Troubleshooting QuickTime For Windows
For most installation problems you should first check the QTW version that is installed. If it is a version earlier than 2.1.2, you should try upgrading first. This resolves a lot of installation problems. The interactive way to determine the installed version of QuickTime for Windows is to run Movie Player (player.exe in the Windows directory) and click on Help -- About Movie Player.
Errors During Installation
* If the installer reports an error indicating that it can't write to a file or that the file is being shared by another application, reboot the system. You may want to try bypassing the startup documents by holding down the shift key or by starting in Windows 95 "safe mode".
* If the installer reports an error during the "modifying .INI files" stage, the problem is that your WIN.INI file is too big. The QTW installer calls Windows' SetProfileString(), which fails if Win.ini is larger than 32KB. This is most commonly caused by the file becoming clogged with hundreds of lines of PostScript font declarations or something similar.
The workaround is to rename WIN.INI to something else, then install QuickTime for Windows. This creates a new WIN.INI that has just a few lines in it. You can then use a text editor to move those lines to the appropriate sections near the beginning of the big .INI file. Delete the small WIN.INI and rename the big file back to WIN.INI.
* A corrupted directory could cause installation problems. Run the Scandisk utility included with DOS and Windows 95. Windows 3.x users must exit to DOS to run Scandisk.
An Error During Re-Install
Sometimes when you do a re-install using the "Reinstall QuickTime" icon you may receive an error message saying that the QTINSTAL.EXE file is missing. If you look for this file, you will find that it really is missing! Because this is your executable installer file, you need to re-install from the original installation location (CD-ROM, network server, diskette, etc.)
Fixing Audio Break-up Problems
Some audio cards and drivers use a large amount of CPU time. This can cause break-up of the audio accompanied by poor video performance. The original SoundBlaster Pro, for example, has problems when the total audio data rate exceeds 22050 bytes per second. To improve performance, the audio data rate can be limited by the use of several settings in the QTW Control Panel's More|Audio screen. Here are two ways to limit the rate to 22050:
For mono audio at 22050 bytes per second, set:
Sample Rate Requested hz: 22050
Sample Depth: 8 bit
Channels: Mono
OR
For stereo audio at 22050 bytes per second, set:
Sample Rate Requested hz: 11025
Sample Depth: 8 bit
Channels: Stereo
Note: Automatic Rate Adjustment should only be selected if your only performance problem is the audio slowly drifting out of synch with the video. To save these settings, click Close, and restart Windows before retesting performance.
Audio-Video Synchronization Problems
QTW 2.1.2 contains an automatic-audio-rate-adjustment feature which was meant to correct audio playback problems on systems that contain an ESS sound chip. While this goal is usually achieved, on some systems undesirable side-effects such as high-pitched sound may occur.
The solution to this problem (when it occurs) is as follows:
1) Go to the QuickTime Control Panel and select More--Audio.
2) Change the Sample Rate-Requested hz: to "default".
3) Make sure that Automatic Rate Adjustment is selected.
4) Click Close, and then restart Windows (to be on the safe side).
5) Play the calibration movie, SAMPLE.MOV, from the Windows directory. This recalibrates the sound chip.
6) Exit Movie Player and go back to the QuickTime Control Panel.
7) Select More|Audio and deselect Automatic Rate Adjustment.
8) Click Apply, and then Close. Sound should now be fine.
Encountering DynaLink (.DLL) Errors
A Dynalink error may occur if, for some reason, there are older versions of QTW files installed. This would only occur in 16-bit QTW.
To resolve this problem, you should first try reinstalling QTW 2.1.2, making sure that you select the Check for Existing Versions option during installation. See the Installation Dialogs section of this Note for more details.
Check your SYSTEM.INI file for the line dci=rfmdci. If it is there, comment it out. The entry is a reference to dci services by the video card and has been found to occasionally cause problems.
If the problem still occurs, you are probably running an application from a read-only volume, such as a CD-ROM, which has an older version of QTW on it. Your only option at this point is to uninstall QTW 2.1.2 (see the section Un-installing QuickTime for Windows). Then you can install your application from the CD-ROM which will install the required early version of QTW.
Fixing Video Draw Problems
If QuickTime for Windows doesn't recognize or falsely recognizes the display board, or if you simply suspect that your problems are related to drawing the Movie image on the screen, you need to change the Video Draw Method. The recommended way to do this is with the QuickTime Control Panel; however, it can also be done by editing the QTW.INI file.
To do this from the Control Panel, follow these steps:
1) Select More--Video--Draw Method from the QuickTime Control Panel.
2) Change the Optimization to: Driver.
3) Click Close, and restart Windows (to be on the safe side).
4) If that doesn't work, try the other Optimizations. They are listed in order of speed (fastest to slowest), so try the faster ones first.
Editing the QTW.INI file, however, is not recommended. The reason is that it's easy to get it wrong. The only time you might have to do this is if your video is so messed up that you can't even bring up the Control panel without crashing. In that case, you need to edit the QTW.INI file.
