conflict then contact your Hardware Manufacturer/Supplier for details on how and what you can change.

What is a COM port?

Check and make sure you don't have a device conflict

See which COM port your modem is using

Make sure no other devices are using your COM port or IRQ

Disabling serial ports if using COM 1 or 2

Perform a test connection with HyperTerminal

Enter in your modem's correct INIT string

Disable compression and error correction.

Other Possibilities

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


 Shut down all applications

Windows wouldn't be Windows if you couldn't run all sorts of cool applications, however some of them may cause problems with your games. Anything that may be running on your computer should be shut down before you run your game. Even if your applications are not causing conflicts, they are using valuable resources like memory and CPU power. In order to make sure that your game runs as smoothly and as reliably as possible, make sure you shut down applications like Netscape, MS Exchange, MS Word, Excel, and anything else on your taskbar.

In particular, make sure you shut down the MS Office shortcut bar. Having this application running while trying to run a game may cause a crash to the desktop, or may cause the graphics to not function properly. Please shut down this program before running your game.

Checking the status of DirectX

Manually switching video modes

Re-starting your computer

Shut down all applications

Shut down applications in the system tray

Check for conflicts

Check your virtual memory settings

Re-installing DirectX

Restoring Video Drivers or Audio Drivers

Disable hardware acceleration

Update your drivers

Get the latest version of DirectX

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


 Shut down applications in the system tray

Although not extremely likely, programs running in the system tray can sometimes cause conflicts with DirectX games. The system tray runs on the right side of the taskbar and will look something like this:

These icons are programs that may be running on your system; they all do different things. Some of these icons can be shut down by right-clicking on them, and choosing exit or close. Others can only be shut down by pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL (we do not recommend doing this).

Starting from the left:

Volume control. This lets you control Windows volume and other settings, such as treble and bass. This should be left running.

McAfee Vshield, virus protection. This should be left enabled.

System Agent. This automates necessary system tasks such as Scandisk and Defrag (see your Windows 95 documentation). Sometimes these tasks will start while you're running other programs. You can disable this by right-clicking on it. Just remember to enable it when you're finished.

Flexicd. This is a small program for playing audio CD's. Sometimes this will conflict with programs that use red book audio; you can shut it down by right-clicking on it.

Microsoft's game device profiler. This allows you to customise the 3D gamepad for any game. If you are having difficulty with your joystick, try double-clicking on it and disabling the profiles, or right-click on it and choose unload.

Quickres. This lets you change colour depths and resolutions "on the fly" (without resetting your machine). This cannot be disabled by right-clicking.

Gravis Gamepad Pro utility (gcc.exe). This lets you turn on and off keyboard emulation. Click on it and disable the emulation if you are having problems with your joystick. If you have this and your joystick is plugged into a Soundblaster 16, SB32, or AWE32/64, you may experience difficulties. Please obtain the latest drivers at http://www.gravis.com.

Time. Double-click on this to get the time and date. This should be left running.

Checking the status of DirectX

Manually switching video modes

Re-starting your computer

Shut down all applications

Shut down applications in the system tray

Check for conflicts

Check your virtual memory settings

Re-installing  DirectX

Restoring Video Drivers or Audio Drivers

Disable hardware acceleration

Update your drivers

Get the latest version of DirectX

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


Slow Modem/Serial play

Within the game try turning the sound effects off, and/or reduce the baud rate to its lowest setting to increase reliability eg 9,600 baud.

For Modems; try turning off error correction and data compression on both machines. See the section "Diable Compression and Error Correction"

For best performance make sure your PC is equipped with a UART 16550 Com Port. You will find that most Pentium machines will have this type of com port but normally 486 machines will be fitted with the slower 8250 chips. Also look at Modem Problems,Other Possibilities.


 So, what is the problem?

 DirectX and Video problems

Why do I need to install DirectX on my machine. Isn't it already set up for me ?

What is Direct3D and what difference does it make to my games ?

I have just installed a game, the intro starts, the screen then goes black and nothing happens.

After installing the game and the DirectX drivers supplied on the CD I find that:

1. Windows starts normally, but reports an error stating that your display adapter is not installed properly.

2. Windows starts, but your display is scrambled or otherwise unreadable.

3. Windows tries to start, but hangs with a blank screen.

How do I change desktop resolution to 16 Bit Colour mode to run the game ?

In DXSETUP DirectPlay is not certified. Why is this ?

My Video card has lost some of its normal functions after I have loaded DirectX from the game CD.

When I install I get a Blank screen or a message reading "Direct Draw Operation Failed : DDERR_GENERIC. Trying to select 640X480X16"

I receive a Fatal Exception Error when launching or exiting the game

I receive a error message saying "tDDraw:tPrimarySurface: Create primary surface failed. Operation requires the application to have exclusive mode but the application does not have exclusive mode".

I receive an error message "GETCPUSPEED" (or similar)

I receive an error message "BAD WINDOW FIELD"

I receive an error message "Application error ..."

Sound Problems

I am not getting any sound effects in the game.

I have multiple sound cards and am having difficulty getting the sound to work.

Joystick/controller Problems

I don`t seem to be able to use my joystick within the game. What could be wrong?

I have calibrated my joystick in Window 95 but it still does not working correctly in the game?

Network Problems

I have created an IPX network game and another player cannot see my session, what`s wrong?

I have created an IPX network game and another player on a different server cannot see my game. Why is this?

