No part of this document may be reproduced, transmitted, photocopied, or translated into another language without the written consent of EPIX, Inc. Information in this document is subject to change without obligation or notice. EPIX, Inc. makes no warranty of any kind with regard to this document, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. EPIX, Inc. assumes no responsibility for any errors that may appear in this document. EPIX, Inc. reserves the right to make changes to the specifications of hardware and software at any time, without obligation or notice.

4MIP, SVIP, XCIP, XCAP, 4MEG VIDEO, 1MEG VIDEO, SILICON VIDEO MUX, QUICK SET VIDEO, 12-7MUX, IMAGE MEMORY EXPANSION, COC40, and COC402 are trademarks of EPIX, Inc.

EPIX, SILICON VIDEO, and PIXCI are registered trademarks of EPIX, Inc.

Other brand, product, and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Printing: 30-May-2001

1. PC Configuration Tips - PCI and Plug & Play Cards

Required Resources.

EPIX® imaging products which are ''Plug & Play'' compatible are assigned resources automatically by BIOS, Windows, or other operating system. The Plug & Play compatible EPIX® imaging boards, current and superceded models, are:




Hardware   


Card Type 


Uses IRQ's 


Bus Master 


Vendor ID 


Device ID





PIXCI® SV2  


PCI       


Yes        


Yes        


8086      


1223




PIXCI® SV3  


PCI       


Yes        


Yes        


8086      


1223




PIXCI® SV4  


PCI       


Yes        


Yes        


109E      


0350




PIXCI® SV5  


PCI       


Yes        


Yes        


109E      


036E




PIXCI® SV5  


PCI       


Yes        


Yes        


109E      


0878




PIXCI® D    


PCI       


Yes        


Yes        


10E8      


80D6




PIXCI® D24  


PCI       


Yes        


Yes        


10E8      


80D6




PIXCI® D32  


PCI       


Yes        


Yes        


10E8      


80D6




PIXCI® DVO  


PCI       


Yes        


Yes        


10E8      


817F




PIXCI® A    


PCI       


Yes        


Yes        


10E8      


82B1




PIXCI® D2X  


PCI       


Yes        


Yes        


165A      


D200




PIXCI® D2X  


PCI       


Yes        


Yes        


165A      


D201




PIXCI® CL3SD


PCI       


Yes        


Yes        


165A      


C300




PIXCI® CL1  


PCI       


Yes        


Yes        


165A      


C100

Under the Plug & Play philosophy, if all add-in cards are Plug & Play compatible, no resource conflicts should, in theory, exist. In practice, problems still occur, although less frequently than with ISA cards.

ISA Cards.

The Plug & Play system can perform conflict free configuration only if all add-in cards are Plug & Play; presence of an ISA legacy card can't be detected by Plug & Play, and resources used by the legacy card may be reassigned. The conflicting resource is often an interrupt (IRQ). The BIOS Setup of most Plug & Play PC's have options such as:

    IRQ 10  Used/Available
    IRQ 11  Used/Available

These are provided so that the user can mark as ''Used'' all IRQ's utilized by an ISA card; any IRQ's not so marked may be assigned and/or shared among the Plug & Play cards.

Insufficient Resources.

The Plug & Play system is designed to automatically assign resources in a nonconflicting manner. However, resources are still limited, and there is no guarantee that every card will have its requirements fulfilled. Systems differ in how they notify the user of insufficient resources. If a Plug & Play card can't be detected by its software, try removing other Plug & Play cards to free various resources.

IRQ Sharing.

The Plug & Play system may assign multiple cards to share the same interrupt. Depending on the characteristics of the two (or more) devices sharing an interrupt, one or both devices may always work, may never work, or may work intermittently.

Test for IRQ sharing by using XCAP:

    PIXCI®
    PIXCI® Open/Close
    Advanced
    Allow IRQ Sharing: Uncheck
    OK
    Open

If the Open succeeds, then the IRQ was not being shared. If the Open does not succeed and a ''Configuration Error or Fault'' dialog is shown with a message such as ''Bad or conflicting IRQ'', then the IRQ was being shared with another device. This tests for conflict, but does not resolve the conflict.

