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!PCconfig includes a wide range of options for customising your PC setup. In most cases you will not need to change these, but you may have specific requirements or a set of hardware which makes this necessary. |
Should you want to add any of these options to the !PCConfig
advanced configuration window, you will need to edit the ConfData text
file inside the !PCConfig application.
To do this:
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To update your configuration options:
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Not all the available options are displayed automatically
in the Advanced configuration window.
However, all are stored in !PC Config’s ConfData file. To add hidden options to the advanced configuration window:
You can also edit the configuration directly by opening the file Config inside !PC. |
The entries in this section have the title of the option as it appears in
the !PCconfig window. |
Config line:VGA Attached On|Off
Default setting:on
If you do not have a monitor capable of displaying VGA modes (Monitortype 1,3 or 4 required) then the PC Card will revert to multitasking mode if a VGA or EGA mode is selected. If you want to operate in single-tasking mode you should turn this option off, which will mean that CGA modes are always used and the PC Card will be able to remain in single-tasking mode. The VGA display requires an extra 512K of RAM to operate: check that you have enough free RAM under RISC OS before making this configuration. |
Config line: RetraceEmulation 0|1|2
Default setting: Normal (0) The three options here are Normal, Fast A, and Fast B. Normal is the default. This option controls how the PC Card software emulates the Vertical and Horizontal Retrace registers found on VGA cards. These registers are used by very old software to avoid rewriting screen memory whilst it is being displayed (which caused snow on XT-vintage display systems). They are also used by games for things like synchronisation and generating pseudo-random numbers. For a perfect emulation the PC Card would have to spend its entire time updating these registers, so a compromise in necessary. Three possible options are given. If you have trouble with very old software that uses CGA or EGA modes
and displays extremely slowly, then try changing this setting. Also if you
get division by 0 errors or other failures with games it is worth trying
changing this setting to see if it helps. 0 is most compatible, while 1
and 2 may make DOS software run faster.
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Config line: UseWindowFE On|Off
Default setting: on Select Allow desktop operation if you want to be able to run
the PC in multi-tasking mode on the RISCOS desktop or if you want to use
the Windows driver. The default setting is On.
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Config line: ScaleToFit On|Off
Default setting: off Select Shrink PC window to fit screen if you want to scale the PC screen
to fit your screen..
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Config line: Coprocessor on|off
Default setting: on This option is auto-detecting. You may explicitly set this to Off
to over-ride the auto-detection.
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Config line: UseLoResText On|Off
Default setting: off If your monitor is not VGA or better, you may prefer to use Low-resolution text which is designed to be easier to read on low-resolution screens. If you are using a multi-frequency monitor you should not select this option. |
Config line: InitInMono On|Off
Default setting: off Select this option if you need to work in monochrome (MDA) mode on the PC. You will only need this option for extremely old software that cannot run in colour. This option may be discontinued in the future. |
Config line: PowerSaving On|Off
Default setting: on This option uses the powersaving features of the 386 and 486 CPUs on all Aleph One PC cards, to make significant heat and power savings when in multitasking mode and when frozen. There is no performance penalty so this option should always be on. |
Config line: Trace On|Off
Default setting: off This line is used to turn on trace information when you have a problem with running software. See the Troubleshooting chapter (section 8 on page 67) for details. |
Config line: L1Cache 0|1|2|3
Default setting: autodetecting
Level 1 cache depends on whether the CPU has a write back or a write
through cache. It should be set to:
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Config line: L2Cache 0|1|2|3
Default setting: autodetecting This option is irrelevant to expansion cards.
The correct settings depend on your hardware. Level 2 cache should be set to:
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Config line: L2Size n
Default setting: 256 This option governs the size of the level 2 cache in second processor cards. It is irrelevant to expansion cards. The correct setting depends on hardware but can be between 32K and 512K. |
Config line: ClkEnabled On|Off
Default setting: depends on hardware This option, for second processor cards only, must be on if a TI486SXL2 processor is installed. |
Config line: ASICoptions 0|1|2
Default setting: 0
1 disable small write buffer 2 disable large write buffer |
Config line: Floppy0|1 360|720|1200|1440
Default setting: 0 (autodetecting) These settings specify the type of floppy drive fitted. Default lets the PC application work it out for itself. This works in all except exceptional configurations. If this does not work then you need to give one of the other values:
3.5" high density (1.44M) 1440 5.25" double density (360K) 360 5.25" high density (1.2M) 1200 |
Config line: NE2000Int n
Default setting: 5 This option specifies the interrupt that the NE2000 Emulation will use if you are using the network drivers. See the network driver documentation for details, and Network cards on page 60. Usual value is 5. |
Config line: Busmouse on|off
Default setting: on This enables or disables the emulation of the Acorn mouse as a DOS bus
mouse. It should be left on unless you wish to use a serial mouse plugged
into the PC card, or need to release the interrupt for some other use.
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Config line: BusMouseInt nDefault setting:
3
This specifies the interrupt that the bus mouse emulation will use.
If you are using the supplied AMOUSE/COM driver (4th Dec 1992), then you
must leave this at 3. The MOUSE/COM supplied with Windows can use interrupts
2,3 or 5.
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Aleph One Ltd. | 73-81 |
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