Why can`t the SAP socket be opened ?

Modem/Serial Problems

When I try to create or join a game in Windows 95 I get the message `Unable to initialise`. What does this mean?

In a serial/modem game the game pauses and is slow. What can I do about this ?

Other Problems

How do I remove Windows 95 programs from my machine?

The game will not allow me to install it to my hard disk. It gets a short way through the installer bar then stops with an error message.

I have a machine fitted with 16 Mb of RAM but I get the message " Not enough free memory"

If you have an Internet connection then click on the grey button below ( or the blue writing) for details of up-to-date problems that have been resolved or frequently asked questions.

  Technical support - new issues.  On this page chose "Top 3 Issues" which can be found to the top left of the main page.

Still having problems! Then go to here "HELP!!"


Software

Microsoft (USA) 	http://www.microsoft.com

Microsoft USA	ftp://ftp.microsoft.com

Microsoft UK	01189 271 000

Home	Contents

Chip Manufacturers | Software | Controllers/Joysticks | Hardware Controllers | Hard Drives

Machine Manufacturers/Suppliers | CD ROM | Sound Card

Video Card | Modems | Other Useful Sites


Sound Card

Acer	http://www.acer.com/aac/products/periph/index.htm

01628 533 422

Advance Logic	http://www.avance.com

Aztech	http://www.aztech.com

01734 814 121

Creative Labs	http://www.creaf.com

Creative Labs - UK	http://www.creative-labs.co.uk

Creative Labs FTP Site - USA	ftp://ftp.creaf.com

01189 344 322

Crystal Semiconductors	http://www.cirrus.com/prodtech/crystal.html

Diamond	http://www.diamondmm.com

Diamond FTP Site    UK	http://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/computing/vendor/diamondmm/

Diamond FTP Site    USA	ftp://ftp.diamondmm.com

01753 501 410

Ensoniq	http://www.ensoniq.com

ESS Technology	http://www.esstech.com

Gravis	http://www.gravis.com

01703 653 377

IBM (Mwave cards)	http://www4.pc.ibm.com/aptips/3b7e_51a.html

01256 840 818

Media Vision	http://www.svtus.com

Media Vision FTP site	ftp://ftp.mediavis.com

Miro Computer Products	http://www.miro.com

01494 510250

Orchid Technology	http://www.orchid.com

01256 479 898

Reveal	None listed

Trust	http://www.trust.box.nl/GB/index.htm

Home	Contents

Chip Manufacturers | Software | Controllers/Joysticks | Hardware Controllers | Hard Drives

Machine Manufacturers/Suppliers | CD ROM | Sound Card

Video Card | Modems | Other Useful Sites


Spain (EA Spain)
Rufino Gonzalez 23 bis.

Planta 1a.

Local 2

28037 Madrid

Tel No  91 - 754  5540


 Specify a network address

Although unlikely, some connection problems are caused by computers having different network addresses specified, make sure that the computers that you want to connect with have the same network address.

To specify a network address:

1.	Double-click on the My Computer icon.

2.	Double-click on Control Panel.

3.	Now double-click on the Network icon.

4.	Highlight the "IPX/SPX-compatible Protocol" and click on the Properties button. Then click on the Advanced tab at the top of the window. You should see a screen similar to this:

Make sure that the network address is the same for all computers trying to connect. If "0" does not work, try another value (like 12345 or any set of numbers). Just make sure the value is the same for all computers or you will not be able to connect. The default value for Network Address is "0" (zero).

Part One: Network Setup

Part Two: Network Trouble Shooting

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


Support Information

Electronic Arts has a Customer Service Department ready to help you with any problems you may encounter with this game. Electronic Arts Customer Service is available Monday to Thursday from 9.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. and 9.00 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. on Friday on (01753) 546465. Hard copies of the Trouble Shooting Guides, and other documents are also available 24 hour a day from this number on Faxback, these cover most common problems at present and this service is updated regularly. Or you may write to us at the following address, including a daytime telephone number with full details of your machine and the problem you are experiencing.

Electronic Arts Customer Service, PO BOX 835, Slough, Berkshire, England SL3 8XU.

How to Reach us On-Line

UK

INTERNET E-MAIL: uk-support@ea.com

WORLD WIDE WEB: Access our Web Site at http://www.ea.com

Electronic Arts Games Hintline Number: 0891 669944. Calls will be charged at 50p per minute. Before you call this number, please seek the permission of the person responsible for paying the bill.

If you do need to contact Technical Support, use the button below before attempting other methods. This method allows us to receive information about your installed devices and system settings to help us effectively trouble shoot your difficulty. To use this facility you must make sure that your Regional Setting in Control Panel have been set up correctly.

France (EA France)	Germany (EA Germany)	Spain (EA Spain)	Sweden (EA Nordic)	United States (EA US)

Contents


Sweden (EA Nordic)

Business Campus

Johanneslundsvägen 2

194 81 Upplands Väsby

Tel No  08- 590 301 51


 Terminating the first and last computer

If you are using a thin coax type network, you will need to make sure the first and last computer are "Terminated" properly. This means purchasing a BNC style network terminating resistor and a BNC style "T" adapter. These inexpensive little items can be found in any computer store that carries networking supplies. If the coax is run directly into the network card, your network will not function properly.