IRQ sharing may or may not work, depending upon the various devices involved. On some motherboards, IRQs are assigned by physical slot; try moving the PIXCI® imaging board to a different slot. On other motherboards, the BIOS may allow assigning IRQs to different slots; or may at least allow specifying which IRQ's are to be parceled out amongst all slots.

Under Windows 95/98, on some motherboards, the Windows Device Manager may be able to change the assigned IRQ. In the Control Panel, System, Device Manager, click ''Computer'', ''Properties'', ''Interrupt Request (IRQ)'' to display a list of devices and their IRQ's. Find the device using the same IRQ as the PIXCI® imaging board. In the Device Manager, highlight the offending card and click ''Properties'', ''Resources''. Uncheck ''Use automatic settings'', highlight the IRQ, click ''Change Setting'', and select a different IRQ.

Bus Mastering.

Imaging boards without on-board memory use PCI bus master mode (i.e. DMA) to transfer image data to the PC's memory in real time. The available bandwidth of PCI motherboards differs widely; not all PCI motherboards can support continuous, full field, real time capture into PC memory.

Some motherboards may not support Bus Mastering in every PCI slot; the motherboard's documentation should describe which slots may be used. Also, some older motherboards may have PCI slots, but are not Plug & Play compatible; the BIOS Setup screens may require manual enabling of master mode and assignment of IRQ's for each PCI slot:

    Device Select:      Slot 0
    Enable Device:      Enabled
    Enable Master:      Enabled
    Device IRQ Line:    IRQ 11

Older motherboards may initialize with PCI Burst Mode deactivated; other motherboards may not support PCI Burst Mode at all. PCI Burst Mode is critical to utilizing the full bandwidth of the PCI bus. Some versions of BIOS Setup allow enabling PCI Burst Mode:

    PCI Burst Mode      Enabled

Older S/VGA cards may not operate properly with Burst Mode enabled; consult the S/VGA card manufacturer for updated drivers which allow use of Burst Mode.

Windows 95/98 Registry.

The Windows 95/98 automatic recognition and installation of PCI cards is dependent upon each PCI card's unique ID, and gets confused if there are two or more different cards with the same ID, even if one of them is no longer installed. For example, the PIXCI® SV2 and SV3 imaging board ID's are determined by a Philips PCI Bus Interface chip, and thus share the same ID as other cards using the same chip. Similarly, the PIXCI® SV4 and SV5 imaging board ID is determined by a Brooktree PCI Bus Interface chip. Before automatic installation of the PIXCI® imaging board's drivers can succeed, the Windows 95/98 registry entries and .INF files for all impostors must be removed:

In Windows 95, using REGEDIT, remove folder:

\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ENUM\PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1223      (for PIXCI® SV2, SV3)
\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ENUM\PCI\VEN_109E&DEV_0350      (for PIXCI® SV4)
\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ENUM\PCI\VEN_109E&DEV_036E      (for PIXCI® SV5)
\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ENUM\PCI\VEN_109E&DEV_0878      (for PIXCI® SV5)
\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ENUM\PCI\VEN_10E8&DEV_80D6      (for PIXCI® D, D24, D32)
\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ENUM\PCI\VEN_10E8&DEV_817F      (for PIXCI® DVO)
\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ENUM\PCI\VEN_10E8&DEV_82B1      (for PIXCI® A)
\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ENUM\PCI\VEN_165A&DEV_D200      (for PIXCI® D2X)
\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ENUM\PCI\VEN_165A&DEV_D201      (for PIXCI® D2X)
\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ENUM\PCI\VEN_165A&DEV_C300      (for PIXCI® CL3SD)
\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ENUM\PCI\VEN_165A&DEV_C100      (for PIXCI® CL1)

In Windows 98, using REGEDIT, remove folder:

\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ENUM\PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1223&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_**   (for PIXCI® SV2, SV3)
\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ENUM\PCI\VEN_109E&DEV_0350&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_**   (for PIXCI® SV4)
\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ENUM\PCI\VEN_109E&DEV_036E&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_**   (for PIXCI® SV5)
\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ENUM\PCI\VEN_109E&DEV_0878&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_**   (for PIXCI® SV5)
\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ENUM\PCI\VEN_10E8&DEV_80D6&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_**   (for PIXCI® D, D24, D32)
\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ENUM\PCI\VEN_10E8&DEV_817F&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_**   (for PIXCI® DVO)
\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ENUM\PCI\VEN_10E8&DEV_82B1&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_**   (for PIXCI® A)
\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ENUM\PCI\VEN_165A&DEV_D200&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_**   (for PIXCI® D2X)
\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ENUM\PCI\VEN_165A&DEV_D201&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_**   (for PIXCI® D2X)
\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ENUM\PCI\VEN_165A&DEV_C300&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_**   (for PIXCI® CL3SD)
\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ENUM\PCI\VEN_165A&DEV_C100&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_**   (for PIXCI® CL1)

where the **'s may be any digits (assigned and created by Windows after detection of the PIXCI® imaging board).

In C:\WINDOWS\INF, remove all .INF files which contain:

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1223                                  (for PIXCI® SV2, SV3)
PCI\VEN_109E&DEV_0350                                  (for PIXCI® SV4)
PCI\VEN_109E&DEV_036E                                  (for PIXCI® SV5)
PCI\VEN_109E&DEV_0878                                  (for PIXCI® SV5)
PCI\VEN_10E8&DEV_80D6                                  (for PIXCI® D, D24, D32)
PCI\VEN_10E8&DEV_817F                                  (for PIXCI® DVO)
PCI\VEN_10E8&DEV_82B1                                  (for PIXCI® A)
PCI\VEN_165A&DEV_D200                                  (for PIXCI® D2X)
PCI\VEN_165A&DEV_D201                                  (for PIXCI® D2X)
PCI\VEN_165A&DEV_C300                                  (for PIXCI® CL3SD)
PCI\VEN_165A&DEV_C100                                  (for PIXCI® CL1)

For safety, move these to a new subdirectory (of any name), rather than deleting the files. The Driver Assistant in XCAP can perform the registry cleanup automatically, although it does not save any of the removed files.

Reboot the PC. When Windows requests drivers for the PIXCI® imaging board, specify the directory into which XCIP or XCAP software was previously unpacked.

Alternately, use the manual installation of the driver and modification of the registry, as per the installation instructions.

Windows NT Resource Allocation.

Later versions of Windows NT may re-allocate PCI resources allocated by BIOS, when it possibly ''moves the PCI device resources on top of another PCI device that has not yet been claimed'' (Microsoft article Q152044). This may be prevented by adding the /PCILOCK to a C:\BOOT.INI entry, for example:

    [operating systems]
    multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(7)\WINNT="Windows NT V 4.00"  /PCILOCK

Do not copy this new line exactly as is; the first portion of the line must be copied from an existing configuration line in your C:\BOOT.INI file.

Other BIOS Issues.

Some versions of BIOS may have a setting to select the operating system:

    Operating System: Windows 95/98
                      Other

These systems might run under Windows NT with the wrong BIOS setting, but Plug & Play PCI cards may not operate correctly.

EMM386.SYS.

For application programs running under DOS or Windows 95/98, the presence of EMM386 may prevent proper operation of bus mastering PCI cards. The EMM386.SYS should be removed from CONFIG.SYS.

PC Halts or Reboots.

Generally: If the PC halts or reboots after the PIXCI® imaging board has been opened but is not yet capturing video, the problem may be an IRQ or other resource conflict; see IRQ Sharing, above.

If the PC halts or reboots only after a bus mastering (DMA) type of PIXCI® imaging board is capturing video, the problem may be insufficient bandwidth on the PCI bus. See Bus Mastering, above, and check that burst mode is enabled. Also, in XCAP, use:

    PIXCI
    PIXCI Video Setup

and reduce the horizontal resolution (i.e. data pixels per line) to (approximately) 1/4 or 1/10 of the previous value. If video can be successfully captured (without concern for the truncated appearance), then PCI bus bandwidth was likely insufficient.

