************************************************************************* Important Hints to the Marc 2 Pro driver version 1.14 for Windows 2000/XP ************************************************************************* 1. System Requirements 2. Installation 3. What's new 4. What's to do 5. Attention: Windows System Sounds ------------------------------------------ 1. System Requirements ------------------------------------------ * Windows 2000 SP1 or Windows XP ----------------------------------------- 2. Installation ----------------------------------------- * Ensure that you are logged on with administrator rights at Windows NT * Update: First remove an older Marc 2 Pro driver by use of the device manager of Windows 2000/XP. Then force the device manager to search for new hardware or restart your computer. In this case logon at Windows 2000/XP as an administrator again. * Follow the instructions of the Windows 2000/XP hardware assistant. Choose the folder where you have copied the driver before as path to the device drivers. * In some cases (update and installation of multiple cards) Windows 2000/XP requests you to restart your system. In this case - restart your system really. * After the installation the Marc 2 Pro Sound System is ready to operate. ------------------------------------------ 3. What's new ------------------------------------------ Version 1.14: * Non-Audio digital format added in "Marc 2 Pro Manager | Digital Output". (useful e.g. for streaming AC3 audio to an external AC3 decoder) * Unistaller program included Version 1.13: * Analog Input failure (full scale noise on left channel), seen at very new Marc 2 Pro cards only, solved. * ASIO: performance improved when using less than all playback devices of one card * ASIO: When using an ASIO application, the driver overrides user's clock and start/stop synchronization settings with appropriate values. (these user settings are applicable for MME applications only). Now, the driver restores the user settings again, when the last ASIO application has finished. * Marc 2 Pro Manager Software now uses the registry branch "HKCU" to store it's settings. This solves the problem with the error message "Could not write to marc2pix.ini" that appeared on some NTFS systems during shutdown. * More audio clients allowed for the driver. This prevents some cases where error messages report "Unsufficient System Ressources" Or "No Memory". Version 1.10: * This version is compatible to Windows XP * Start/Stop Synchronization of record and playback assured * MME: synchronous buffer return improved * Bug fixed: If the digital input "RCA" was selected, this setting now will be restored after a windows restart. Version 1.0 to NT4 Version 1.02 * "Plug and Play" Support * Support of the Windows 2000/XP computer configurations: - ACPI Multiprozessor PC - ACPI PC - ACPI Uniprozessor PC - MPS Multiprozessor PC - MPS Uniprozessor PC - Standard PC * ASIO 2.0 Support ------------------------------------------ 4. What's to do ------------------------------------------ * WDM Kernel implementation to support DirectSound and WDM based applications * ACPI power management functions ------------------------------------------ 5. Attention: Windows System Sounds ------------------------------------------ * After the first installtion of an audio device driver, Windows 2000/XP switchs on the Windows System Sounds per default. The system will playback these sound if a message box appears or a windows will be minimized or maxminized. The use of this system sounds may cause some problems in conjuction with running audio applications. * Per default the driver takes care of a synchron start and stop of all analog devices of the Marc 2 Pro. This is a really important feature for each multichannel harddiskrecording program but it may cause conflicts with the windows system sounds. If a running playback- or recording session will be interrupted by a system sound (because of a message box or window actions) the playback- or recording session will STOP too and the related audio application will hang (under specially circumstances) in a undefined state . You can solve this behavior by switching off the system sounds (Control Panel->System Sounds) or by deactivating the Start/Stop Synchronization Option of the Marc 2 Pro driver. (Taskbar->Marc 2 Pro Icon Doubleclick->Settings) . Leipzig 09-22-03