Here is how the termination should be installed on the first and last computer:

Part One: Network Setup

Part Two: Network Trouble Shooting

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


 The System Properties window

To get to the correct screen, right click on the My Computer icon and choose Properties. If you’ve named your computer something else, then click on that icon. It’s usually a picture of a computer in the upper left hand corner of the desktop.

Tabs are the little headings at the top of the window. They let you see different screens that are organised together without opening lots of different windows. To pick a certain tab, just left-click on it.

DEVICE MANAGER TAB

While Windows 95 does manage your computer’s parts for you, they still do require I/O, IRQ, DMA, and COM ports to work. If you don’t know what these are, that’s okay - they’re just different ways that the CPU talks to the other stuff on your system. Each of these different ways also has different channels, like a T.V. or radio. You can get communication problems if different devices are set up to use the same channel to communicate with; it’s sort of like having two people talk to you at the same time - it’s easy to get confused. This is called a device conflict and can lead to stuff not working right, or not working at all.

Device conflicts in Windows 95 will most often show up here as a yellow exclamation marks or as red X's to the left of the device that is having a resource conflict. A red X generally means that the device has been disabled or Windows 95 can’t detect it. A yellow exclamation mark means that there is a driver or resource conflict with the device. Both of these mean trouble. Sometimes a device can have a problem that will not show up with a symbol, requiring you to check the properties of that device for information on its resources and drivers. To get the properties, double-click on the device. Windows comes with a hardware trouble shooter that will walk you through solving a device conflict. This help file is called "Windows Help" and is normally found in your Windows\Help directory, but the easiest way to run the help guide is to click on the · Start button on the task bar and then select Help.

If you’re not sure about something on your system, you can usually get a good idea as to what it is by cruising around in here - the sound card will be under "Sound, video and game controllers" and the video card will be under "Display adapters".

PERFORMANCE TAB

When you pick this tab you should get the screen below. If you don’t know for sure, the amount of RAM that the computer has will be listed at this screen, as well as any forms of disk compression, and the amount of free system resources. The main thing to be interested in is if it lists "Your system is configured for optimal performance." If not, then this means you need to do some tinkering. Usually this is because you’re not using the right Windows driver or that you’re having a device conflict. The system resources will give you a general idea of how much of your computer is available to run applications with - the higher the better.

Down at the bottom there’s a section called "Advanced settings" that contains three boxes that you can click on. Clicking on each of these three boxes will bring up some additional windows that will give you more information about certain stuff. Let’s pick the FILE SYSTEM box and then the CD-ROM tab.

To get the best performance out of your system, the CD-ROM device should be set here to the actual type of CD-ROM that you have ( double speed, quad speed or higher, etc. ) and the Supplemental cache size should be set as large as possible ( this does take up memory and system resources so on a computer with 4 or 8 Mb of RAM you should keep it low- otherwise crank it up ). Here at the bottom it shows how much memory is being used for the CD-ROM cache ( in this case 1238 kilobytes or about 1.2 Mb of RAM ).

Let’s click on Cancel or OK if you’ve made changes that you want to keep and then click on the Graphics box.

GRAPHICS

This screen will let you tell Windows how much of the built-in hardware acceleration of your video card you want to use. It’s just a case of allotting how many graphics the video card will handle and leaving the rest for Windows. The hardware acceleration should generally be set to maximum for the best graphics performance, but with some brands of video cards you’ll need to reduce or even disable this in order to get it to work with DirectX ( But if the hardware acceleration is turned off here then DXSETUP will show the display adapter as "No Hardware Support" ).

Let’s go back and then take a look at the Virtual Memory box.

VIRTUAL MEMORY

Windows 95 uses something called Virtual Memory to try and get around the physical amount of RAM that you have on your system. It uses free hard drive space to make something called a swap file, which it uses to keep track of the extra information that can’t fit into RAM from a program.

By far the best option is to "Let Windows manage my virtual memory" (This is even recommended here by Microsoft ). The other option is "Let me specify my own settings" or as I like to call it "Let me mess up my computer". If you pick this one you can customise how Windows handles virtual memory but if you do not know exactly what you’re doing, it’s easy to make a mistake. If you specify the wrong settings, or even if the virtual memory is disabled, it will cause problems leading to slow or erratic game play and random memory crash errors. Believe me - it’s a pain to track down a problem that’s caused by Virtual Memory errors. One of the only times that you’ll need to specify these settings is if you’ve got more than one hard drive and the one that Windows is installed on is compressed or full. All of our games expect Virtual Memory to be managed by Windows.

For more information have a look at the section "Regular Maintainance".

The System Properties window and all of it’s tabs

Your Desktop resolution

Your Hard Drive properties

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


The game will not allow me to install it to my hard disk

There are several things that may cause this problem. First though, try running Scandisk and Disk Defragmenter which can be found in by clicking · Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools.

Strangely enough updating your Windows 95 drivers, or try an alternative driver to the one you have, can also resolve this problem. Obtain these from the CD-ROM or Machine Supplier/Manufacturer.

If you are running Norton Utilities then this may be causing the problem. When you delete a file Norton keeps a record of the file just in case you want to un-delete it (if you have deleted the file by mistake). Norton then "hides" this information from Windows and so it will report a figure for the free disk space. The install programs for games can still "see" the files that Norton is "hiding" and so reports the true figure for the free disk space, which is normally a lot less than Windows reports. To clear the files from Nortons Protected Recycle Bin, right click on the Recycle Bin and select "Empty Norton Proctected Files".


