PC Access for Windows: Technical Bulletin Summary

To refer to a technical bulletin in its original form, click the hotspot on the corresponding bulletin heading number below.

Technical Bulletin #001 / October 5, 1995

• User Authorization Error 7156 or 7155 installing on Texas Instruments 486 notebook computers
• Slow printing with HP Desk Jet printers on computers with 4MB RAM
• Font is incorrect with the Panasonic KXP1124 dot matrix printer and printer fonts
• PC Access always displays an "invalid" message when you enter your registration code on the "Register PC Access" Window
• PC Tools Virtual Desk Top causes GPFs when launching PCAWin
• Compaq Presario 924 reboots while on-line with the MLS when using the internal Compaq 14.4Kbps modem

Authorization Error 7155 or 7156 installing on Texas Instruments 486 notebook computers.

This problem is in the AzTech Everlock copy protection software. AzTech is reviewing the problem. In the meantime, MFM has worked around this incompatibility by adding an alternate user authorization method to PC Access for Windows. (This first became available in Build 89.) Recent versions of PC Access for Windows should detect when the primary user authorization method is failing and then automatically display a window where you can enter an alternate user authorization unlock code, along with instructions to call MFM Communication Software. If you see a user authorization error code that begins with 7155 or 7156 anyway, then you should call MFM at (513) 733-9229 ext. 241 for a workaround. Currently only MFM (and not BORIS Technical Support) can provide alternate user authorization unlock codes.

Slow printing performance with HP Desk Jet printers on computers with 4MB RAM.

The HP Desk Jet series print drivers are quite large. On a computer with only 4 MB RAM, Windows swaps to disk excessively while printing with these drivers. This causes PC Access for Windows and other Windows applications to print much slower. Solution: add RAM to the computer. MFM recommends at least 8MB RAM for Windows 3.1x users and at least 16 MB for Windows 95 users. This dramatically improves system performance. Be aware that other programs you are running, such as PCMCIA drivers, may require even more memory.

Font is incorrect with the Panasonic KXP1124 dot matrix printer and printer fonts.

MFM is unable to duplicate this problem. However, we receive reports from users that the problem does exist. To correct the problem, the user should use a Courier True Type font. This will result in slower printing, but provides acceptable output.

PC Access always displays an "invalid" message when you enter your registration code on the "Register PC Access" Window.

The user authorization was not moved from the "PC Access for Windows - Disk 1" to the hard disk during install. This is most likely due to the user removing the diskette and not inserting it when PC Access for Windows requests it. The solution is to click the Cancel button on the Register PC Access for Windows window, insert the "PC Access for Windows - Disk 1", and restart PC Access for Windows. This will move the user authorization to the hard disk. The user will then be able to proceed with registration. MFM has improved the error message (starting with Build 90) that displays when the "PC Access for Windows - Disk 1" is not in the diskette drive when PC Access for Windows looks for it.

See Troubleshooting Copy Protection Problems for more information about this problem. (Specifically, you may start at this question.)

PC Tools Virtual Desk Top causes GPFs when launching PCAWin.

A user reported a GPF that occurred in the desktop software and not in PC Access. To correct the problem, the user switched back to Program Manager.

Compaq Presario 924 reboots while on-line with the MLS when using the internal Compaq 14.4Kbps modem.

See Technical Bulletin #005 for a solution to this problem.

Technical Bulletin #002 / November 1, 1995

• PC Access sometimes prints only partial photos after the first page of a Quick Photo report
• User only sees garbage when connecting to a BORIS Master System
• Update on the Compaq Presario 924 computer reboot problem
• Computers known to be incompatible with AzTech Everlock copy protection
• Problems printing to HP Desk Jet series printers
• Aborted installation of PCAWin leaves corrupt or incomplete DLL's on the user's PC

PC Access sometimes prints only partial photos after the first page of a Quick Photo report.

MFM has reproduced this problem. A simple work around is to set the Job Timeout to 0 (zero seconds) on the Add/Edit Printer window in PC Access for Windows. Setting this value to 0 causes PC Access for Windows to start a new print job for each page of the report. When you set the Job Timeout to 0 (zero) you will be unable to print a single report longer than 100 pager. Build 93 corrects the partial photo problem on the Quick Photo report.

User only sees garbage when connecting to a BORIS Master System.

Check the Strip High Bit box on the MLS Setup window. This is necessary to enable PC Access for Windows to work properly with a BORIS Master System MLS.

Update on the Compaq Presario 924 computer reboot problem

See Technical Bulletin #005 for a solution to this problem.

Computers known to be incompatible with AzTech Everlock copy protection.

TI 486 Notebooks
Acer Pentium System

See above for further information on using the alternate user authorization on these computers.

