| Especially if you are a rather inexperienced user,
you better read this section. Otherwise you are asking for trouble. Do not blame
Terratec for all the things that go wrong during installation and use of the
EWS64. Additional causes for trouble are:
- Windows 95 is not as stable as it pretends to be. In fact, in comparison to other
operating systems, it's one of the worst we've ever seen.
- Even if Windows 95 reports no hardware conflicts, that statement is not always
reliable.
- Many hardware components and programs behave like they 'own' your computer, as if
there's nothing else in it. Inevitably this leads to conflicts.
- A 'polluted' registry. Keep your registry as clean as possible with programs like
Regclean (Windows), Cleansweap, Remove-It etc. Warning:
Cleansweep 3.0 can mess up a lot of things if you install it after if you
installed IE4.0! Visit www.quarterdeck.com to get more information on this.
- Former installed components and programs. You probably removed them a long time ago
already, but their footprints may still be present in the registry and even on the
harddisk.
- A brandnew EWS64 is in most cases not the first souncard in the computer. Probably the
'old' Soundblaster is still lying next to the computer case. You would be amazed how many
traces a Soundblaster leaves in the registry and on the harddisk, how many unexpected
links to other programs (still) exist.
- Bugs in the EWS-drivers (decreasing with every release)
- Interrupt, I/O, DMA conflicts. Check all the properties in 'My Computer'. Particularly
the Terratec Devices.
- New: new Pentium II mainboards
can't use IRQ 9 for ISA cards. That's a fact and concerns all
ISA cards. Please read the workaround on our Faulty or My Fault page.
- Other hardware. Pay attention to SCSI cards (especially the ISA-types).
- Other software. Check what software is active when you run EWS-software.
- Plug and Play does not work as smoothly as it pretends. Especially with ISA-cards.
- The user. A very probable cause, if we may say so. When we read the EWS mailing list, we
get the impression that a number of users is blaming Terratec for things they do to
themselves: working through 'trial and error' methods. That's always tricky under Win95.
Make an inventory of your system (hardware and software). Make a 'worklist' before you are
going to install (e.g. driver updates). That's the best start for enhancing the chances on
getting support from Terratec and other users.
We could go on for a while longer, but we think you got the picture by now. Probably
your 'own picture' too: which user of an EWS64 still has some slots and/or IRQ's left in
his/her computer? |