 Trouble Shooting DirectX

If you're having any difficulty running Windows 95 games that are DirectX compatible, then you have come to the right place. Below are a set of links designed to help you solve some of the difficulties you may be having with our game. You may want to get the following information about your computer to help you solve your problem more quickly:

Who is your computer manufacturer?

What is your CPU model, speed, and manufacturer?

How much RAM memory do you have?

What type of video card do you have?

What type of sound card do you have?

What is your CD-ROM speed and manufacturer?

What other peripherals are installed in your computer?

NOTE: Much of this information can be obtained by looking at the Device Manager or go to ."I still can not get the game to work" because this page gives you clear instructions on how to obtain the information require above.

Alternatively you could use a program we supply to examining your hardware. Simply click on the button below, fill in the required boxes and the save to your desktop by clicking on the button "Save to Desktop" or you can send the information to your printer by selecting the "Print" button.

 IMPORTANT: Every time you see this symbol, it means you are being presented with important information. Make sure you take the time to read these sections as they will warn you if a procedure requires advanced knowledge or your vendor's attention. Some of the procedures in these documents are risky for novice users, so please read the warnings carefully.

Now that you have the above information, you are ready to begin troubleshooting. Use the steps below in the order that they appear, as the first steps listed are most likely to solve your difficulty. If you don't know what DirectX is, check out the document: What is DirectX?

If you are having trouble with a scrambled display, or if your computer won't start properly after installing DirectX, please see the document: Problems with display drivers.

Checking the status of DirectX

Manually switch video modes

Re-starting your computer

Shut down all applications

Shut down apps in the system tray

Check for conflicts

Check your virtual memory settings

Re-installing  DirectX

Restoring Video Drivers or Audio Drivers

Disable hardware acceleration

Update your drivers

Get the latest version of DirectX

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


Trouble Shooting Guides

Welcome to the Electronic Arts Trouble Shooting Guides. These guides are to help you through most common problems that you may experience while playing games in Windows 95 and how to correct them. Please choose the required guide.

Trouble Shooting DirectX

Trouble Shooting Joysticks/Controllers

Trouble Shooting Modems

Trouble Shooting Networks

Regular Maintenance

Windows 95 Performance and Trouble Shooting


Trouble Shooting Guides Link

DirectX

Joysticks/Controllers

Modems

Networks

Regular Maintenance

Window 95 Performance and Trouble Shooting


 Trouble Shooting Joysticks

Welcome to the joystick trouble shooting guide. This guide is designed to help you work out difficulties you may be having with your joystick. Follow the steps below to help you solve your problem. First, you will want to find the following information:

What is the make and model of your joystick?

What is your joystick plugged into? (Sound card, gamecard, or I/O card.)

Make sure your joystick is connected properly.

Enable joystick control in your game

Be sure only one joystick port is active on your system.

Check to see that you have the correct driver loading.

Adjust the trim wheels on your joystick

Calibrate in Windows Control Panel

Disable any profilers or tray utilities

Joystick Specifics

Other Possibilities

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


 Trouble Shooting Modems

Welcome to the Modem Trouble Shooting Page. Having difficulty connecting? Use the links provided to help you solve your modem trouble, and learn a little bit about your modem and computer in the process. Before you start, make sure to get the following information:

What is the make and model of your modem?

Is your modem internal or external?

Are any other devices on your system using a COM port?

We recommend that you take the time to print the pages that you intend to use; this will make it easier to follow along and will provide you a copy of these documents to keep for future reference.

Now that you have the above information, follow the steps in the order that they appear to help you solve your difficulty as quick as possible:

What is a COM port?

Check and make sure you don't have a device conflict

See which COM port your modem is using

Make sure no other devices are using your COM port or IRQ

Disabling serial ports if using COM 1 or 2

Perform a test connection with HyperTerminal

Enter in your modem's correct INIT string

Disable compression and error correction.

Other Possibilities

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


 Trouble Shooting Networks

If you're trying to get networked, then this page may help you. Whether you are curious about setting up your own Windows 95 network or need help solving difficulties with your existing network, you have come to the right place. Need a brief explanation of what a network is? See the section: What is a Network?

This guide mainly focuses on peer to peer networks. If you are looking for information on other types of networks, we recommend logging onto the Internet and looking for documents related to "client server networks". You can also visit your local book store, as there is a good deal of information published about computers and networks, from beginners to advanced.

 IMPORTANT: This document assumes that you are willing to take responsibility for your own upgrades.

If you do not already have a network set up, we recommend consulting a specialist or contacting your system vendor before proceeding. At no time will Electronic Arts provide assistance for network installation, nor take responsibility if you mess it up. This document is intended to be strictly informative and make you aware of the possibilities of computing. If you are a novice user, and are uncomfortable poking around inside your computer, then do not proceed with the set up section.

This guide is presented in two parts: Network Setup and Network Trouble Shooting. If you have an existing network, then you should skip to the section on network Trouble Shooting.

Part One: Network Setup

Part Two: Network Trouble Shooting

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


United States (EA US)

Email:Support@ea.com

Fax: (650) 286-5080 (24 hours)

Tel No: (650) 572-2787

(live phone reps are available from 8:30-11:45 a.m. and 1:00-4:30 p.m., M-F, PST.)

24 hour automated support is also available from this number.


