Document 562

Some video drivers prevent Version 4.x from working

Version: 4.x - Scientific WorkPlace, Scientific Word, & Scientific Notebook

Problem

On Windows 98 systems, certain video drivers prevent Version 4.x of Scientific WorkPlace, Scientific Word, and Scientific Notebook from working. These drivers are known to cause the problem:

  • S3 ViRGE PCI

  • NVIDIA Geforce3 TNT

Explanation

If your Hardware Acceleration settings are too high, Windows can hang when our products open because of some interaction with the Microsoft toolbar code. This problem occurs specifically in Windows 98 and isn't known to occur with Windows NT, Windows 2000, or Windows XP systems.

Solution

If your computer uses an S3 ViRGE chipset for the video hardware, you must turn Acceleration off for our products in order for them to run.

The problem is known to Microsoft. Their support website contains instructions for a work-around.

This problem has also been reported by a customer for the NVIDIA Geforce3 TNT video card and by a different customer for ATI video graphics. The problem may also be present with other similar graphics cards and for any graphics cards that use hardware acceleration on Windows 98. Follow the same solutions as recommended for the S3 ViRGE PCI card.

If your system worked correctly with other video drivers but ceased working correctly when you installed new drivers, reinstalling the original drivers may solve the problem.

Added 12/05/02; revised 09/24/04

This document was created with Scientific WorkPlace.