Known hardware issues for upgrading to Windows ME...

What are the known hardware issues with Windows ME (Millennium Edition)?

This question was answered on September 9, 2000. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

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According to the readme.txt file that is included with Windows Millennium Edition, these are the known issues:

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CONTENTS

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PLUG AND PLAY

SCANNERS

VIDEO CAPTURE DEVICES

MODEMS

TAPE DRIVE DETECTION

ZIP TOOLS AND THE IOMEGA PARALLEL ZIP DISK

ISDN DRIVERS

IBM MWAVE

USB DEVICES

INPUT DEVICES (MOUSE & KEYBOARD)

=============

PLUG AND PLAY

=============

Problems with Power Settings in Control Panel

---------------------------------------------

Some computers do not let Windows Me fully control power

management If you find that changing the Standby, Monitor,

or Hard Drive time-out values in the Power Options has no

effect, your computer's own power management settings

are overriding the Windows Me settings To work around

this problem, carry out the following steps:

1 Open your computer's power management setup program.

2 Disable any standby, suspend, monitor, or hard disk

timeout values.

After you do this, you should be able to control these settings

from the Power Options in Windows Me Control Panel You may also

need to disable any BIOS-set timers to ensure that Windows Me

is controlling power management events For more information,

contact your computer manufacturer.

Compaq Presario 4834 and Non-Compaq Monitors

--------------------------------------------

If your Presario 4834 is not connected to a Compaq monitor

with USB ports, be sure that your BIOS is also configured

not to use the Compaq monitor with USB ports If you have

the BIOS set to use the Compaq monitor, but do not have a

Compaq monitor connected, then your computer will turn off

when you choose the Standby command For an updated BIOS

that fixes this problem, contact Compaq.

PCI Systems

-----------

If the video device is configured by the BIOS to use an IRQ

and you use the secondary PCI IDE controller in your computer,

your video will work only in VGA mode To load the accelerated

Windows Me driver for your video, disable the secondary PCI IDE

controller in the BIOS if it is not controlling an IDE device.

Additionally, you may have to disable it in Device Manager.

(To open Device Manager, open System properties in Control

Panel, and then click the Device Manager tab.)

An alternative (if supported by the BIOS) is to disable the IRQ

of the video device.

Digital Venturis (any model)

----------------------------

If PNPISA and/or PCI cards are not automatically recognized, or

if Windows Me generates blue-screen errors when reconfiguring

your COM ports, contact Digital for a new BIOS.

Printing from Device Manager

----------------------------

In Device Manager, if you choose to print an "All devices and

system summary," the device detection code may cause problems

for MS-DOS(R)-based programs Your computer manifests the problem

by reporting that it is out of memory when you try to run an

MS-DOS-based program When this problem occurs, restart

Windows Me to correct the problem.

TrueFFS Flash File System for PC Cards (PCMCIA)

-----------------------------------------------

The MS-DOS or Windows 3.1 version of the TrueFFS driver does

not work with the Windows Me PCMCIA driver To work with FTL-

formatted Linear Flash PCMCIA cards in Windows Me, install the

device driver provided by M-Systems.

To install the device driver:

1 In Windows Explorer, go to the \Drivers\Storage\Flash

folder on your Windows Me CD.

2 Right-click the file Trueffs.inf, and then click Install.

3 Restart your computer.

Your linear flash and SRAM cards will now function.

Toshiba Computers: T610 T400 Series, T2100 Series,

T2400 Series, T4700 Series, T4800 Series, and the

T4900CT and T3600

--------------------------------------------------

If you use any of these Toshiba computers, Toshiba strongly

recommends that you upgrade your computer BIOS to version 5.0.

The upgraded BIOS provides additional functionality for the

Windows Me operating system For more information in the United

States, contact Toshiba at (800) 999-4273 Outside the U.S.,

contact your local Toshiba dealer.

========

SCANNERS

========

Kodak DC-25 and DC120 Digital Still Cameras

-------------------------------------------

The Twain data sources are not included in this release.

To add a Kodak camera:

1 Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.