Note that PIXCI® SV2, SV3, SV4, and SV5 imaging boards are, by default, configured for capturing color pixels. For monochrome cameras, using:

    PIXCI
    PIXCI Open/Close
    Camera & Format

to specify RS-170 format (or CCIR where appropriate) will reduce the bandwidth requirements (and actually improve the image sharpness!). Also note that in color mode PIXCI® SV4 and SV5 imaging boards transfer 3 bytes per pixel (RGB); they can be reconfigured to transfer 2 bytes per pixel (UYVY) decreasing PCI bandwidth requirements at the expense of increasing CPU overhead.

Note that PCI type S/VGA cards will consume PCI bus bandwidth, leaving less bandwidth available for video capture. Using an AGP type S/VGA card will help alleviate PCI bus bandwidth problems.

DOS Box of Windows.

DOS versions of EPIX® imaging software will not work with PCI bus mastering cards when run under a DOS prompt under Windows. Either boot to real DOS, or under Windows 95/98 use ''Start'', ''Shut Down'', and ''Restart the Computer in MS-DOS Mode''.

2. PC Configuration Tips - Miscellaneous

DOS: Super VGA Mode.

The XCIP program for DOS supports Super VGA adapters which provide VESA BIOS support. Adapters without VESA BIOS support will be operated in VGA mode. Within MSD^[1], the ''V'' command will show whether VESA BIOS support is available. For adapters lacking VESA BIOS support, a TSR (Terminate and Stay Resident program) supplied by the Super VGA adapter manufacturer must be loaded before XCIP is run.

For S/VGA modes which provide 2²⁴ colors, (the default choice of XCIP for DOS when used with color video), some S/VGA cards require 2 Mbyte of S/VGA memory, but allow switching to this mode even when only 1 Mbyte of memory is installed. The symptom is a VGA screen wraparound, which appears about 5 text lines from the top and/or bottom. Additional memory should be added to the S/VGA card, a different S/VGA card used, or XCIP advised to forgo color display by use of the ''-svga 640x480x8'' command line option.

Windows: Colors & Grey Levels.

The XCIP and XCAP programs for Windows display images on the S/VGA monitor. The quality of the displayed images is dependent on Window's settings and operation of the S/VGA card. The default Windows 95 installation, for example, may use the 16 Color setting, resulting in poor quality image display! For Windows 95/98 and Windows NT, the settings can be modified in the ''Control Panel'', ''Display'', ''Settings''.

For the XCIP program for Windows, a ''256 Color'' setting is suggested for display of monochrome images, a ''True Color (24 bit or 16777216 Color)'' or ''True Color (32 bit)'' setting is suggested for display of color or pseudo-colored images.

For the XCAP program for Windows, a ''High Color (16 bit or 65536 Color)'', ''True Color (24 bit or 16777216 Color)'', or ''True Color (32 bit)'' setting for the display adapter (S/VGA) is required for proper display of images and overlay graphics; the ''True Color (24 bit or 16777216 Color)'' or ''True Color (32 bit)'' is suggested for higher quality, and quicker, display of images and overlay graphics. Also, in Windows 95, under ''Control Panel'', ''Display'', ''Plus!'', the ''Show window contents while dragging'' must be disabled (this feature is not present in older versions of Windows 95). Or in Windows 98 or 2000, under ''Control Panel'', ''Display'', ''Effects'', the ''Show window contents while dragging'' should be disabled.

After changing the settings a full shutdown and CTRL+ALT+DEL reboot should be used. (The quick restart offered by older versions of Windows 95, and the dynamic VGA reconfiguration performed by newer versions of Windows 95/98, may not re-initialize all devices properly).

Frame Buffer Memory Allocation.