 Update your drivers

Video and sound card drivers are an integral part of Windows 95 and DirectX. They tie the operating system and the DirectX API to the hardware itself, providing a compatibility layer for Windows applications and games to access. Hardware manufacturers post new drivers on their web sites regularly that have enhanced performance and stability. Please check with your hardware manufacturer for an update as some difficulties may be related to the driver.

 IMPORTANT: If you have never updated your drivers before, you may want to consult your system Machine Manufacturer/Supplier and get their recommendation. If you choose to update the drivers yourself, follow the installation instructions provided with the driver very carefully.

Checking the status of DirectX

Manually switching video modes

Re-starting your computer

Shut down all applications

Shut down applications in the system tray

Check for conflicts

Check your virtual memory settings

Re-installing DirectX

Restoring Video Drivers or Audio Drivers

Disable hardware acceleration

Update your drivers

Get the latest version of DirectX

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


Updating Drivers

Updating your drivers is an important part of maintaining your computer. Although you do not need to update every day, it's a good idea to update drivers every couple of months, or at least check to see if there is a newer driver for your hardware.

You will want to periodically check for driver updates for the following hardware devices:

Video card

Sound card

CD-ROM

SCSI Adapter

Modem

System BIOS *

There may be other devices with drivers, but these are the most common.

*The system BIOS update will come from your system vendor or motherboard manufacturer. You should only have to update your system BIOS every year or so.

You can view your windows 95 drivers from the Device Manager. To do this right click on the My Computer icon and select "Properties".

Most drivers can be changed through the driver properties, but we recommend following the manufacturer's instructions for updating your drivers.

You can usually find driver updates through the World Wide Web. Make sure you check your manufacturer's web site as there are probably updated drivers posted.

Running Scandisk

Running Defrag

Freeing Hard drive space

Updating Drivers

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


 Verify that your network is terminated at both ends

Termination is required on a coax type network on the first and last computer. Make sure that you have the proper termination installed:

Thin coax cable runs between network cards. At the ends of the chain, terminating resistors must be installed. These resistors can be purchased at most stores that carry computer supplies.

Part One: Network Setup

Part Two: Network Trouble Shooting

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


Video Cards

Acer	http://www.acer.com/aac/products/periph/index.htm

01628 533 422

Advance Logic	http://www.avance.com

ATI	http://www.atitech.ca

01344 867 646

Aztech	http://www.aztech.com

01189 814 121

Cirrus Logic	http://www.cirrus.com

01727 872 424

Creative Labs	http://www.creaf.com

Creative Labs - UK	http://www.creative-labs.co.uk

Creative Labs FTP Site - USA	ftp://ftp.creaf.com

01189 344 322

Diamond	http://www.diamondmm.com

Diamond FTP Site    UK	http://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/computing/vendor/diamondmm/

Diamond FTP Site    USA	ftp://ftp.diamondmm.com

01753 501 410

Genoa Systems	http://www.genoasys.com

01252 313 155

Hercules	http://www.hercules.com

01635 861 122

Matrox	http://www.matrox.com

Matrox FTP site	ftp://ftp.matrox.com

01793 614 002

Miro Computer Products	http://www.miro.com

01494 510250

Number Nine	http://www.nine.com

Number Nine FTP site	ftp://ftp.nine.com

Orchid Technology	http://www.orchid.com

01256 479 898

S3	http://www.s3.com

Spea	http://www.spea.com/lang/eng/drivers_s

STB	http://www.stb.com

01344 874 744

Taxan	http://www.taxan.co.uk

01344 867 646

Trident	http://www.trid.com/trident/html/drivers.htm

Tseng Labs	http://www.Tseng.com

VideoLogic	http://www.videologic.com

01923 271 318

Home	Contents

Chip Manufacturers | Software | Controllers/Joysticks | Hardware Controllers | Hard Drives

Machine Manufacturers/Suppliers | CD ROM | Sound Card

Video Card | Modems | Other Useful Sites


What is Direct3D and what difference does it make to my games ?

It is a special 3D graphics system designed solely for use with Windows 95 to speed up games and to make your PC more like a true arcade machine. For more information see What is DirectX.


 What is DirectX?

DirectX is a games API that allows games designed for Windows 95 to have access to your hardware through a standard interface. They are, if you like , the "go faster stripes" for game players for Windows 95. Without a standard interface, stable compatibility between games and your computer's hardware would be virtually impossible. With DirectX, game developers can write for this interface, and let your Windows 95 DirectX compatible drivers deal with how to "talk" to your computer's hardware.

In the above diagram, any function that the game wants your hardware to perform is passed via the DirectX API to your hardware drivers. These drivers are responsible for making sure that the game's request is properly implemented in the hardware. Sometimes these drivers are updated to fix problems encountered with DirectX games, so it is very important to make sure you have the latest DirectX driver from your video and sound card manufacturer. Check with your system vendor or hardware manufacturer to see if you are using the latest driver. You may find your manufacturer on our Hardware Company Links Page.

Occasionally, some applications or video modes may cause problems with certain DirectX drivers. Please go through the steps listed on the DirectX Trouble Shooting Guide if you are having difficulty. Most DirectX applications use a resolution of 640x 480 and if the desktop isn’t in it, then the DirectX drivers will need to run a palette translation routine; this will generally slow down graphics speed and may even lead to black screen lockups in cards that have problems switching resolutions. See the section "Manually switching Video Modes"

When you install a game that uses DirectX, it will ask if you wish to run the DirectX installer. This installer checks to see which version of DirectX is on your machine, and if necessary, copies some files to your C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory. These files are not loaded by your system at boot up, and are not used unless a DirectX game is running.

