Copyright (c) 1996 Micro International. This information is for the benefit of Mint (Micro International) customers only. We are prepared to file suit against any organization that duplicates or refers non-Mint customers to this material without permission. To report such a violation, please call 1-800-967-5667.
These menus are functionally identical to the standard Windows 95 menus. Please refer to Windows 95 online help for more information on using them.
The Screen Shift function allows you to shift the position (left to right) of the picture.
Overscan vs. Underscan: a 640x480 picture does not naturally fit onto a standard TV (NTSC) screen, and many TV/monitors differ in how much of the actual NTSC picture they display. The solution is to overscan or underscan the 640x480 picture. If you choose overscan, you will lose the outer edges of the 640x480 picture on most monitors and TV sets. If you choose underscan, you will have a black empty area around the picture on most sets.
Interlaced vs. Non-Interlaced: Some older monitors, sets, or video conversion boxes will not work with a non-interlaced signal. If you are not getting a solid picture, try chosing interlaced. However, non-interlaced will gives a much steadier picture and works on every monitor, projector, and TV we've tried. (If you encounter one that doesn't work, please email tech support).
The Normal Line vs. Drop line functions are usually not available on this implementation of the Trident video chip. Please ignore them. They are included for other custom implementations.
The [Advance] button provides a flicker reduction option. On every monitor, projector, and TV we've tried, the Best setting works fine and delivers excellent freedom from "flicker." (If you encounter one that doesn't work, please email tech support).
The Devices section offers a choice between CRT and TV. CRT can only be selected if an external monitor has been detected.
The TV Standard section allows you to choose between PAL and NTSC. This is actually only for the purposes of the driver. The conversion hardware in the notebook also needs to know whether you are using NTSC or PAL. If you know you need to change from NTSC or PAL, or if you are getting a completely unusable picture at the TV output, lift up your keyboard and make your NTSC/PAL selection using the 4 tiny switches under the left memory module. There is a yellow diagram below the left side PCMCIA slot showing what settings to use on these switches to achieve an NTSC or PAL conversion.
The Display section shows different resolution options available in different display configurations. You can choose what resulution you want to be displayed when using the TV output (only 640x480 is available) and the LCD screen (640x480 or 800x600 is available).
It also may sometimes offer a TV + LCD mode but this is not supported (and is thus grayed out) on the notebook version of the Trident chip used in the 6200 /mint.
If you have an external monitor attached and it has been detected and selected in the Devices section, a CRT + LCD mode will be offered and you can choose what resolution you want displayed when using that option.
The Screen Expansion option enables the internal 800x600 laptop LCD to emulate a 640x480 screen. It does a bad job of the emulation, of course, since the truncation involved in the quick method of stretching a 640x480 picture onto a 800x600 matrix is pretty crude, and dithering takes too many clock cycles to allow a useable system speed to remain intact.
The Detect button allows you to detect the presence of an external monitor you have plugged in "on-the-fly", which will then in turn enable any disabled CRT related options.
Please direct DOS application technical support personel to the options on this menu if you are having difficulty displaying graphics in old DOS applications or games. They might be able to use these settings to make the application work better (or at all). Other than that, please avoid this tab completely.
Here, you can manually adjust the refresh rates for different resolution modes. Please don't, unless you know what you are doing. Too high a refresh rate can kill your external monitor. To this end, the normal setting for the Switch "Automatically set refresh rates" on this menu is enabled (checkmarked).
If you do know what you're doing, you'll find that you need to be in CRT ONLY mode to adjust the refresh rate; LCD screens like the one on your notebook have fixed refresh rates. After you switch to CRT ONLY mode, you can configure each possible (color pallete + resolution) graphics mode in the Refresh Rate Settings box by double-clicking on it. When you do, the possible refresh rates will appear on a branch added underneath the mode listing. Double-click the refresh rate you want, then click the Test button on the right hand side to test it. If it goes all flickery and you can't read it, don't panic - turn your monitor off, and wait - 15 seconds later your old refresh rate will come back and you can turn your monitor back on. If the new rate does work, and you want to use it, be sure to click on Yes in the box that appears.
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