2 Double-click Add New Hardware If you don't see the Add New

Hardware icon, click View All Control Panel Options.

3 Click Next, and then click Next again.

4 Click No, The Device Isn't In The List, and then click Next.

5 Click No, I Want To Select The Hardware From A List, and then

click Next.

6 In the Hardware Types list, click Imaging Device, and then

click Next.

7 Click Next again, and then click either the Kodak DC-25 or

the DC120.

8 Click Next, select an available communication port from the

list, and then click Next.

9 If you want, type a new name for your device in the Device Name

box, and then click Next.

10 Click Finish.

Storm Technology - Logitech PageScan USB Sheet Fed Scanner

----------------------------------------------------------

Support includes the Twain data source This scanner also

supports push-mode scanning.

Logitech Scanman

----------------

If you use a handheld Logitech Scanman on a computer that has

more than 16 MB of memory, you may see an "Insufficient system

resources" message To resolve this problem, obtain an updated

driver, Scanupt.exe, from the Logitech bulletin board or from

CompuServe.

Acer Scanner Models 310U/320U, 620U/620UT, 640U/UT May Not Work

Properly

---------------------------------------------------------------

Contact Acer for an updated driver.

Epson Perfection 636, Perfection 1200 USB, GT7600U, and GT-7000

Scanners May Return an Error Message when Attempting to Scan

---------------------------------------------------------------

In some cases, the PC may run out of memory Contact Epson for

an updated driver.

Epson Stylus Scan 2500 does not scan

------------------------------------

Contact Epson for an updated driver.

Dexxa 4800 parallel scanner will not work in Windows Me

-------------------------------------------------------

No fix is available for this problem

Logitech PageScan USB Scanner May Not Work when Upgrading from

Windows 98

--------------------------------------------------------------

To resolve this problem, use the driver that came with the

scanner instead of the driver that came with Windows 98.

Canon CanoScan 620U software Will Not Install on Windows Me

-----------------------------------------------------------

Contact Canon for an updated driver.

Canon CanoScan 600 May Not Scan from Applications with Earlier

versions of ScanGear

--------------------------------------------------------------

Contact Canon to get version 4.0 or later of ScanGear.

Hewlett Packard 6200C and 6250C

-------------------------------

May not work with PrecisionScan 1.0 after upgrading, displaying

the message "Unable to communicate with the device." Restart the

computer to fix the problem.

Umax 2000U and 4000U Scanners May Not Work Properly from VistaScan

or Copy Utility

------------------------------------------------------------------

Contact Umax for an updated driver.

Hewlett Packard C200 Camera Software drivers

--------------------------------------------

May not work when installed along with the drivers included in

Windows Me Remove one of the duplicate drivers.

=====================

VIDEO CAPTURE DEVICES

=====================

Kodak DVC-300

-------------

The Kodak DVC-300 USB digital camera is not supported in

Windows Me Kodak has a version of the DVC-300

software available from their Web site at http://www.kodak.com. When you upgrade to Windows Me, this camera will show the

following message in Device Manager for this device:

"Kodak DVC needs update Go to http://www.kodak.com."

Windows Device Manager Video Capture Devices

and Video for Windows Applications

--------------------------------------------

Programs that use the Video for Windows 1.1 (VFW) interfaces

also use drivers that conform to the VfW 1.1 driver interfaces.

However, with the new Windows Device Manager (WDM) video capture

interfaces in Windows Me, programs can no longer use the VfW

interfaces to directly communicate with these WDM-based devices.

Windows Me includes a software layer that translates VfW 1.1

interfaces into WDM video capture interfaces This translation

software works only for video capture devices on external busses

(USB and 1394) in Windows Me Analog capture devices (such as PCI

cards with video decoder chips that use WDM drivers) cannot use

this translation software The original VfW drivers for these

analog capture devices will continue to work but they cannot

be used in combination with the newer WDM drivers An updated

version of this translation software is available at http://www.microsoft.com/support For information, search for

"Video for Windows WDM."

======

MODEMS

======

Modem Properties

----------------

To use your modem with the built-in communications features of

Windows Me, including HyperTerminal and Dial-Up Networking, you

must configure your modem in the Modem Properties dialog box.