Next, DirectX installs the video and sound card drivers. Occasionally the installation of the video driver will lock up the machine the next time you try to restart, or will produced a scrambled display. This is not as bad as it seems, as the video driver can be restored in Windows 95 Safe Mode. For information on display problems, please see our document: Problems with display drivers.

The reason this sometimes happens is because some hardware does not use standard DirectX drivers but manufacturer specific drivers. Please check with the manufacturer of your Video / Sound card if you have any such problems as to the best way to restore the correct drivers.

Checking the status of DirectX

Manually switch video modes

Re-starting your computer

Shut down all applications

Shut down apps in the system tray

Check for conflicts

Check your virtual memory settings

Re-installing  DirectX

Disable hardware acceleration

Update your drivers

Get the latest version of DirectX

Troubleshooting Guides

Support Information


What is a .....?

Baud Rate

COM Port

CPU

Device

DMA

IRQ

ISA

Network

RAM

PCI

Serial Link


 What is a COM port?

A COM port (short for communications port) is a device on your computer that provides for the input and output of serial data. Serial data, as opposed to parallel data, transmits and receives on very few "wires" or lines, where parallel data is exchanged many bits at a time across a higher number of wires. Your mouse is an example of a serial device; your printer is an example of a parallel device.

COM ports use a dedicated set of resources: one "port address" and one "IRQ channel". A port address is a location at which the CPU can find a certain device. Every device on your computer probably has a port address, so that when the CPU needs to communicate with that device, it knows where to find it. An Interrupt Request Channel, or IRQ channel, is used by the device to request time from the CPU. If the device needs processor time, it gets the CPU's attention by sending a signal on the Interrupt line assigned to it.

As you can see in the table below, each COM port uses its own port address and IRQ; however notice that COM 3 use the same IRQ as COM 1 and and COM 4 use the same IRQ as COM 2. If you have more than 2 COM devices on your computer, you will want them all to have their own IRQ channel.

 Note: Do not attempt to alter resource settings on your computer unless you are an advanced user. An advanced user should be capable of recovering their own system from any situation. If you feel that you are not capable of doing this task on your own then please consult you Machine Manufacturer/Supplier for assistance.

Port	  Address	IRQ

COM 1	  3F8	4

COM 2	  2F8	3

COM 3	  3E8	4

COM 4	  2E8	3

The port address and IRQ channel on the COM port work to give devices that use them access to serial data. If you have more than one device using the same IRQ or port address, chances are you'll have problems. All devices are intended to have their own address, and IRQ channel (in many cases a DMA channel also, but not with COM ports).

The devices that usually use a COM port are modems and a mouse. Sometimes game devices like virtual helmets or digital cameras will use COM ports also, so you have to be sure you have no conflicts if you have more than two COM port devices on your system.

What is a COM port?

Check and make sure you don't have a device conflict

See which COM port your modem is using

Make sure no other devices are using your COM port or IRQ

Disabling serial ports if using COM 1 or 2

Perform a test connection with HyperTerminal

Enter in your modem's correct INIT string

Disable compression and error correction.

Other Possibilities

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


 What is a Network?

Networking is a term you may have heard, but you may not know what it means. Put simply, a network is a series of two or more computers connected through a common interface for the purposes of sharing data and information. You may think that a network is just for really big businesses or computer companies, but that's not entirely true. With Windows 95, it is easy enough to network two or more computers.

Whether you need a small network for a business or simply have a few computers that you want to connect for gaming, you don't have to be a network technician to set one up anymore. If you have a basic to intermediate understanding of your computer's hardware and the Windows 95 operating system, you can probably set up a peer to peer network without any trouble.

A peer to peer network is where two or more computers connect together through a single cable and share data. This type of network, as opposed to a client-server type network, doesn't require that one computer be set up as a "server". Peer to peer networks are equal in hierarchy on the network, and are set up generally the same.

There are other types of networks, the Internet is a giant network of computers. If you are logged on to the Internet, then you are part of the Internet network. Anyone can also set up a server on the Internet. With the right machine, software, and connection, you can have people from all over the world logging on to your server and receiving the information that you have provided. This document focuses mostly on peer to peer networks.

Part One: Network Setup

Part Two: Network Trouble Shooting

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


What is a Serial link

A Serial link is a direct cable link between two computers using a Null Modem cable, connected by their serial ports.


 Which Bus type to choose

When you purchase a network card, chances are you'll have two BUS types to choose from: PCI BUS and ISA BUS (a BUS is a slot in your machine which hardware card would plug in to). Most Pentium computers will have both types. If you have a 486 you will probably not have PCI slots, so you will want to purchase an ISA Ethernet card. If you have a Pentium system, most likely with a PCI and ISA BUS, you can choose which one will work best for you.

PCI Ethernet cards are typically more expensive, but can deliver higher data transfer rates across the network. This is not necessary for a gaming networks, so you could opt for an ISA or PCI depending on your needs: price vs. performance. Most peer to peer gaming networks will work fine with ISA BUS network cards.

Part One: Network Setup

Part Two: Network Trouble Shooting

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


Why can`t the SAP socket be opened ?

