Q121657: MAC Encarta 94: "Encarta and Memory Read Me" Contents
Article: Q121657
Product(s): Microsoft Home Multimedia Titles
Version(s): 1994 edition
Operating System(s):
Keyword(s):
Last Modified: 26-MAY-2001
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The information in this article applies to:
- Microsoft Encarta 1994 The Complete Multimedia Encyclopedia
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SUMMARY
=======
The following is the contents of "Encarta & Memory Read Me" contained on the
Encarta 1994 for the Macintosh CD:
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Memory Issues with Microsoft Encarta 1994 for the Macintosh
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This document contains information on the following topics:
1. GENERAL MEMORY ISSUES WITH ENCARTA 1994
- How Encarta uses memory
2. ADVICE FOR COMMON CONFIGURATIONS
- If you have 4 to 5 MB of memory
- If you have 6 to 8 MB of memory
- If you have more than 8 MB of memory
3. LOW MEMORY SYMPTOMS AND SOLUTIONS
- When enlarging images
- When printing topics
- When printing images
- When launching mini-applications
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1. GENERAL MEMORY ISSUES WITH ENCARTA 1994
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Encarta lets you explore a tremendous amount of information and media.
You can read articles, see color photos, listen to high quality 16-bit
audio, or watch animations and videos. Encarta also contains several
mini-applications, such as the Animation Launcher, MindMaze game, and
the Dictionary. All this multimedia can use a large amount of your
computer's memory (RAM). We put this document together to help explain
and solve any memory problems you may encounter while using Encarta.
We tested Encarta on systems with many different memory configurations,
from 4 MB up to over 32 MB of memory. All parts of Encarta work on a 4
MB system, but Encarta runs best on systems with 6 MB or more of memory.
If you have a machine with 4 to 5 MB of memory, we offer advice to help
avoid problems and make the best use of your available memory. If you
have a machine with 6 MB or more of memory, we also offer advice on how
to make Encarta take best advantage of the extra memory.
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2. ADVICE FOR COMMON CONFIGURATIONS
----------------------------------------
Encarta is designed to work best with the most common multimedia
Macintosh computers being sold today. These machines have 6 to 8 MB of
memory, a double-speed CD-ROM drive, a 13-inch monitor, and can display
thousands of colors. However, we know there are many machines that have
only 4 MB of RAM, a 12-inch monitor, and can display only 16 or 256
colors. There are also many machines with 16 or 32 MB of RAM, 16-inch
monitors that can display millions of colors. The following sections
show how you can get the most from Encarta with your computer's
configuration
.
--------------------------------
2a - If you have 4 to 5 MB of memory
--------------------------------
Typical System:
Macintosh LCIII,
4 MB of RAM,
13-inch monitor,
256 colors
Most computers will not have trouble running Encarta on this typical 4
MB system. However, if your system has a lot of extensions, fonts,
screen savers, etc., there may not be enough memory left over for
Encarta to run properly.
To see how much memory your system software uses, click the desktop,
select the Apple menu from the menu bar, and choose the first menu
item, "About This Macintosh....". On a 4 MB system, the system software
needs to use less than 1500K of available memory when no other programs
are running. The "Largest Unused Block" needs to be greater than 2500K
to run Encarta 1994. If the System Software uses more than 1500K of
memory and the Largest Unused Block is less than 2560K, then you need
to reduce the amount of memory used by the system software. Refer to
your Macintosh documentation for instructions on how to do this, and
read the following tip to help you run Encarta in this configuration:
- Run only one application at a time
If other applications are running, close them before launching Encarta
1994.
- Reduce the size of the Disk cache
Open the Memory Control Panel and check the Disk Cache setting. To make
the greatest amount of memory available, set the cache to 32K.
- Remove unused fonts and sounds
Fonts and sounds consume system memory, even when not being used.
Removing those you don't need will make more memory available. Be
careful when removing fonts however, as some applications (like
Encarta) may not work properly if the correct fonts are not available.
Remove only what you are certain is not needed.
- Remove or disable system extensions
Third party system extensions such as screen savers, fax software,
desktop pictures, menu-modifying utilities and other system
enhancements increase the amount of memory consumed by your system.
Removing some or all of these extensions will increase the amount of
memory available to applications. Be sure that you save anything you
remove from your System folder in a separate folder on your disk so
that you can replace it later.
NOTE: Be sure to restart your Macintosh after making any of these
changes to your system.
