RE: [PROTEL EDA USERS]: Operating system

[Abd ul-Rahman Lomax <marjan@vom.com>]

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At 12:21 PM 9/5/00 -0700, Hood, Jim wrote:
>I've been using 99SE on WIN98 for at least 6 months, with no real
>problems.  I've experienced, however, some problems in PCB if you're
>using an AGP video card.  If you do a lot of  selecting, moving, and
>zooming in and out, eventually you'll have a crash.  I guess your
>options for dealing with this problem are:
>
>1) Save your file alot and just accept that you'll crash from time to
>time.

This seems to be characteristic of W98 more than it is of Protel. As 
mentioned before, W98 can rather easily run out of resource memory and what 
happens when this occurs can be difficult to predict. I run Norton 
Utilities which includes a resource alarm. If I am running Protel with just 
about anything else substantial, such as Eudora, I *will* get a resource 
alarm when I open a Rules dialog in PCB.

Because Norton utilities themselves take up some substantial resources, I 
will sometimes shut down Norton and run the 
Programs/Accessories/SystemTools/ resource meter. If that goes into the 
yellow, I know to save files and shut down other programs than Protel and 
restart Protel itself.

It also helps to restart W98 at least once a day....

>2) Get rid of your AGP card and use a PCI (or other) Video card,  which
>sucks if you play games on your computer.

AGP cards are worse, or at least some of them are, but there can also be 
similar problems with PCI cards. Among AGP cards, some users, including 
myself, have experienced good results with the Matrox Millenium.

>3) See if your mother board or video card maker have any updated AGP
>drivers.  I personally used this option.  I have an Asus K7V Slot A
>mother board, and a Diamond Stealth III AGP card.  I updated the drivers
>for the video card, and didn't notice any improvements.  After I loaded
>the updated AGP drivers for my mother board, I did seem to be noticing
>far fewer system crashes.  I can now go through an 8-10 hour session and
>crash maybe once, while before I'd crash 5-6 times.

That's still moderately high. Run a resource meter and preferably an alarm. 
If I don't allow Protel to run out of resource memory, crashes are fairly 
rare. I get more crashes from Windows itself.

To answer the original question more directly:

> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Brad Marshall [SMTP:bmarshal@subsite.com]
>
> > I am having trouble running 99SE on my current system (Win98).  I have
> > heard that NT should be used with this type of system.

NT or Windows 2000 are recommended for Protel. W98 is considered usable.

marjan@vom.com
Abdulrahman Lomax
P.O. Box 690
El Verano, CA 95433



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