Troubleshooting Guide Version 1.1a -- May 2, 1997 Hercules Stingray 128/3D (models S3316) Contents: Installation Problems Problems with DOS or DOS Applications Problems with Windows 3.1 or Windows Applications For instructions on contacting Hercules for assistance, please see the README.TXT file on the Installation Diskette, or "Contacting Hercules Technical Support" in your manual. *************************** * Installation Problems * *************************** ------------------------------------------------------------- [Q] After I've installed the graphics card, my PC won't boot. ------------------------------------------------------------- [A] There are a number of things that can go wrong when installing new hardware, but when a PC fails to boot, it generally indicates a conflict between Stingray 128/3D and one or more devices in your system. If your PC fails to boot after installing Stingray 128/3D, try the following steps: 1. Make sure any existing video card is removed or on-board video is disabled. The Stingray 128/3D replaces your existing CGA, EGA, VGA or SuperVGA graphics card, so you should remove your old card. Some motherboards have on-board VGA circuitry. If your monitor attaches directly to your motherboard, consult your PC's documentation for instructions on disabling on-board VGA. If you cannot disable on-board VGA support you won't be able to use a third-party graphics card in your PC. 2. Change jumper settings. See the appendix titled "Jumper Settings" for a description on changing jumper settings. 3. Make sure the Stingray 128/3D is seated correctly, or try another bus slot. A video card that doesn't make contact with all the connectors, or a faulty bus slot can cause boot problems. 4. Make sure you have the correct Stingray 128/3D for your PC. PCI bus versions of Stingray 128/3D require a PCI local bus slot and will not work in an ISA or VL-Bus slot. The Stingray 128/3D will not work in an ISA (AT) bus slot. Make sure that all of the connectors on Stingray 128/3D are properly seated in the correct slot. 5. Try removing other cards from the PC. In rare instances, a serious conflict with another peripheral in your computer will cause a failure to boot. One way to determine if this is the source of the problem is to remove other cards from your PC one by one and trying to boot again. If there seems to be a conflict between the Stingray 128/3D and another peripheral and you're not sure how to resolve it, contact the manufacturer of the other card, or call Hercules. 6. Contact Hercules Technical Support. If you've tried all of the other steps and you're still unsuccessful in booting your PC when the Stingray 128/3D is installed, get in touch with Hercules. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Q] I have my PC set up to go directly into Windows 3.1 when I power up. I've installed the Stingray 128/3D and now Windows doesn't work. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [A] It is likely that your Windows installation is configured for a video driver that is not compatible with Stingray 128/3D. This sometimes happens when upgrading your video accelerator. There are several easy solutions to the problem. 1. If possible, remove the Stingray 128/3D and reinstall your previous video card. Then, reconfigure Windows 3.1 to use the standard VGA driver supplied by Microsoft before reinstalling Stingray 128/3D. See the installation guide for instructions. The standard VGA driver will work on any VGA card, including the Stingray 128/3D. 2. If this is not possible, it is necessary to interrupt the boot process and modify your AUTOEXEC.BAT file so it doesn't launch Windows 3.1 when you boot the PC. If you're using MS-DOS 6.0 or later, you can do this automatically by hitting the F5 key when the display reads "Starting MS-DOS...". If you're using an earlier version of MS-DOS, you may boot from a bootable floppy diskette if you have one available. If not, you should boot your PC and hit Ctrl-Break when the computer starts processing your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Then, answer NO to the "Terminate Batch Job? (Y/N)" prompt. 