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Apricot Software FAQ
Learn Windows 95 CD-ROM
There is a specific video segment that does not play on some MS 540's. Any problems are cured by removing the Current ICON and re installing the CD-ROM.
DirectSound and Apricots
On the apricot machines with the sound driver SoundBlaster 16/Awe32, there may be problems with direct sound by causing sound distortion on some games e.g Fifa 97. The way to stop this problem is to goto device manager and double click the soundcard, goto settings and put a tick in the Full Duplex Enabled box.
Removing Startup Programs From Apricots
To stop the 8 or so programs loading up on boot on the Apricots involves playing around with the registry. Removing things from Load =, Run=, or Start Up does nothing. Go into REGEDIT. It's probably best to make a backup at this point.
Go into HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\WINDOWS\CURRENTVERSION \RUN
You should now have a list of the programs. Select the one you want to remove, and press the delete key on the keyboard to remove the entry.
Games in the Entertainment Center not Working
If the games in the entertainment center crash out when you try to use the shortcuts to them, try this -
Check the properties of the sound card in Device Manager (Should be IRQ=5, I/O=220h, DMA 1&5).
Corrupted Display After Installing Game
It has been determined that the installation of Direct Draw 2 drivers as supplied with some popular entertainment software for Windows 95 can cause a blank display when entering Windows. Some Direct Draw 2 drivers incorrectly detect the ATI video controller during installation and changes the Windows 95 display driver properties to "ATI Graphics Pro Turbo PCI (Mach 64)". This results in a blank screen with several 1 pixel wide vertical bars displayed in place of the WIndows 95 desktop.
The solution is to restart Windows in safe mode and manually reconfigure the video driver in display properties to the correct type: ATI mach64 PCI (Direct Draw)
The Procedure to adopt is as follows:
- Start Windows 95 is safe mode (press F8 when "Starting Windows 95..." is displayed.
- Clear the message box regarding safe mode and right mouse click on the desktop and select Display Properties.
- Choose the Settings tab, select Change Display Type and change the adapter type to ATI mach64 PCI (Direct Draw)
- Apply this change and restart Windows 95.
This procedure may need to be repeated if another package is installed which uses Direct Draw 2 drivers.
Fade To Black
Fade To Black and MS540 with a PD/CD-ROM Drive
A problem has been noticed when trying to install the game "Fade To Black" onto an MS540 with a PD/CD-ROM drive. As the PD/CD-ROM device is effectively two devices in one (a Read /Write device and a Read-Only CD-ROM drive) the operating system allocates two drive letters to the device. On the MS540 the PD/CD-ROM device has been allocated drive letters E: (for the Read / Write element ) and F: (for the CD-ROM element ). Although the game recognises a multi-CD drive setup, it requires that the CD is inserted into the first CD-ROM drive. During installation a critical error occurs which prevents the game from installing correctly or running. This error is caused by CD being effectively inserted into the CD drive (F:).
To install and run "FADE To Black" use the following procedure.
- Load Windows 95
- Insert the "Fade To Black" CD into PD drive.
- When the CD Autoruns, a screen will appear, offering you the option to Run, Install, Read Docs or Quit. Select Quit.
- Click on Start, then Programs, then MS-DOS Prompt (this will open up an MS-DOS window).
- Type F: then press Enter
- Type CD\BAT then press Enter
- Type INST F: C: F2B US then press Enter
- INST will now copy the game files onto your hard disk.
- When the copying is complete type SETSOUND and press Enter
- Use the Menu's to configure the sound card correctly (select Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16), then select done
- At the prompt C:\F2B you can type F2B -W and press Enter to run the game.
To run the game after rebooting Windows 95, follow option (4) to get to the DOS prompt window, then type C:\F2B\F2B -W and press (enter).
CD Not in Drive
When I try to run the game "Fade 2 Black" that is supplied with my PC, it sometimes reports that the CD is not in the drive?
There has been some reported instances of the Fade to Black CD not functioning correctly on high speed CD ROM drives (8speed and above).
The faults appear as:
- CD appears blank (i.e. no contents)
- Game does not run
- Entertainment Centre keeps asking for the CD even though it is in the drive.
If this happens you need to contact Mitsubishi/Apricot for a replacement CD.
MS Works Issues
No Clip Art
If when you go to insert Clipart into MS Works, and you find that there are no pictures to insert, and then you go to insert it says there are no new pictures. Try clicking on Organize, Add New Pictures, and follow the instructions and that should put it on. If it doesn't automatically find any new pictures, search for the MSWorks Clipart folder and add the pictures manually, if that doesn't work, it's reload MS Works time.
No Default Printer
When using MS Works preinstalled on Apricot MS540 machines, selecting File....Print gives the message "No Default Printer Selected" using some printers. To fix this, install a Windows '95 printer driver, and set this as the default. This will fix the problem of no default printers selected. When printing to *your* printer, select the printer that you wish to print to.
Microsoft Works 4.0 Crashes when charting data
On the MS Series (MM & MF), when you click on the button to convert the chart, Works crashes.
The solution is to upgrade the ATI video drivers to v4.03.2162 or later.
Floppy Drive Accessed When Screensaver Starts
When the screensaver comes on, the floppy disk drive is accessed. This is caused by the Mcafee Virus Scanner software, which can be set to run a virus scan when the screensaver comes on. To disable this, go into the Control Panel and then Display Properties. In the Screenscan section, there is an option to disable the feature.
Moto Racer
The game Moto Racer comes bundled with some Apricot MS series PCs. The first batch of these machines had the game installed on them wrong. To cure this you need to uninstall and reinstall the game using the following procedure -
- If the Entertainment Centre is running, then close it down.