In Windows 95 shared files and printers use the SAP socket. Disable "File and Printer sharing" in the properties of "Network Neighborhood" if you have problems using SAP.


Why do I need to install DirectX as my machine. Isn't it already setup for me ?

DirectX is a set of drivers that enhance the performance of Windows 95 designed games. They are designed by Microsoft and distributed with each game specifically written for Windows 95 with the version of DirectX needed to run the game. However some manufacturers make their own specific DirectX drivers and if you install the standard drivers supplied to us by Microsoft you may experience problems. Please consult your Machine Manufacturer/Supplier and/or your Sound/Video card manufacturer for details on the most up-to-date drivers that they have, as they do change on a regular basis.

Please Note: You will need to install DirectX from the CD at some point, as this will make sure you have all of the components of DirectX installed to your machine so that the game will work. If your Manufacturer/Supplier does have specific version of DirectX for your Video/Sound card then all you need to do is to install these drivers over the top of the standard DirectX drivers from the CD.


 Windows 95 Performance and Trouble Shooting

"I've just bought a new Pentium computer with tons of RAM, Windows 95, and the latest and greatest components advertised. It has everything needed to get screaming performance out of games and business applications. If that’s the case, why is the latest and greatest game running so badly (or not at all) ?"

There are a few reasons why Windows 95 typically doesn’t work as well as it should. Most computers that come with Windows 95 on them are set up the way that the computer company believes that they should be. Since Windows 95 is a lot different from DOS (or even previous versions of Windows ), it’s easy to get a system to work without making it perform.

The best way to improve performance is to get to know your system. Don’t rely solely on sales information sheets that may list a "16 bit sound card" or a "SVGA video card" as your components. These are generic terms that do not tell you which company actually manufactured the components and support them with updates. The time you spend now learning about your system will be invaluable when troubles arise.

Windows 95 is a great departure from previous versions of Windows and DOS. It’s set up to manage a lot of your computer’s stuff automatically in an effort to make computing easy to use and trouble free. These settings will work most of the time, but occasionally you may need to fine-tune your computer.

Windows 95 is sort of like Windows 3.1 - most stuff is handled through the Control Panel. Everything is neatly organised and pretty intuitive to get around in, but it’s hard to know what everything in there does. I’ve taken the relevant windows from off my own computer and I’ve pasted them in this set of documents to give you a better idea of what I’m talking about.

 Important: We recommend that you talk to you Hardware Manufacturer/Supplier for information concerning your particular machine, just in case there is something that you should not change.

For gaming, there are three main things in Windows 95 that we’ll be interested in:

The System Properties window and all of it’s tabs

Your Desktop resolution

Your Hard Drive properties

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


Windows starts normally, but reports an error

This usually indicates that the wrong driver is installed for the video card, or that the driver didn't install properly. This is the least serious of the symptoms because your computer will start and run properly, but you won't have access to the higher resolutions and colour depths that make your desktop attractive.

If you have this symptom, please check your computer or hardware documentation to see if there is a documented solution, or contact your Machine Manufacturer/Supplier and/or Video card manufacturer to obtain information on installing the correct driver, as these problems will have most likely been diagnosed and solved already. If you feel you have adequate knowledge about changing your own driver, you can follow the steps below.

 WE STRONGLY RECOMMEND CHECKING WITH YOUR SYSTEM MANUFACTURER/SUPPLIER BEFORE ATTEMPTING THIS PROCEDURE:

1. Right-click on the desktop and choose Properties.

2. When the Display Properties window appears, click on the Settings tab.

3. Click on the Change Display Type button. You should now see the currently installed driver.

4. Now change the driver AS PER YOUR MANUFACTURERS RECOMMENDATION.

5. Once finish you should be prompted to re-start your computer.

See the section "Changing your Display Driver to Standard VGA" for more details.


Windows starts, but your dispaly is scrambled

This usually occurs when updating drivers. Later releases of drivers support higher and higher refresh rates. Sometimes these refresh rates will be higher than the monitor allows, so you will end up with a scrambled display. You may benefit from one of these solutions:

 IMPORTANT: PLEASE CONSULT WITH YOUR MACHINE MANUFACTURER/SUPPLIER BEFORE ATTEMPTING ANY OF THE FOLLOWING PROCEDURES.

Boot into Windows Safe Mode by pressing the F8 key when you see the "Starting Windows 95". You will see a menu, choose "Safe Mode". Once you are in Windows Safe Mode, check your display properties and make sure that you have the correct monitor specified. (Right-click on the desktop and choose Properties, then click on the Settings tab. Having an "unknown" monitor specified may cause a scrambled display.

If the problem persists again boot into Windows Safe Mode as described above and change your Display Driver to Standard VGA.

This procedure will not correct the problem with the driver, but will allow you to start Windows normally until the CORRECT driver can be restored. Please check with your Machine Manufacturer/Supplier and/or Video card manufacturer for the best procedure to restore your video driver.


Windows tries to start, but hangs with a blank screen.

This is probably the same scenario as listed above:

 IMPORTANT: PLEASE CONSULT WITH YOUR MACHINE MANUFACTURER/SUPPLIER BEFORE ATTEMPTING ANY OF THE FOLLOWING PROCEDURES.