To open the dialog box:

1 Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.

2 Double-click Modems If you don't see the Modems icon,

click View All Control Panel Options.

The options you set in the Modem Properties dialog box do not

affect modem operation in programs designed for MS-DOS or

Windows 3.1.

Modem Detection

---------------

If Windows Me detects your modem as a Standard Modem, or

incorrectly detects the make and model, carry out the following

steps:

1 Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.

2 Double-click Modems If you don't see the Modems icon,

click View All Control Panel Options.

3 Click Add, and follow the instructions given by the

Install New Modem wizard If the wizard finds no new modems

on your computer, you can pick a modem from a list of possible

modem manufacturers If your modem is not available, click

Standard Modem Types on the left side On the right side,

click the option with the speed most closely matching that of

your modem.

Note: If you Select an inappropriate speed, such as one faster

than your modem is capable of achieving, your modem might not work

with Windows Me communications features In such cases, carry out

the following steps:

1 In Modems properties, click the modem, and then click Remove.

2 Add the modem again as one of the other Standard Modem types you

can select from the Install New Modem wizard Choose

an alternate to the one you originally picked, that you feel

closely resembles the speed of your hardware.

When configured for Standard Modem, Windows Me uses your modem's

factory default settings The modem will make optimal high-speed

connections with Windows Me communications features However,

you cannot adjust certain modem settings, such as speaker volume

and cellular protocols.

Racal Modems

------------

If you have a Racal modem, do not use detection in the Install

New Modem wizard Instead, click Don't Detect My Modem, and then

pick one of the Standard Modem types If you have already run

detection and your modem is not responding, turn the modem off

and then back on.

Minitel (France)

----------------

Some modems may not be able to connect to French Minitel in

HyperTerminal by using the Windows Me default

settings.

To correct this problem:

1 Check your modem manual for a command that enables your modem

to connect in V.23 modulation to Minitel.

2 Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.

3 Double-click Modems If you don't see the Modems icon,

click View All Control Panel Options.

4 Click your modem, and then click Properties.

5 Click the Connection tab, and then click Advanced.

6 In the Extra Settings box, type the command.

Modem Detection May Start Autorun CDs

-------------------------------------

On some computers, running modem detection may start the CD-ROM

Autorun feature.

PC Card Modem Power Management:

Modem Not Found or Not Ready

-------------------------------

When PC Card Power Management is enabled, some PC card modems

need an extra delay before they are ready Because of this

problem, your modem may not work at times even though it may

work at other times.

To increase the delay:

1 Click Start, click Run, and then type:

regedit

Then click OK.

2 Go to \HKey_Local_Machine\System\CurrentControlSet Services\Class\Modem.

3 Click the key for the modem that you are trying to use.

4 To add a key in the root of the modem, click Edit, point

to New, and then click DWORD Value.

5 Name the DWord ConfigDelay.

6 Set the value equal to 3000 for a 3-second delay.

AOL Does Not Detect Modem

-------------------------

If AOL does not detect a modem in your system, you can install

the Modem Detection Package located on the Windows Millennium

Edition CD-ROM in the \\Tools\Pssutil directory After you install

this package you will need to restart your computer After Windows

starts, you can run AOL again and try to have it detect your modem

====================

TAPE DRIVE DETECTION

====================

Plug and Play software does not detect tape drives Tape

drive detection is a function of the drivers provided with

the Windows Me Backup program or of the backup

software that came with the drive As a result, without a

backup program installed on your computer, the only tape

drives that appear in Device Manager are SCSI tape drives,

which may appear as either an unknown device in Device Manager

or a generic tape drive.

However, most backup programs do detect tape drives, so don't

be concerned if your tape drive does not appear in Device

Manager If your backup software does not detect your tape

drive, contact the company that wrote the software.