3. For the purposes of installing a new video card, it's best to temporarily configure your system so that it boots to a DOS prompt, and does not go directly into Windows. This way, if you run into any problems starting Windows with the new card, you can always reboot and go back to the DOS prompt. If you are using MS-DOS 5.0 or later, do the following: a. From the DOS prompt, type: EDIT C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT b. Scroll down to the end of the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. At or near the end, you should see a line that reads: WIN c. Comment out this line by placing the word REM (short for REMark) in front of it. It should now read: REM WIN d. Select Exit from the FILE Menu to exit the program. When asked if you'd like to save the changes to the file, answer YES. Now, when you boot your PC, you will go to a DOS prompt, rather than Windows 3.1. You may start Windows manually by typing WIN at the DOS prompt. Once you've installed the Stingray 128/3D drivers and you're confident Windows is now operating correctly, you may edit AUTOEXEC.BAT file and take out the REM statement added in step c. 4. Contact Hercules. If you've tried the above and you cannot get Windows 3.1 to work with the Stingray 128/3D, or if you're having trouble with any of the steps, contact Hercules for assistance. ------------------------------------------------------------------- [Q] Even after I added the memory exclusion statements to my memory manager, my PC locks up when I boot the PC. ------------------------------------------------------------------- [A] Some memory managers have special features they use to free up extra upper memory. These include BIOS relocation and remapping of unused BIOS space for use by other programs. It is possible that one or more of these features are causing the Stingray 128/3D to fail. 1. If you're running QEMM, disable the Stealth feature. You're using Stealth if you have the ST:M or ST:F clause in your QEMM386 device line. Although you should have already added the XST=C000 clause telling Stealth to avoid the Stingray 128/3D, Stealth may be causing other problems with your PC when the Stingray 128/3D is installed. Remove the ST:M or ST:F clause and reboot your PC to see if this is the case. 2. Run the memory manager optimization utility. Many memory managers have an automatic optimization utility that configures your memory manager so it runs as efficiently as possible. Try running this utility. For details on optimizing your memory manager, consult your documentation. 3. Consult your memory manager documentation or contact your memory manager vendor. Memory managers have a variety of options that affect system performance. Your memory manager documentation is the best troubleshooting resource. 4. Contact Hercules. If you've taken steps recommended by your memory manager documentation or the vendor's technical support department and you're still not sure of the cause of the conflict, contact Hercules for assistance. ------------------------------------------------------- [Q] The INSTALL program can't find my Stingray 128/3D. ------------------------------------------------------- [A] INSTALL attempts to find a special "signature string" in Stingray 128/3D's BIOS. Some memory managers will relocate the video BIOS, preventing INSTALL from finding the information it needs. 1. If you're using QEMM386 or 386MAX, make sure the proper memory exclusions have been added. See the appendix titled "Memory Managers" for instructions on modifying your memory manager con- figuration. These modifications should be made before the installation program is run. 2. Boot without a memory manager. To verify that your memory manager is causing the installation program to fail, temporarily boot your PC without invoking your memory manager. If you're using MS-DOS 6.0 or later, you can do this by hitting F8 when the display reads "Starting MS-DOS..." and answering NO when MS-DOS displays your memory manager device lines. Then, run the Stingray 128/3D's installation program. If this resolves the problem but you're not sure how to configure your memory manager to avoid the conflict, consult your memory manager documentation or contact your memory manager vendor's technical support department. 3. Contact Hercules. If none of the above suggestions help, you may have another conflict. Contact Hercules for assistance. ******************************************* * Problems with DOS or DOS Applications * ******************************************* ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Q] My mouse, modem, scanner or other device doesn't work under DOS, but it worked properly before I installed the Stingray 128/3D. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [A] The S3 series accelerators found on the Stingray 128/3D cards use the same I/O address as COM4. Therefore, you must disable COM4 before installing the card. 1. Check the documentation for the device that is not functioning, and see if it uses COM4:. If so, configure it to use another communications port. Tip: you can use MSD, provided with most versions of MS-DOS and Windows, to determine if another device is using COM4:. Power down your PC, take out your Stingray 128/3D card, and reinstall your previous graphics adapter. Boot your machine and type MSD at the DOS prompt. Hit C to go to the Comm Port... screen. If data is displayed in the COM4: column, and your previous graphics adapter is not based on a chipset from S3, another component in your PC is using COM4: and will present a conflict with your Stingray 128/3D card. If you cannot track down COM4: usage to a mouse, modem, or other device, you may have an unused serial port on an I/O card or even your motherboard itself that is configured to use COM4:. See your PC's documentation for instructions on reconfiguring your serial ports. 