| Old
Drivers Put the Brakes on Printers |
| NT 4.0 uses the Win95 printer model, so drivers from earlier versions of
NT don't work. If the driver you're using isn't from the NT 4.0 CD,
contact the printer vendor. |
 |
| Decompress Drivers |
| Windows 95 print drivers must be decompressed before NT 4.0 recognizes
them. Check PRINTER.WRI in the WINNT directory on your NT system for
details on how to decompress the drivers. |
|
| Inside Dope on DIPs |
| Some printers from Canon, Digital, Fujitsu, Mannesmann-Talley, Olivetti
and Seikosha require specific DIP switch settings to work with NT 4.0.
Check PRINTER.WRI in the WINNT directory for details. |
|
| IDE Idea |
| NT 4.0 controls all Integrated Device Electronics (IDE) devices using
the ATAPI.SYS driver. If a driver fails to start on a system upgraded
from NT 3.5 or 3.51, it's probably using ATDISK.SYS. Check in Event
Viewer, and if ATDISK.SYS is on your system, disable it in Control
Panel's Devices item. |
|
| The Deal with Cards |
| NT
4.0 includes PCMCIA support, but drivers for those devices only load at
boot time. If you power down the system, it will lose track of the
device. You can avoid reboots by disabling Power Management features on
NT systems with PC Cards installed. |
|
| Plug and Pray |
| NT 4.0 supports Plug-and-Play ISA devices, but requires a special driver
(PNPISA.SYS.) If this isn't already on your system, you can install it
from the NT 4.0 distribution CD's \DRVLIB\PNPISA folder. After you
install PNPISA.SYS, NT will detect Plug-and-Play devices, but you'll
have to provide device settings manually. |
|
| Plug-and-Play ISA Modems |
| NT 4.0 lacks built-in support for Plug-and-Play ISA modems designed for
Windows 95, but many can be made to work if PNPISA.SYS is installed.
Launch the Control Panel's Modem applet, click on Add and follow the
installation instructions. You must manually configure modem settings
using the Advanced Port Settings option for the modem's COM port, found
in the Control Panel's Ports applet. |
|
| Plug-and-Play ISA NICs |
| NT 4.0 lacks Plug-and-Play support for network cards, so those cards
must be reset to non-Plug-and-Play mode. You can check NETWORK.WRI in
your WINNT directory for more information. |
|
| Plug-and-Play ISA Multimedia |
| You install Plug-and-Play multimedia cards the same way you install
other multimedia cards in NT 4.0: Run Multimedia from Control Panel,
select the Devices tab and click on Add. You manually set the device's
settings, and each device presents a different dialog. Right-click on
the device and select Properties/Settings. |
|
| Sweet Sounds |
| Using a Sound Blaster card with Plug-and-Play support under Windows NT
requires a special driver that disables Plug and Play and manually sets
the card's configuration. |
|
| Un Plug-and-Play ISA Devices |
| Uninstall Plug-and-Play ISA modems from the Ports applet in Control
Panel; use Control Panel's Multimedia applet to uninstall Plug-and-Play
ISA multimedia de vices. |
|
| Zippy Drive |
| If you remove an Iomega Zip drive from your PC, you will receive an
error message at start-up. To avoid this message, open Devices from the
Control Panel and select the PPA3NT driver. Change the driver Startup
setting from Boot to Disabled while the Zip drive is disconnected. |
|
| Remember the RAM |
| Microsoft says Windows NT Workstation will run on a machine equipped
with 16MB of RAM. A more reasonable minimum is 32MB for typical business
apps, and at least 48MB-or preferably 64MB-for extensive multitasking. |
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