- Turn on Virtual memory
Virtual memory allows you to increase the amount of available memory by
using space on your hard disk to simulate RAM memory. Although using
virtual memory will slow down performance slightly, the extra available
memory can make applications like Encarta run more effectively. To turn
on Virtual Memory, open the Memory control panel, choose the Virtual
Memory On option, choose an amount of disk space to use for memory (we
recommend 2 to 4 MB) and then restart your computer.
------------------------------
2b - If you have 6 to 8 MB of memory
------------------------------
- Typical System:
Macintosh Quadra 610,
8 MB of RAM,
13-inch monitor,
Thousands of colors.
Encarta is designed to work best on this memory configuration. However,
you may encounter memory problems if you have a large amount of system
software or want to run several applications at once. If you have
trouble running Encarta, all of the solutions mentioned above should help.
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2c - If you have more than 8 MB of Memory
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- Typical System:
Macintosh Quadra 800,
16 MB of RAM,
16-inch monitor,
Millions of colors.
In this configuration, you may want to increase the amount of memory
made available to Encarta and the Encarta mini-applications. Here are
some tips to enhance performance on this type of configuration:
- Increase the size of the Disk cache
In the Memory control panel, you can set aside a portion of your RAM to
store recently used information read from your CD-ROM drive or hard
disk. A larger cache can improve performance considerably because RAM
is much faster than CD-ROMs or hard disks. For a system with more than
8 MB of RAM, you should set the cache size to be 256K or 512K.
- Increase the "Recommended Memory" for Encarta
The minimum amount of memory Encarta requires to run is 2560K. All of
Encarta will run with this amount of memory, but to do this, the
application sometimes will need to purge some memory if many windows or
large photos are opened. This purged memory may have to be re-read from
the disk if it is later needed, slowing down Encarta. To set aside more
memory for Encarta to use, click the Encarta 1994 application icon then
choose "Get Info" from the File menu. In the section titled "Memory
Requirements," change the Preferred size from 2560K to 3000K or 3500K.
- Increase the "Recommended Memory" for the Encarta projector. If you
have a large display and are running in Millions of colors mode, the
Encarta animations may be able to run. You can set aside more memory
for the Projector by increasing the "Recommended Memory" in Get Info to
4000K or 5000K if you have a very large display.
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3. LOW MEMORY SYMPTOMS AND SOLUTIONS
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The following are examples of some typical low memory symptoms and
possible solutions to these problems:
Symptom: Problems enlarging images
---------------------------------
When enlarging an image, I get a small box that
says "LOW MEM", an empty gray rectangle, or a "Not
enough memory" message box.
Reason:
A single image needs up to 300K of memory to
display in 256 color mode and 900K in Thousands of
colors. If the enlarged image also has sound that
plays with it, even more memory is required.
Solution:
Close other open applications
Close any topic lists you may have open (such as
See Also, Outline, Topics Found) Switch to 256
Colors if you are running in Thousands or
Millions. Restart Encarta
Symptom: Problems printing topics
-------------------------------
When printing topics, pages are blank or not all
of the topic is printed.
Reason:
Printing topics requires creating a duplicate
layout for the printer, since it has different
margins than the screen. Some of the longest
articles in Encarta are thousands of words long.
Having two copies of a long article in memory
at the same time can use up all of the available memory.
Solution:
Close other open applications.
Close any topic lists you may have open (such as
See Also, Outline, Topics Found) Switch to 256
Colors if you are running in Thousands or
Millions. Copy the topic to your word-processing
program and print it from there. Restart Encarta
and try to print again.
Symptom: Problems printing images
--------------------------------
When printing photos, the output is garbled or all
that prints out is a small box that says "LOW
MEM".
Reason:
As with printing topics, printing a photo requires
creating a duplicate copy of the image on the
screen. Two versions of a large photo can consume
all of the available memory.
Solution:
Close other open applications. Close any topic
lists you may have open (such as See Also,
Outline, Topics Found)Switch to 256 Colors if you
are running in Thousands or Millions.Copy the
topic to a paint program and print it from there.
Restart Encarta and try to print again.
Symptom: Not enough memory to run mini-applications
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The MindMaze Game, Dictionary, Word Processor, or
animations cannot be launched.
Reason:
While everything inside Encarta may have enough
memory to run, there may not be enough memory
available to launch a mini-application.
Solution:
Close other open applications.
Run MindMaze or Animations outside of Encarta.
Turn on Virtual Memory to make more memory
available to run applications.
Additional query words: kbhowto mac 1994 multi media multimedia multi- mmtitles readme
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Keywords :
Technology : kbHomeProdSearch kbEncartaSearch kbEncartaEncycSearch kbEncartaEnCyc1994
Version : :1994 edition
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