2. Change jumper settings. See the appendix titled "Jumper Settings" for a description on changing jumper settings. 3. Contact Hercules. If you've tried the other steps and you still can't get your peripheral to work, get in touch with Hercules. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Q] I have a DOS application which has the capability of running higher than the standard VGA 640x480 16-color resolution, but I can't get it to do so with the Stingray 128/3D. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [A] This is probably a simple issue of configuring the software to take full advantage of the Stingray 128/3D. 1. Use a VESA or S3 Trio driver. Stingray 128/3D can support high resolution operation in DOS applications that have high resolution drivers for the VESA Video BIOS Extensions (VBE), the S3 Trio chipset, or have a driver that's labeled for use with the Stingray 128/3D family. See if your application has such a driver. Consult the application's documentation or the application vendor for further assistance. 2. Contact the application's vendor. If you've consulted the application's documentation and you can't get it to work, contact the vendor. They may have specific troubleshooting advice, or a driver update. 3. Contact Hercules. If you've tried the above steps and your program should work but it doesn't, contact Hercules. ------------------------------------------------------------------ [Q] Since I've installed my Stingray 128/3D, my sound card behaves erratically or doesn't work at all. ------------------------------------------------------------------ [A] There may be a IRQ or base I/O address conflict between your sound card and Stingray 128/3D. 1. Change jumper settings. See the appendix titled "Jumper Settings" for a description on changing jumper settings. 2. Consult your sound card's documentation, or contact the sound card vendor. The makers of your sound card may be aware of configuration issues specific to some video cards. 3. Contact Hercules. If neither you nor your sound card vendor are sure of the cause of the problem, get in touch with Hercules. ******************************************************* * Problems with Windows 3.1 or Windows Applications * ******************************************************* ------------------------ [Q] Windows won't start. ------------------------ [A] There can be a number of problems that may cause Windows to fail when changing video cards. Generally, it ends up that the video drivers aren't installed or configured correctly. 1. Make sure the correct video drivers are selected. Windows will probably not work if the video driver for another graphics card has been selected. See the installation instructions for details on running Windows SETUP and selecting the Stingray 128/3D display drivers. 2. Make sure the exclusion statements are present in your CONFIG.SYS and SYSTEM.INI files. See the appendix titled "Memory Managers" for details on excluding the memory ranges used by the Stingray 128/3D. 3. Reinstall the Stingray 128/3D's Windows 3.1 drivers. Occasionally, a Windows driver installation may not go smoothly for one reason or another. To ensure that the Stingray 128/3D's display drivers have been installed correctly, reinstall them. For detailed instructions on how to do this, please see "Installing the Software" in the chapter titled "Basic Installation." 4. There may be an address conflict between your motherboard hardware and Stingray 128/3D's linear address driver. You can select a different linear address for the driver by doing the following: a) Use an ascii editor (such as MS-DOS's EDIT) to edit the SYSTEM.INI file in your Windows directory. You may want to backup your original copy first. b) Look for the Hercules section ( [Hercules] ). c) Change the 32 of the "linearaddr=32" line to 64. The default value is 32. d) Save the SYSTEM.INI file. e) Re-start Windows. f) Other values you can try are 16, 128, 256, etc (must be a multiple of 16). 5. Contact Hercules. If you've reinstalled our Windows drivers and Windows still does not run, contact our technical support de- partment. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Q] I've run the SETUP program and selected the Stingray 128/3D drivers, but no Hercules program group is created when I start Windows. