                         Troubleshooting Guide

                   Version 1.10 -- February 22, 1995


                              CGP Stingray
                          (Models S501, S801)

                           CGP Stingray Pro
                         (Models S601e, S901e)

                         CGP Stingray Pro/Video
                             (Model S901V)

                         CGP Stingray 64/Video
                        (Models S1201V, S1202V)


Contents:

        Installation Problems
        Problems with DOS or DOS Applications
        Problems with Windows 3.1 or Windows Applications

For instructions on contacting CGP for assistance, please see the
README file on the Installation Diskette, or "Contacting CGP
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 and one or more devices in your system. If your PC
fails to boot after installing Stingray, try the following steps:

  1. Make sure any existing video card is removed or on-board video is
     disabled. The Stingray 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. If you have a model S601e, S801, S1201V, or S1202V, change the
     position of jumper J1. Power down your PC, take out your Stingray
     card, remove or replace the jumper on J1, and reinstall your
     Stingray.  See the appendix titled "Jumper Settings" for a
     description of changing jumper settings.

  3. Make sure the Stingray 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 for your PC. VL-Bus
     versions of Stingray require a VESA VL-Bus slot and will not work
     in an ISA or PCI local bus slot. PCI bus versions of Stingray
     require a PCI local bus slot and will not work in an ISA or VL-Bus
     slot. Make sure that all of the connectors on Stingray 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
     and another peripheral and you're not sure how to resolve it,
     contact the manufacturer of the other card, or call CGP.

  6. Contact CGP Technical Support. If you've tried all of the
     other steps and you're still unsuccessful in booting your PC when
     the Stingray is installed, get in touch with CGP.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Q] I have my PC set up to go directly into Windows 3.1 when I power up.
I've installed the Stingray 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.  This sometimes
happens when upgrading your video accelerator. There are several  easy
solutions to the problem.

  1. If possible, remove the Stingray and reinstall your previous video
     card.  Then, reconfigure Windows 3.1 to use the standard VGA driver
     supplied by Microsoft before reinstalling Stingray, See the
     installation guide for instructions.  The standard VGA driver will
     work on any VGA card, including the Stingray.

  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 "Y" 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 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 CGP. If you've tried the above and you cannot get
     Windows 3.1 to work with the Stingray, or if you're having trouble
     with any of the steps, contact CGP 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 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, Stealth may be
     causing other problems with your PC when the Stingray 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 CGP. 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
     CGP for assistance.

-----------------------------------------------
[Q] The INSTALL program can't find my Stingray.
-----------------------------------------------

[A] INSTALL attempts to find a special "signature string" in Stingray'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
     configuration.  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'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 CGP.If none of the above suggestions help, you may
     have another conflict.  Contact CGP les for assistance.

=====================================
Problems with DOS or DOS Applications
=====================================

---------------------------------------------------------------------
[Q] One or more of my DOS applications leave "garbage" on the screen,
have "mouse trails" or otherwise display incorrectly.  Or, I get
"garbage" when I'm at the DOS prompt.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

[A] This is usually a symptom of a conflict with another device, an
incompatibility with the system bus, or a faulty card.

  1. If you have a model S601e, S801, S1201V, or S1202V, change the
     position of jumper J1. Power down your PC, take out your Stingray
     card, remove or replace the jumper on J1, and reinstall your
     Stingray.  See the appendix titled "Jumper Settings" for a
     description of changing jumper settings.

  2. Make sure the Stingray is seated correctly, or try another bus
     slot. A video card that doesn't make contact with all of the
     connectors, or a faulty bus slot can cause display problems.

  3. Try removing other cards from the PC. In rare instances, a serious
     conflict with another peripheral in your computer will cause these
     problems.  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
     and another peripheral and you're not sure how to resolve it,
     contact the manufacturer of the other card, or call CGP.

  4. Contact the application documentation or vendor. If the problem is
     specific to one or two DOS applications, there may be special
     configuration instructions or a program update that alleviates the
     problem.

  5. Contact CGP. If you've tried all of the other steps and you
     still see screen corruption under DOS, get in touch with CGP.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[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.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

[A] This is probably a simple issue of configuring the software to take
full advantage of the Stingray.

  1. Use a VESA or other compatible driver. Stingray can support high
     resolution operation in DOS applications that have high resolution
     drivers for the VESA Video BIOS Extensions (VBE) or have a driver
     that's labeled for use with the Stingray 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 CGP. If you've tried the above steps and your program
     should work but it doesn't, contact CGP.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
[Q] Since I've installed my Stingray, my mouse behaves erratically or
doesn't work at all.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

[A] There is probably an IRQ conflict between your mouse and the Stingray
card.  This generally only happens with bus mice.

