My Alpha4v3 works fine in Widows XP PRO... Finally!!
I’m stubborn, retired, lazy and a long time computer user (over 25 years). I’ve used Alpha4v3 since it was first released (back when Scrat was a pup) and found it to do what I needed, with a few exceptions. I recently decided to switch from Win98SE to WinXP and was not willing to accept that I “HAVE” to buy the latest version of AlphaX. After many hours of trial, experimentation and hints from this forum and a Que book on WinXP, I have succeeded. First, mine is a “clean” install of WinXP rather than an upgrade. I tried to upgrade, but ran into too many problems.
LAN Error...
My “LAN Error: adapter malfunction - please reboot” error was not corrected by any of the remedies posted here. I have 2 Ethernet adapters in use. One for my local home LAN and one to connect to my DSL modem In my case, the “Lan Error...” was corrected by remarking out the “lh%SystemRoot%\system32\redir” line in the
“C:\windows\system32\autoexec.nt” file. I first saved the file to a “bak” version before changing it. Then I saved the changed file as “C:\Windows\system32\aalpha4v3.nt” for use in starting Alpha4v3. To prevent the “Not enough file handles(?)” error, I also changed “files=40" to “files=100" in the “config.nt” file. I saved the changed file as “alpha4v3.nt” and changed the “Alpha4v3 Shortcut” ”Properties/Program/Advanced” “Custom MS-DOS initialization files” to reflect the names of these changed files. I left the Config.nt and Autoexec.nt files as default so that other DOS programs that might need the network “redir” command would work.
Start Full Screen
For full screen use, there are several items to check. First of all, if a desktop shortcut is used to start Alpha4v3, the shortcut properties take precedence over the properties for the A4.EXE file. The properties for the DOS window (right click on the upper right corner of the window) have to be set to “Font/8x12/Raster Fonts” and “Layout/Window Size 80:25". Greater than 80:25 will give larger window displays but, cause gibberish to appear on the full screen display. No, I don’t know why! The shortcut/program properties “Font/Available Type & Font Size” can be set to “Both Font Types & Auto”. Setting this to something else may have affected the DOS window, but I’m not sure as I didn’t document this variation as I tried it.
XP Corrupts Data Files
As far as “WinXP corrupts Alpha4v3 data files”, I had many video data files corrupted by WinXP, or video programs running in WinXP before finding that using WinXP on a NTFS partition with my data files on a FAT32 partition, or drive, doesn’t work. Changing the data partition/drive to NTFS solved the problem. I still use a FAT32 partition on a drive with WinXP for my old Ghost drive image files, but that is all I keep on the FAT32 partition. I strongly suspect that this is what is partly what is happening to the corrupted Alpha4 data files.
Can’t Find File
“Can’t find file...” errors may be because XP identifies drives differently from Win98 and data drives may appear with different drive letters than with Win98 so applications can’t find the needed files on data drives. Go to “Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Computer Management/Disk Management” and right click to designate the drive letters.
Very Slow Menu Selections
Often, menu selections and stepping through files would hesitate and be quite slow. With a modern 1.5+gH machine, this would seem impossible. Evidently, the “virtual DOS window (ntvdm.exe)” in XP checks many things while in use and if any other Applications or Processes, like ZoneAlarm firewall, are active, the DOS window will have hesitations. Going to the “Task Manager” and upping the priority of the DOS window did not help. In fact, changing it to “Real Time” caused the whole thing to freeze up and I had to do a MB reset.
I’m stubborn, retired, lazy and a long time computer user (over 25 years). I’ve used Alpha4v3 since it was first released (back when Scrat was a pup) and found it to do what I needed, with a few exceptions. I recently decided to switch from Win98SE to WinXP and was not willing to accept that I “HAVE” to buy the latest version of AlphaX. After many hours of trial, experimentation and hints from this forum and a Que book on WinXP, I have succeeded. First, mine is a “clean” install of WinXP rather than an upgrade. I tried to upgrade, but ran into too many problems.
LAN Error...
My “LAN Error: adapter malfunction - please reboot” error was not corrected by any of the remedies posted here. I have 2 Ethernet adapters in use. One for my local home LAN and one to connect to my DSL modem In my case, the “Lan Error...” was corrected by remarking out the “lh%SystemRoot%\system32\redir” line in the
“C:\windows\system32\autoexec.nt” file. I first saved the file to a “bak” version before changing it. Then I saved the changed file as “C:\Windows\system32\aalpha4v3.nt” for use in starting Alpha4v3. To prevent the “Not enough file handles(?)” error, I also changed “files=40" to “files=100" in the “config.nt” file. I saved the changed file as “alpha4v3.nt” and changed the “Alpha4v3 Shortcut” ”Properties/Program/Advanced” “Custom MS-DOS initialization files” to reflect the names of these changed files. I left the Config.nt and Autoexec.nt files as default so that other DOS programs that might need the network “redir” command would work.
Start Full Screen
For full screen use, there are several items to check. First of all, if a desktop shortcut is used to start Alpha4v3, the shortcut properties take precedence over the properties for the A4.EXE file. The properties for the DOS window (right click on the upper right corner of the window) have to be set to “Font/8x12/Raster Fonts” and “Layout/Window Size 80:25". Greater than 80:25 will give larger window displays but, cause gibberish to appear on the full screen display. No, I don’t know why! The shortcut/program properties “Font/Available Type & Font Size” can be set to “Both Font Types & Auto”. Setting this to something else may have affected the DOS window, but I’m not sure as I didn’t document this variation as I tried it.
XP Corrupts Data Files
As far as “WinXP corrupts Alpha4v3 data files”, I had many video data files corrupted by WinXP, or video programs running in WinXP before finding that using WinXP on a NTFS partition with my data files on a FAT32 partition, or drive, doesn’t work. Changing the data partition/drive to NTFS solved the problem. I still use a FAT32 partition on a drive with WinXP for my old Ghost drive image files, but that is all I keep on the FAT32 partition. I strongly suspect that this is what is partly what is happening to the corrupted Alpha4 data files.
Can’t Find File
“Can’t find file...” errors may be because XP identifies drives differently from Win98 and data drives may appear with different drive letters than with Win98 so applications can’t find the needed files on data drives. Go to “Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Computer Management/Disk Management” and right click to designate the drive letters.
Very Slow Menu Selections
Often, menu selections and stepping through files would hesitate and be quite slow. With a modern 1.5+gH machine, this would seem impossible. Evidently, the “virtual DOS window (ntvdm.exe)” in XP checks many things while in use and if any other Applications or Processes, like ZoneAlarm firewall, are active, the DOS window will have hesitations. Going to the “Task Manager” and upping the priority of the DOS window did not help. In fact, changing it to “Real Time” caused the whole thing to freeze up and I had to do a MB reset.