To do this by editing the QTW.INI file, add or change the [Video] section of QTW.INI to read:
[Video]
Optimize=Driver
This is how you fix 16-bit QTW. To fix 32-bit QTW, you change the Section name from [Video] to [Video 32]. If 'Driver' doesn't work, try 'BMP', 'RAW', and 'DIB'.
MPEG and QuickTime for Windows
Currently, there are no known MPEG boards that work with QTW. In the past, the REALmagic MPEG boards did work with QTW; the latest REALmagic boards, however, do not. Those users with old REALmagic boards may be able to play MPEG videos through QTW, but only under the following configuration:
* Windows 3.1
* One of the discontinued REALmagic boards: ReelMagic, REALmagic Lite, or REALmagic Rave
* The discontinued REALmagic driver, version 2.01.
Most users will not have this configuration and, therefore, must play MPEG videos using the application or method provided with their MPEG board.
Because there was support for MPEG through QTW in the past, versions of QTW 2.0.0 - 2.1.0 associate .MPG files with the QuickTime Movie Player. This means that when you open a .MPG file, Movie Player will launch and attempt to play the MPEG video. Now that MPEG support for QTW is no longer available, Movie Player will still launch but display a message stating that QuickTime cannot play this video. The problem was fixed in QTW 2.1.1 by removing the .MPG file association.
This file association problem in the earlier versions led some hardware manufacturers to ask their customers not to install QuickTime or applications that install QuickTime. These manufacturers are not aware of the fix. Thus, any users concerned about installing QTW because their computer manufacturer recommends against it should feel safe to install QTW 2.1.2 and applications that install QTW 2.1.1 or later.
Steps to Ensure That an Old Installer Doesn't Associate .MPG Files With QuickTime
If you are installing an application that installs a version of QTW earlier than version 2.1.1, you should follow the steps below to ensure that the old installer doesn't associate .MPG files with QuickTime:
1) Check the current file association for .MPG files and make a note of it.
2) Install QTW 2.1.2.
3) Install the application.
4) Check the file association for .MPG files again.
5) If the file association for .MPG files was not changed, you are done. If it has changed, proceed to step 6.
6) Change the .MPG file association back to what it was in step 1 (see your Windows manual or below if you are unsure how to do this).
7) Reinstall QTW 2.1.2 since it was overwritten by an older version.
The reason this series of steps works is because when the application's installer attempts to install the older version of QTW in step 3 above, the installer will see that there is already a newer version installed and skip the QTW part of its installation. However, there is a possibility that the application's installer was not written to notice that a newer version of QuickTime was already installed and, as a result, the older version of QTW will be installed. This is what would cause the .MPG file association to be changed in step 4 from what it originally was in step 1. You can then correct the problem by changing the .MPG file association back to what it was and then reinstalling QTW 2.1.2.
Variations in Methods for Changing .MPG File Association
The method for changing the .MPG file association will vary depending of the version of Windows being used. For Windows 3.1, in the File Manager, you need to select Association from the File menu. For Windows 95, you need to open an explorer window and select Options from the View menu. Then, you click on File Type and edit the file association.
Note: If the file association for .MPG files was changed by an earlier installation of QTW, installing QTW 2.1.1 or 2.1.2. will not restore the file association back to what it originally was. Thus, .MPG files will continue to launch QuickTime, even with the new version installed. You need to manually correct the file association using the method described above. If you don't know what the original .MPG file association was,you need to contact your MPEG vendor to get it.
Un-Installing QuickTime for Windows
QuickTime for Windows v2.1.2 has an un-installer that works with Windows 95 and Windows NT. It does not work, however, with Windows 3.1.
There are several reasons why you may want to un-install QTW 2.1.2. For example, you may want to free up disk space, or you may need to run an application from a CD-ROM that requires an older version of QTW. You should not uninstall QTW to free up memory because, when QTW is not being called, it is not loaded into memory at all and therefore does not use any unnecessary overhead.
If you must uninstall QTW 2.1.2 and you're using Windows 3.1, remove all files in the Windows directory and Windows System directory with the date of 8/27/96 and time stamp of 2:12:00AM. The only file you do not want to delete is the 2.1.2 installer file, so that you can reinstall QTW 2.1.2 in the future. This is the safest way to manually uninstall QTW.
Follow these steps to manually un-install QTW:
1) In the File Manager, go to the Windows directory.
2) Select View--Sort by date
3) Click and select the first file with the date of 8/27/96 and time stamp of 2:12:00AM.
4) Shift-Click the last file in the list with the same date and time stamp so that all files with this date and time stamp are highlighted.
5) Control-Click on the QTINSTAL.EXE file so that you don't remove the 2.1.2 installer. This file should no longer highlighted after you Control-Click. NOTE: For 32-bit, it's QT32INST.EXE, not QTINSTAL.EXE.
6) Delete the highlighted files.
7) Repeat steps 1 through 6 for the Windows System directory but skip step 5, since the QTINSTAL.EXE file doesn't exist in this directory.