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- [A] Various factors, including the use of desktop programs other than Program Manager, occasionally cause the program group installation routine to fail. If this is the case on your PC, it is easy to build the program group yourself. Refer to "Creating the Hercules Program Group" in the chapter titled "Using Windows 3.1." -------------------------------------------------------------------- [Q] When I use Picture Window to restart Windows in a higher resolu- tion, I get a blank or scrambled screen, or the Windows desktop is "duplicated" on the display. -------------------------------------------------------------------- [A] This type of problem usually occurs when you've selected an incorrect monitor type, or specified a vertical refresh rate that is too high for your monitor. 1. Reselect your monitor type. The incorrect monitor type may have been selected, causing the Stingray 128/3D to overdrive your display. Reboot your PC and reconfigure Stingray 128/3D for your monitor. For complete instructions, see "Changing your monitor selection" under the chapter titled "Software Utilities." 2. Contact Hercules. If no combination of scan rates and refresh rates seems to work with your monitor in higher resolutions, contact Hercules for assistance. ------------------------------------------------------------------ [Q] When I run Windows 3.1, the display is flickery at one or more resolutions. ------------------------------------------------------------------ [A] If your monitor should be capable of supporting non-interlaced operation at all resolutions, flickering may indicate an incorrect monitor configuration. 1. Verify that the Stingray 128/3D and your monitor both support non-interlaced operation at your resolution. Interlaced mode is generally less stable than non-interlaced. You may wish to use Picture Window to change to a non-interlaced resolution. 2. Run the Refresh Rate Meter program. The Refresh Rate Meter icon located in the Hercules program group gives you a reading of the vertical refresh rate at which your monitor is operating. If the number seems low to you, reselect your monitor type. See "Changing Your Monitor Selection" in the chapter titled "Software Utilities" for more details. In some cases, running at a refresh rate that's too high for your monitor may also cause a flickering display. Consult your monitor's documentation and choose a lower monitor type if necessary. NOTE: The Hercules Refresh Rate Meter cannot distinguish between interlaced and non-interlaced screen refresh rates. 3. Contact Hercules. If you believe you've configured your Stingray 128/3D optimally for your monitor but you're getting more flicker than you think you should, contact Hercules for assistance. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Q] My mouse, modem, scanner or other device doesn't work under Windows, but it worked properly before I installed the Stingray 128/3D. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [A] The S3 series accelerators found on the Stingray 128/3D cards use the same I/O address as COM4. Therefore, you must disable COM4 before installing the card. Additionally, another conflict may be present. 1. Check the documentation for the device that is not functioning, and see if it uses COM4:. If so, configure it to use another communications port. Tip: you can use MSD, provided with most versions of MS-DOS and Windows, to determine if another device is using COM4:. Power down your PC, take out your Stingray 128/3D card, and reinstall your previous graphics adapter. Boot your machine and type MSD at the DOS prompt. Hit C to go to the Comm Port... screen. If data is displayed in the COM4: column, and your previous graphics adapter is not based on a chipset from S3, another component in your PC is using COM4: and will present a conflict with your Stingray 128/3D card. If you cannot track down COM4: usage to a mouse, modem, or other device, you may have an unused serial port on an I/O card or even your motherboard itself that is configured to use COM4:. See your PC's documentation for instructions on reconfiguring your serial ports. 2. Change jumper settings. See the appendix titled "Jumper Settings" for a description on changing jumper settings. 3. Contact Hercules. If you've tried the other steps and you still cant get your peripheral to work, get in touch with Hercules. -------------------------------------------------------- [Q] My computer behaves erratically when I'm in Windows. -------------------------------------------------------- [A] This can be caused by a wide variety of problems. Try each of the steps listed below to eliminate the problem. 1. Make sure that the correct memory exclusions are present. See the appendix titled "Memory Managers" for details on adding the memory exclusion statements to your CONFIG.SYS and SYSTEM.INI files. 