==========================================

ZIP TOOLS AND THE IOMEGA PARALLEL ZIP DISK

==========================================

In My Computer or Windows Explorer, right-click the Zip drive,

and then click Format The IOMEGA Format window displays an

option for a full format of the drive If you select this option,

the following blue-screen, "fatal exception" error may occur:

A fatal exception 0E has occurred at 0028:C3C64C51

in VXD IOMEGA (01) 00000CB5 The current

application will be terminated Pressing any key

closes the Explorer window.

To correct this problem, contact IOMEGA and obtain a new

Iomega.vxd file Click Start, point to Find, and then click

Files Or Folders Find the old Iomega.vxd file and replace

it with the newer version.

============

ISDN DRIVERS

============

USR Sportster ISDN 128K

-----------------------

This includes upgrading from Windows 95 while running USR 5.3

drivers.

Before you upgrade to Windows Me, it is recommended that USR

Sportster ISDN 128K users update to driver version 5.4 from

3COM For more information, see http://totalservice.usr.com.

If you have already upgraded to Windows Me with driver version

5.3 installed, and have problems such as Dial-Up Networking

reporting that "The computer you are dialing is not responding,"

you can make a note of your ISDN configuration and then remove

your ISDN adapter and drivers Then install the USR 5.3 drivers.

Using the Diamond NetCommander ISDN - 128K - Multilink PPP

----------------------------------------------------------

If you use NetCommander, it is recommended that you configure the

adapters to connect at 64K, without Multilink PPP.

Both Diamond and Microsoft are looking into a known problem with

running the NetCommander ISDN under Windows Me with Multilink

PPP It is recommended that you check both the Diamond and

Microsoft Web sites for updated NetCommander drivers.

USR DataBurst ISDN Adapter

--------------------------

Information about Windows Me support for the DataBurst terminal

adapter is available at http://totalservice.usr.com.

Information about using this adapter under Windows Me is listed

in the Documentation Library (Dbinstll.pdf) and the Databurst

FAQs.

Teles ISDN Adapters

-------------------

Customers have reported that the 3.26 German driver version does

work properly under Windows Me; however, there are known problems

using the Teles 3.23 CAPI driver under Windows Me.

For CAPI driver version 3.23I and 3.26, you must install the

adapter before you install the TELES application package

(OnlinePowerPack 5.0 or 6.0) If you installed the application

package first, you have to delete the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\TELES

and its subkeys before installing the adapter This problem

is fixed in driver versions 3.26I and 3.28.

The Teles TAPI service provider from the driver release 3.23i

does not work under Windows Me You must remove it manually

using the Telephony options in Control Panel.

For up-to-date information, check the Teles Web site at http://www.teles.de or http://www.teles.com.

Upgrading from Windows 95 with Eicon ISDN Adapters

--------------------------------------------------

Certain Eicon adapters cannot make Dial-Up Networking connections

after the upgrade to Windows Me or if some other functionality is

missing To work around this problem, carry out the following

steps:

1 Make note of your ISDN switch/SPID configuration.

2 Open Network properties in Control Panel If you don't see the

Network icon, click View All Control Panel Options.

3 Remove your Eicon adapter and driver.

4 Reinstall your Eicon adapter using the Diva Install Media

provided by Eicon.

For information about the latest Eicon ISDN drivers, see the

Eicon Web site at http://www.eicon.com.

=========

IBM MWAVE

=========

Removing Mwave Drivers

----------------------

To permanently remove your Mwave drivers, use the most recent

level of Mwave floppy disks and follow the instructions to remove

Mwave from your computer If you need help, see the Readme.txt

file on the root of Disk 1 from the manufacturer.

Mwave Modem Setup for Countries Other

than the United States and Canada

-------------------------------------

If you are using Mwave drivers on your computer and your computer

is connected to a non U.S or Canadian telephone network, you will

need to run the Country Selection Application in the Modem &

Audio folder, select the country where you are using your

computer, and then restart your computer.

===========

USB DEVICES

===========

CMD OHCI USB Controller REV_04

------------------------------

If you upgrade your computer and have a PCI add-in USB host

controller from CMD, you may see the following string in

Device Manager:

"Rev 04 CMD USB controller not supported by Microsoft"

This device is not supported by Microsoft You can contact CMD

about getting a filter driver that should enable your computer

to work.