- Insert the Moto Racer CD and it should Autoplay.
- From the menu which should come up select Uninstall.
- When the Uninstall has successfully completed, click on OK.
- From the menu, click on Install. Follow on screen instructions to complete the installation.
- The game will now run OK.
DarkLight Conflict
If you get a problem with this game corrupting when the mouse is moved (especially on the menus), then do the following -
- Insert the DarLight Conflict CD into the CD drive.
- Click on START/PROGRAMS/MS-DOS PROMPT.
- Type in C:\MACH64\M64VBE S D:\INSTALL and press ENTER.
- Once the game is installed, type in C:\MACH64\M64VBE U and press ENTER
- Exit back to Windows,and the game should run perfectly.
Infotrade
Infotrade Logon Screen
Infotrade comes pre-loaded on Apricot computers. When you double click on the Internet Explorer icon, it should bring up a screen called "The Best of Both Worlds" from which you can click on icons to connect or register
This page is local and sits on the HDD so if Internet Explorer doesn't bring this page up, then,
- In Internet Explorer click on the View menu and choose Options.
- Click on the Navigation tab.
- In the address box type in - file:c:\infotrdi\aprfirst.htm
- Click on OK.
Infotrade Settings
IP Address = My ISP Automatically assigns me one
DNS Server Address = 194.72.6.51
Alternate DNS Server = 194.72.6.52
Internet Mail Server = pop.infotrade.co.uk
Connection Number = 0345 078008
Alternative Number = 0121 717 7277
MS660 and FinFin
FinFin the loveable childrens character (half dolphin and half bird) will not autodetect the soundcard nor recognize the microphone unless you enable FULL DUPLEX.
Go to Device Manager,under Sound and Video Game controllers select Soundblaster 16 P&P,select Properties, Settings, and put tick next to enable full duplex operation. Reboot and Finfin becomes a reality.
Internet Mail and Spell Check Errors
On some Apricot machines when you try and use the spell check function in Microsoft Internet Mail, you get the following message,
The spelling check could not be started. Some components are either missing or incorrectly configured.
The problem is down to an entry in the Registry pointing to the wrong location for the default spell checking dictionary. To solve this,
- Click on Start / Run and run the program REGEDIT.
- Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Shared Tools/Proofing Tools/Custom Dictionaries/1.
- Change the value to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Shared\Proof\CUSTOM.DIC
- Click on the cross in the corner to close the Registry down, then reboot the machine.
MS540 - Stuck in MSDOS Mode
Whilst playing any of the games in the Entertainment Center, if the game crashes, when you restart the machine, it will automatically try and reload the game (this may also be caused by other MSDOS based games). The solution,
- Restart the computer. Press 'F8' when it says "Starting Windows 95...".
- From the menu, choose the option 'Safe Mode Command Prompt Only'.
- At the C:\ prompt type in EDIT CONFIG.SYS and press Enter.
- Delete the line DOS=SINGLE, then do ALT+F+X to Save and Exit.
- At the C:\ prompt again type in EDIT AUTOEXEC.BAT and press Enter.
- The last line will either reference the Apricot Entertainment Center or the Game that crashed the computer. Delete that line, then Save and Exit again.
- At the C:\ prompt type in ATTRIB -R -H -S MSDOS.SYS and press Enter.
- Then type in EDIT MSDOS.SYS and press Enter.
- Change the line BOOTGUI=0 to BOOTGUI=1, then Save and Exit.
- At the C:\ prompt type in ATTRIB +R +H +S MSDOS.SYS and press Enter.
- Restart the computer and it should go back into Windows.
Windows 98 on Trent systems with 7.00/7.01 BIOS
Issues have been seen on older Trent motherboard based systems with version 7.00 or 7.01 BIOS where after the installation of Windows 98, every time the system is re-booted, the following message is displayed…
POST Startup Error(s)
The following error(s) were detected when the system started:
162 Configuration Change Has Occurred
Select one of the following:
Continue
Exit Setup
If the option is taken to continue, it can be seen that the system peripheral devices have been re-detected, and the date has been reset to 00:00:00 00/00/2000.
This has been identified as a problem with version 7.00 and 7.01 of the Trent BIOS, and is eliminated with later versions (7.02 or above).
If a system has this problem, it is recommended that the latest Trent system BIOS is installed.
Printmaster Gold
The Toons pictures on my Printmaster CD do not work, why?
When Mitsubishi PC Division chose to bundle Printmaster Gold with its range of desktop computers (MS540 and MS660), we requested that the authors leave in any add-ins such as extra fonts, but remove any upgradable sample files, such as clip-art pictures that require the customer to purchase them over the internet.
Unfortunately, the authors accidently left in the TOONS folder, giving the product the appearance of having the TOONS pictures available.
Be assured that although the pictures in the TOONS folders are not available, the product is not faulty or incomplete.
Windows 95 Setup Disks
If you cannot create the "Windows 95 Setup Disks" on your MS540 or MS660 (product codes MM and MF) then you need to download an update from Apricot's website to allow you to access the "Create System Disks Utility".
This update can only be used on PCs running a version of Windows 95 which ends in 'b' (e.g. 4.00.950.b). To confirm which version of Windows 95 you are running, double-click on "System" in the "Control Panel".
Save the file in a temperary folder, then double-click on it. Then double-click on UPDATE.BAT (and follow the on-screen instructions) to update the "Create System Disks Utility".
You should now be able to create all the disks, including the Windows 95 Setup disks.