2. Make sure the correct drivers are being used. Run Windows SETUP and verify that the Stingray 128/3D drivers are installed. 3. Change jumper settings. See the appendix titled "Jumper Settings" for a description on changing jumper settings. 4. Check the documentation and see if any of the other components in your PC uses COM4:. If so, configure it to use another communications port. The S3 series accelerators found on the Stingray 128/3D cards use the same I/O address as COM4:. Tip: you can use MSD, provided with most versions of MS-DOS and Windows, to determine if another device is using COM4:. Power down your PC, take out your Stingray 128/3D card, and reinstall your previous graphics adapter. Boot your machine and type MSD at the DOS prompt. Hit C to go to the Comm Port... screen. If data is displayed in the COM4: column, and your previous graphics adapter is not based on a chipset from S3, another component in your PC is using COM4: and will present a conflict with your Stingray 128/3D card. If you cannot track down COM4: usage to a mouse, modem, or other device, you may have an unused serial port on an I/O card or even your motherboard itself that is configured to use COM4:. See your PC's documentation for instructions on reconfiguring your serial ports. 5. Reinstall the Windows drivers. One of the Windows display drivers for the Stingray 128/3D may have become corrupted. See "Installing the Software" in your Stingray 128/3D manual for details. 6. Contact Hercules. More serious hardware problems may be causing the symptoms. Get in touch with Hercules for additional assistance. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [Q] One particular Windows application behaves erratically or does not work. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [A] This could indicate a problem with Stingray 128/3D's drivers or with the application itself. There may also be a conflict with another device that is only apparent with one application. 1. Make sure that the correct memory exclusions are present. See the appendix titled "Memory Managers" for details on adding the memory exclusion statements to your CONFIG.SYS and SYSTEM.INI files. 2. Make sure the correct drivers are being used. Run Windows SETUP and verify that the Stingray 128/3D drivers are installed. 3. Change jumper settings. See the appendix titled "Jumper Settings" for a description on changing jumper settings. 4. Check the documentation and see if any of the other components in your PC uses COM4:. If so, configure it to use another communications port. The S3 series accelerators found on the Stingray 128/3D cards use the same I/O address as COM4:. TIP: you can use MSD, provided with most versions of MS-DOS and Windows, to determine if another device is using COM4:. Power down your PC, take out your Stingray 128/3D card, and reinstall your previous graphics adapter. Boot your machine and type MSD at the DOS prompt. Hit C to go to the Comm Port... screen. If data is displayed in the COM4: column, and your previous graphics adapter is not based on a chipset from S3, another component in your PC is using COM4: and will present a conflict with your Stingray 128/3D card. If you cannot track down COM4: usage to a mouse, modem, or other device, you may have an unused serial port on an I/O card or even your motherboard itself that is configured to use COM4:. See your PC's documentation for instructions on reconfiguring your serial ports. 5. Reinstall the Windows drivers. One of the Windows display drivers for the Stingray 128/3D may have become corrupted. See "Installing the Software" for details. 6. Contact the software company. Your software vendor may have an update that addresses the issue, or they may know this to be a video driver problem. 7. Contact Hercules. Problems with a specific application may be caused by a fault in the Stingray 128/3D's Windows driver. If your software application vendor has no advice, or if they believe the problem to be caused by the Windows driver, get in touch with Hercules. We may already have a driver update that addresses the issue. When contacting us, have your current driver release (printed on your Stingray 128/3D diskettes) ready. ------------------------------------------------------------- [Q] Windows isn't running as quickly as I think it should be. ------------------------------------------------------------- [A] Windows performance is very difficult to measure and judge. If performance is very slow, it could be that you are not running Stingray 128/3D's accelerated drivers or are running in a true color mode. 1. Lower your pixel depth. The Stingray 128/3D, like virtually all video cards, does not run as quickly in the 65,536 and 16.7 million color modes. If you don't need more than 256 colors, run Picture Window and make sure that you're running an 8-bit (256) color mode.