Display article   Subject:  Tandy Sensation - Hard Drive Help & Other Requests
   04/30/97   18:22:55


TANDY SENSATION -- HARD DRIVE HELP AND OTHER REQUESTS

Q: I need more room on the hard drive!

A: We have had a lot inquiries about what can be deleted from the
   Sensation hard drive to free up more than the standard 31 MB
   left open.  After careful consideration, these are our
   recommendations for what you can safely delete.
   There is an easy way to delete items from the hard drive.
   Under the INSIDE window, find SYSTEM TOOLS.  You will find an
   icon labeled SENSATION INSTALL.  This program will install or
   remove certain programs from the hard drive.  Deleting
   everything on the list except MS MONEY, MS BOOKSHELF and
   AMERICA ONLINE frees up around 9 MB of hard drive space.
   There are other items that take up a lot of space that are not
   listed in this area.  If your customer does not want to use
   the IN PRINT category (NAMETAGS, NOTICES, BANNERS, CARDS), you
   can free up over 6 MB of hard drive space.  Using the File
   Manager program under the System Tools icon, locate the
   WinMate pictures directory and delete the sub-directories
   NAMETAGS, NOTICES, BANNERS, and CARDS.
   By killing off these programs, you can free up a total of
   46 MB -- an improvement of 15 MB.
   If you delete something but want it back later, just return to
   the SENSATION INSTALL program and click on the INSTALL button.
   If you decide to reinstall the IN PRINT programs, you will
   have to reinstall ALL of the WinMate programs.  To do this,
   put your SENSATION DATA CD into the CD-ROM drive, change to
   Drive D, and type INSTALL.  Select the option to reinstall
   WINMATE.  That's it!

Q: How do I get rid of that sound when WinMate starts?

A: This is a standard feature of Windows 3.1, and can easily be
   changed or turned off. From WinMate, select INSIDE, then
   SYSTEM TOOLS.  Click on the CONTROL PANEL icon, then select
   the SOUNDS icon.  There will be two list boxes on the screen.
   The first describes the event when the sound will be played,
   the second describes the sound that will be played.  Click on
   the down arrow of the first box to find WINDOWS START.  The
   FILES box will have "bblblw1" highlighted.  You can pick a
   different sound or simply select <none> for no sound at
   startup (click on Test to hear what you picked).  Then click
   on OK and exit CONTROL PANEL to return to SYSTEM TOOLS.  The
   next time you go into Windows, you'll hear what you changed.

Q: Can I delete the Sensation logo that appears at the beginning?

A:  Yes, it can be removed.  However, this logo is used as a
    "bridge" that appears on the screen while Sensation is
    loading memory with the WinMate software.  Even without the
    logo, the blue background and the delay between the Windows
    3.1 logo and the WinMate main menu will still be there.

    To remove the logo, from WINMATE, select INSIDE, then SYSTEM
    TOOLS.  Click on the CONTROL PANEL icon, then select the
    DESKTOP logo.  In the center of the screen is an area that
    controls the Wallpaper.  (The Sensation logo is a wallpaper.)
    To remove it, click on the SESNLOGO file name that appears in
    the Wallpaper section, then press the up arrow on the keyboard.
    Select the top choice <none>.  Once you choose <none>, there
    will only be a blue screen with no logo.  Click on OK and
    exit CONTROL PANEL to return to SYSTEM TOOLS.

Q: My Demo program blanks out after 10 minutes.

A:  You've turned on the screen saver option under DESKTOP in
    CONTROL PANEL. For the Demo to work as it should, the screen
    saver must not be on.

Q: Why won't multimedia titles work on the Sensation?

A;  This is a fairly common question.  It highlights the struggle
    of the software and hardware industry to define what
    multimedia is and what it is not.

    The first multimedia system we sold was a Tandy  2500 XL with
    the Compton's MultiMedia Encyclopedia program.  It was called
    multimedia because it had sound (through the Tandy DAC), a
    CD-ROM drive, and pictures that went with the text.

    Soon, other multimedia software came on the market that
    required specific CD-ROM drives and specific sound cards in
    order to operate.  This resulted in a great deal of
    confusion.  Not all titles would work on a Tandy 2500 XL or a
    PS/1 with the IBM audio card, or other computers that were
    called multimedia.

    Tandy, Microsoft, and other select companies got together to
    solve this problem by establishing a standard for multimedia,
    now known as MPC, for Multimedia Personal Computer.  The
    following standards must be met in order to be MPC compliant.

    - Any audio board with a basic set of features
    - Any CD-ROM drive with under 1-second access time and 150K
      continuous transfer rate
    - Any computer brand with a minimum 80386SX running at 16 MHz or
      faster
    - 30 MB or larger hard drive
    - 2 MB RAM
    - VGA

    To resolve the differences in audio hardware, it was decided
    by the MPC council that MPC computers would route their sound
    requests through a sound mixer in Windows, and that each
    audio board company would write drivers for Windows.  This
    way, software written on any machine with any audio board
    would work on another unit.

    Today, there is still a lot of software that was not written
    under the MPC standard, and as a result, that software may or
    may not run on an MPC computer.  If the software makes direct
    proprietary hardware calls, it most likely will not run on
    most types of audio boards.  This software will disappear
    over time, but for now it is here and being sold at very low
    prices to get rid of it.

    As audio standards change to more sophisticated levels, new
    hardware requirements will be necessary.  Because MPC
    software is  not  hardware dependent (multimedia software is),
    it will continue to function, no matter what MPC compliant
    hardware is present.

    Demanding software and hardware that meet the MPC standard
    is just as important as demanding that the computer they buy
    be PC-Compatible.  So, make sure your customers understand
    what a multimedia computer is and what an MPC computer is and
    why they should look for this MPC logo on the hardware and
    software they buy.