Boot into Windows Safe Mode by pressing the F8 key when you see the "Starting Windows 95". You will see a menu, choose "Safe Mode". Once you are in Windows Safe Mode, check your display properties and make sure that you have the correct monitor specified. (Right-click on the desktop and choose Properties, then click on the Settings tab. Having an "unknown" monitor specified may cause a scrambled display. Try selecting the monitor as a "Standard VGA 800x600" which is in the "Standard Monitor types".

If this does not correct the problem then again boot into Windows Safe Mode as described above and change your Display Driver to Standard VGA. . This procedure will not correct the problem with the driver, but will allow you to start Windows normally until the CORRECT driver can be restored. Please check with your Machine Manufacturer/Supplier and/or Video card manufacturer for the best procedure to restore your video driver.


You have recently purchased a dedicated gamecard.

You may have purchased a game card to get better performance and reliability out of your joystick; however if you did not disable the other joystick port on your computer, such as the one on your sound card, you will have lots of problems getting your joystick to function properly, if at all. You will need to check your sound card documentation/manufacturer for instructions on how to disable the joystick port.


You have recently upgraded your sound card.

If your joystick was already plugged into a dedicated game card, or a built in I/O controller, and you upgraded your sound card, the joystick port on your sound card may be causing a conflict. Make sure you have only one port active or your joystick will not work properly. Check your sound card documentation/manufacturer for instructions on disabling your joystick port if you think this is the case.


You receive a Fatal Exception Error

This is often due to a DirectX problem. Make sure that you have installed the correct version of DirectX drivers, run DXSETUP to check. Contact your Machine Manufacturer/Supplier or the manufacturer of your Sound card/ Video card.for updated drivers as necessary.


 Your Desktop resolution

To check Desktop resolution, right-click on an empty area of the desktop, a requester will then open, select Properties . Then pick the Settings tab. (screens may vary depending on what Video card and drivers you are running).

There are so many graphics options available in Windows 95, that this section wasn’t included in the System Properties. Here’s where you can specify a screen saver, how big your desktop resolution is, and how many colours your computer is set up to use. It’s best that the desktop area and colour be set at 640 X 480 and 256 colour resolution mode. Most DirectX applications use this resolution and if the desktop isn’t in it, then the DirectX drivers will need to run a palette translation routine; this will generally slow down graphics speed and may even lead to black screen lockups in cards that have problems switching resolutions.

You can also check at this screen to see if the video card is capable of high colour or true colour resolution under the "Color palette" section. If it’s not then don’t panic - check and make sure that you’re using the most recent video card drivers. Mine was only capable of 256 colour until I got the driver updates. There are some cards that will require a video BIOS upgrade in order to use high colour or true colour - this is like getting a new driver, but it’s a little bit more complicated. The people who manufacture your video card will be able to tell you if you’ll need to do either of these ( see "Video Cards"). If you’re not sure what type of video card you have, you can get a general idea from under the display adapters part in the System Properties (see "The System Properties window"). If you would like to change you resolution see the section "Manually Switching Video Mode".

For more information have a look at the section "Regular Maintainance".

Other sections you need to look at are What is DirectX and Checking the Status of DirectX.

The System Properties window and all of it’s tabs

Your Desktop resolution

Your Hard Drive properties

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


 Your Hard Drive properties

To check out the hard drive properties open up the My Computer icon and right-click on the hard drive icon, for example [C:] and select Properties.

This screen shows the amount of used and free space available on your hard drive and should also show if it’s compressed ( to double check on compression you can check the Performance tab in the System Properties ). The amount of free space on the drive is important because Windows uses this to create a Virtual Memory swapfile. If there is little or no free space available for this, there can and will be delays in game performance and seemingly random error messages. Likewise if the hard drive is using it’s 16 bit DOS driver or if it’s compressed, you can get these errors too.

 NOTE: Windows will choose the same drive that it is installed in for the swapfile unless you’ve told it otherwise in the virtual memory settings. In most circumstances this is best left as default.

Under the Tools tab, you can see how long ago the hard drive utilities Scandisk and Defrag were run on the system. You can also run these utilities here by clicking on "Check Now" and "Defragment Now".

It’s best that on a computer that uses Windows 95 to run these utilities once a week ( or more often if you do a lot of deleting and installing stuff ).

For more information have a look at the section "Regular Maintainance".

The System Properties window and all of it’s tabs

Your Desktop resolution

Your Hard Drive properties

Trouble Shooting Guides

Support Information


Your Joystick is plugged into a dedicated I/O controller.

You will usually not find many dedicated I/O controllers on newer computers, however many computers still have these controllers. If your computer has a dedicated I/O controller with a joystick port, and you have a game card or sound card with a joystick port, you will need to make sure that all but one are disabled. Please check with your Machine Manufacturer/Supplier or computers documentation to find out how to do this.


multiple soundcards

You must select the sound card you wish to use for digital and midi playback, this is known as the "Primary Device" .To do this click · Start in the task bar, then Settings, Control Panel and then double click on the Multimedia icon. Now click on the Audio tab and select the card you wish to use in preferred devices.

Click on the Midi tab and select the appropriate device you wish to use under the Instrument section.


peripherals

Peripherals are pieces of hardware that are installed or connected to your machine.

For example :

Scanners

Printer

External CD ROM drive


virtual memory

Hard disk space that is used to simulate RAM memory. Windows uses virtual memory to allow you to open and run more programs than you actually have RAM for. Windows creates a virtual memory "swap file" on the disk to store programs that are running but not currently in use.