Problems printing to HP Desk Jet series printers

Symptoms: stray text appears in the Terminal window including text which should be appearing on the printout. Photos will be incomplete and the online session may appear to hang. Also, the "ERROR" indicator will appear in the lower right corner of the Terminal Window.

The printer driver does not allowing PCAWin to service the incoming data stream fast enough to keep up with flow of data. This causes communication errors.

You may see stray text on the Terminal window and/or communication errors if all of the following are true:

• You installed HP's Color Smart drivers
• Your computer is a 386 - Pentium
• You are running Windwos 3.1 or 3.11

You can check to see which driver you have loaded by going into the Window's Control Panel and double-clicking the Printers icon. If you select the driver for HP printer and choose Setup, the setup dialog will say HP Color Smart.

Some suggestions on things to try:

1. Change the Print Manager priority from Normal/High to Low. Open the Windows Control Panel and double-click the Print Manager icon. Select Options then Background Printing. Select Low as the priority.
2. Change the Job Timeout setting to 0 (zero seconds) on the Add/Edit Printer window in PC Access for Windows.
3. Reduce the Speed setting on the MLS Setup window in PC Access for Windows to 9600.
4. Click the Setup button on the Add/Edit Printer window in PC Access for Windows. This opens the setup window for the HP Color Smart driver. Change the HP Color Smart driver to manual mode and click the Options button. Select Pattern as the halftoning method rather than Scatter.
5. Load the standard Windows driver for the printer rather than the HP Color Smart driver. Most of the later HP ink jet printers are compatible with the HP 500, 500C, 550 and 550C Windows print drivers.
6. Upgrade to Windows 95. Windows 95 appears to have much better serial port and multi-tasking support when printing.
7. Follow the general instructions in Fixing Communication Errors.

Aborted installation of PCAWin leaves corrupt or incomplete DLL's

This problem will cause Windows to display error messages stating that certain files needed to run LAUNCH.EXE or PCAWIN.EXE cannot be found or are corrupt.

This problem can happen when you cancel your installation of PC Access for Windows before finishing, especially under Windows 95. Canceling the installation can leave incomplete and corrupted DLL files on your computer. Re-installing PCAWin will not replace the corrupt DLL files. These DLL files are in your \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory.

You can fix the problem with these steps:

1. Exit Windows completely and get to a DOS prompt.
2. Change directory (CD) to your \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory. For example, if you installed Windows on your C: drive, type these commands:
   C:
   CD \WINDOWS\SYSTEM
3. Delete the following DLL files:

     BC453RTL.DLL
     BIDS47.DLL
     OWL253.DLL
     BIVBX11.DLL
     CTL3DV2.DLL
     MSOUTLIN.VBX
     

4. Restart Windows and reinstall PC Access for Windows.

Printing from the HP Laser Jet 5L causes PC Access for Windows to hang after printing the first photo

MFM has reproduced this problem. The problem appears to be print driver related and not a problem in PC Access for Windows. A simple work around is to set the Job Timeout to 0 (zero seconds) on the Add/Edit Printer window in PC Access for Windows. Setting this value to 0 causes PCAWin to start a new print job for each page of the report. The only negative is that the user will not be able to print a single report that is longer than 100 pages.

Printing a large number of photos causes a "GDI Error" or causes Windows to operate incorrectly

MFM corrected this problem in Build 92 of PC Access for Windows. You may download the latest version from the MFM web. Note: MFM also sends the latest update to all MLS providers using MFM's auto-updating capability. See the topic Downloading an Update to PC Access from Your MLS in your PC Access Help or your PC Access for Windows Reference Guide.

Update on the Compaq Presario 520 & 924 computer reboot problem

See Technical Bulletin #005 for a solution to this problem.

Possible solution to other PC's rebooting while connected to the MLS

See Technical Bulletin #005 for a solution to this problem. If the Disable Comm Events feature does not correct the reboot problem, try the following:

On any other PC that exhibits the rebooting, check which COM port the modem is on. If it is on COM2:, reconfigure the modem to use a different COM port (do not use COM4 if the video card is 8514 compatible).

There appears to be some type of conflict between the modem and the video card on some PCs. We do not know what could be causing this problem, but Zoom Telephonics suggested there could be such a problem and their suggestion seems to have provided relief in several cases we have tried.

Acer computers cause PC Access for Windows to hang

Some Acer computers cause PC Access for Windows to hang when trying to use the serial port. See Technical Bulletin #005 for a solution to this problem. If the Disable Comm Events feature does not correct the reboot problem, you will have to de-install the "Telephony Suite" program that comes preloaded on Acer computers.