NEC USB OHCI Host Controllers[E5-E11]

-----------------------------------

Some older computers ship with a USB OHCI host controller

from NEC that has known problems with bulk devices You may

experience problems with this host controller when using bulk

USB devices such as scanners, printers, and modems.

Belkin USB Hubs

---------------

There are two issues with this device:

- The power adapter does not supply enough power for the hub

to be able to support four full bus-powered devices.

- The hub always reports itself as a self-powered device, even

when being used as a bus-powered device.

If you always use the power adapter, you will avoid having the

hub always report itself as a self-powered device You should

note that if you have four devices plugged in to the hub, you may

run into intermittent problems.

CATC USB Bus-Powered Hubs

-------------------------

This hub sometimes fails to work with low-speed devices such as

keyboards, mice, and joysticks The solution is to use only self-

powered devices with this hub.

Hitachi Visionbook Plus 4000 Series Laptop

------------------------------------------

USB is disabled on these computers because of problems with

power The laptop does not properly support high-powered

bus-powered devices.

Original Intel USB Camera

-------------------------

This original USB Camera (the square camera, not the oval camera

that is currently available) has problems working on OHCI host

controllers.

This device should be used on UHCI host controllers.

NEC Flat Screen Monitor with USB Hub

------------------------------------

This device has problems with low-speed devices such as

keyboards, mouse devices, and joysticks when plugging and

unplugging You may have to plug in and re-plug in the

device several times to get it to work correctly.

Thrustmaster Top Gun USB Joystick

---------------------------------

This device has problems working on OHCI host controllers.

This device should be used on UHCI host controllers.

Thrustmaster GrandPrix Steering Wheel

-------------------------------------

This device has problems working on OHCI host controllers.

This device should be used on UHCI host controllers.

NEC NX Series Computers

-----------------------

These computers come equipped with a legacy mode USB BIOS that

allows the USB keyboard to work in real (MS-DOS) mode When you

suspend and resume your computer, "wake up" the computer by using

the NEC USB keyboard/mouse, or the device will not work after the

computer is resumed You need to unplug the device and plug it

in the device again.

Unixtar USB Hubs

----------------

The hub always reports itself as a self-powered device, even

when being used as a bus-powered device In order for the hub

to work correctly, you must always use the power adapter.

Samsung USB Keyboard with Hub

-----------------------------

The hub on the Samsung USB keyboard does not always identify

itself correctly When it identifies itself as a self-powered

device, it confuses the operating system, causing odd behavior

with the hub portion of the keyboard There is no workaround.

Use low-powered USB devices such as mouse and gaming devices,

or self-powered devices with this keyboard.

3Com USB Voice Faxmodem

-----------------------

Models of this modem that have a firmware revision of 4.9.2

are not USB CDC-compliant devices, and will not be supported

by Windows Me drivers You can check the firmware version by

querying modem diagnostics in the Modem properties in Control

Panel This modem may still be used in serial mode for dial-up

connections.

Logitech/Storm Pagescan

-----------------------

This device does not work with the new Windows Image Acquisition

architecture available in Windows Me, and therefore it is not

supported.

Toshiba In-Touch module

-----------------------

These devices shipped with Toshiba Infinia computers and allowed

multimedia and Internet HID functionality from a USB console.

Support for this device has been removed from Windows Me.

================================

INPUT DEVICES (MOUSE & KEYBOARD)

================================

IBM PS/2 TrackPoint

-------------------

Any version of the TrackPoint driver older than version 2.01

may cause the operating system to lock up on docking operations,

including hot-docking, hot-undocking, warm-docking, and warm-

undocking Newer versions of this software (2.01 and later)

work correctly with Windows Me Failure symptoms may include

system lock-ups, loss of the mouse and/or keyboard, a slow,

unresponsive system, or a blue-screen "fatal error" condition.

To avoid these errors, please upgrade the driver to version

2.01 or newer These drivers are available on IBM's Web site

at http://www.ibm.com/support.

About the author

Posted by Ken Colburn of Data Doctors on September 9, 2000

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