  1. If you have a model S801 for the PCI bus, remove the jumper from
     J1. Your mouse may be using IRQ2.  Removing the jumper from J1 will
     disable the Stingray's use of this IRQ.

  2. Contact CGP. If it's apparent that your mouse is conflicting
     with your Stingray but you're not sure why, get in touch with
     CGP for further assistance.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
[Q] Since I've installed my Stingray, 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.

  1. If you have a model S801 for the PCI bus, remove the jumper from
     J1. Your sound card may be using IRQ2.  Removing the jumper from J1
     will disable the Stingray's use of this IRQ2.

  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 CGP. If neither you nor your sound card vendor are
     sure of the cause of the problem, get in touch with CGP.

=================================================
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 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.

  3. Lower the refresh rate. Your Stingray may be configured to output a
     scan rate and refresh rate that's higher than the capabilities of
     your monitor.  A quick way to verify this is to type the following
     at the DOS prompt:

        SETCRT -n 0 0 0 0

     This command lowers the Stingray's output to minimum values that
     should be supported by any monitor.  If Windows starts after you've
     lowered the refresh rates, go back and reconfigure Stingray for
     your monitor.  For complete instructions, see "Changing your
     monitor selection" under the chapter titled Stingray Utilities."

  4. Reinstall the Stingray's Windows 3.1 drivers. Occasionally, a
     Windows driver installation may not go smoothly for one reason or
     another.  To ensure that the Stingray's display drivers have been
     installed correctly, reinstall them.  For detailed instructions on
     how to do this, please see "Adding Windows drivers" in the chapter
     titled "Stingray Utilities."

  5. Contact CGP. If you've reinstalled our Windows drivers and
     Windows still does not run, contact our technical support
     department.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Q] I've run the SETUP program and selected the Stingray drivers, but no
CGP 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 CGP Program
Group" in the chapter titled "Using Windows 3.1."

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Q] When I use Picture Window to restart Windows in a higher resolution,
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 to overdrive your display.
     Reboot your PC and reconfigure Stingray for your monitor.  For
     complete instructions, see "Changing your monitor selection" under
     the chapter titled Stingray Utilities."

  2. Use SETCRT to select the minimum values. If reselecting your
     monitor type produces the same results, try using SETCRT to
     configure the Stingray to use the lowest possible refresh rates and
     scan rates with the following command:

        SETCRT -n 0 0 0 0

     If this solves the problem, we may have misclassified your monitor
     model in the installation program, or your monitor's documentation
     may be incorrect.  See "Choosing your monitor type" for more
     details.

  3. Contact CGP. If no combination of scan rates and refresh rates
     seems to work with your monitor in higher resolutions, contact
     CGP 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 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 CGP 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 "Choosing
     your monitor type" 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 CGP
     Refresh Rate Meter cannot distinguish between interlaced and
     non-interlaced screen refresh rates. Check the results of the
     Refresh Rate Meter against the values listed by SETCRT to confirm
     the correct operation of Stingray.

  3. Contact CGP. If you believe you've configured your Stingray
     optimally for your monitor but you're getting more flicker than you
     think you should, contact CGP for assistance.

--------------------------------------------------------
[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 drivers are installed.

  3. If you have a model OEM-S601e or S801, change the position of
     jumper J1. Power down your PC, take out your Stingray card, remove
     or replace the jumper on J1, and reinstall your Stingray.  See the
     appendix titled "Jumper Settings" for a description of changing
     jumper settings.

  4. Reinstall the Windows drivers. One of the Windows display drivers
     for the Stingray may have become corrupted.  See "Installing the
     Software" in the chapter titled "Basic Installation" for details.

  5. Contact CGP. More serious hardware problems may be causing the
     symptoms.  Get in touch with CGP for additional assistance.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
[Q] One particular Windows application behaves erratically or does not
work.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

[A] This could indicate a problem with Stingray'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 drivers are installed.

  3. If you have a model S601e, S801, S1201V, or S1202V, change the
     position of jumper J1. Power down your PC, take out your Stingray
     card, remove or replace the jumper on J1, and reinstall your
     Stingray.  See the appendix titled "Jumper Settings" for a
     description of changing jumper settings.

  4. Reinstall the Windows drivers. One of the Windows display drivers
     for the Stingray may have become corrupted.  See "Installing the
     Software" in the chapter titled "Basic Installation" for details.

  5. 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.

  6. Contact CGP. Problems with a specific application may be
     caused by a fault in the Stingray'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
     CGP.  We may already have a driver update that addresses the
     issue.  When contacting us, have your current driver release
     (printed on your Stingray 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's accelerated drivers or are running in a true color mode.

  1. Lower your pixel depth. The Stingray, 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.


*** End of File ***