Under Windows 95/98, when using EPIXXC.SYS to allocate large amounts of frame buffer memory, problems may arise if other devices require memory within a specific range of physical addresses. In particular ATI S/VGA cards and some 3COM network interface cards appear to require memory below 64 Mbyte. Memory for these needs can be reserved with the:

    -MH kbytes_to_reserve

parameter to EPIXXC.SYS. Using ''-MH 1024'' is sufficient for ATI cards, using ''-MH''8192 or ''-MH''16384 is sufficient for the 3COM 3C900.

Authorization Keys.

Some versions of EPIX® imaging software are provided with an authorization key which must be connected to printer parallel port 1, 2, or 3. Should software advise that the authorization key is not found:

Within MSD, use ''L'' to check whether any LPT ports are configured,
Check that the key is connected to printer parallel port 1, 2, or 3, and not to an RS-232 or other port using the same style connector,^[2]
Check that multiple parallel port adapters with the same port number aren't installed or enabled,^[3]
Check that the BIOS setting, if any, for the printer port allows PC-AT compatibility. A typical BIOS Setup entry is:
```
    Parallel Port Type      Compatible
```
Settings such as:
```
    Parallel Port Type      EPP
    Parallel Port Type      ECP
```
may prevent recognition of the key, or may prevent reliable printing.
On some combinations of PC and printers, the authorization key may not be recognized if the printer (connected to the back of the authorization key) is powered off; either disconnect the printer cable or turn the printer on.
On certain PC's, the printer port and therefore the authorization key may be improperly reset during boot. Under DOS or Windows 95/98, add:
```
    HLRESET.COM     (precede with path name to directory of EPIX® software!)
```
as the last line of AUTOEXEC.BAT to reset the key.

Installing Software from FTP Site.

When installing EPIX® imaging software obtained from the EPIX, Inc. FTP site, the file downloaded is a single .exe file which, when executed, asks which directory should be created, and expands into several files in that directory. Often, the file downloaded has the same name as a file which is to be created; causing a problem if the downloaded .exe file is placed into, and executed from, the same directory chosen as the location for the expanded files. Either download the .exe file into the root or a different directory (you can remove it after the installation is complete) or change its name before execution, such as:

    > RENAME XCAPWI5.EXE NEWSTUFF.EXE
    > NEWSTUFF

Mice and S/VGA Cards.

If the mouse cursor blinks on and off while the mouse cursor is positioned over the live video image display, either:

Switch to a S/VGA card that provides hardware mouse cursor support.
If the S/VGA card does provides hardware mouse cursor support, contact the S/VGA manufacturer for an improved S/VGA driver.
As a last resort, in XCAP, use:
```
    View
    Display
    API
    GDI API
```
to switch S/VGA display modes from the faster, default ''DirectX API'' to the (possibly) slower ''GDI API''.

Serial Mice versus Cameras w. RS-232 Control.

Under Windows NT, the auto configuration performed while booting sometimes identifies certain cameras with RS-232 controls as a serial mouse. Any COM port used for such as camera becomes unavailable to an application such as XCAP.

A simple solution is to leave the camera powered off or disconnected while booting. Alternately, in Control Panel, Services or Devices, the ''sermouse'' service can be set to manual. Alternately, the boot.ini file can be edited adding:

    /NoSerialMouse              disable detection on all COM ports
    /NoSerialMouse:COMx         disable detection on COMx ports
    /NoSerialMouse:COMx,y,z     disable detection on COMx, y, and z ports

to the end of any or all boot descriptor lines, such as:

    multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(7)\WINNT="Windows NT ..." /NoSerialMouse

3. Footnotes

[1]: The Microsoft MSD.EXE program, provided with Windows 3.1, DOS 6.0, C 7.0, and other Microsoft programs is a valuable tool for identifying use of memory and other resources.
[2]: Connection to a 25 pin serial (RS-232) port, or to any other interface which happens to use the same style connector, may permanently damage the authorization key, and void its warranty.
[3]: Multiple parallel port adapters set at the same port number may have no adverse impact on printer operation; but an authorization key attached to these ports will not operate correctly. The printing operation only writes to the port, while the authorization key must be read as well as written. Even though the printer works, the parallel port adapter configuration must still be checked.