Technical Support Help For Mavis Beacon 
Version: 5.0    Platform: Win 95 & Win 3.1
We have outlined some helpful troubleshooting tips for the most 
common problems associated with Mavis Beacon below:
___________________________________________________________________
Mavis Beacon 5.0 Minimum System Requirements:
*IBM PC 486DX 66MHz or higher
*Double speed CD ROM drive or higher
*Windows compatible sound card 16 bit or higher
*8 MB of RAM
*Windows 95 or Windows 3.1 with MS-DOS 5.0
*SVGA video card supporting 640x480x256 colors.
*10 MB of hard disk space for minimal installation.  
*60 MB hard disk space for maximum installation.
 Note: If you are experiencing slow access time with Mavis Beacon 
          on minimal computer (486DX 66MHz), try reinstalling Mavis
          Beacon and choose the maximum install.  We apologize for any 
          inconvenience this may cause regarding hard drive space.

Optional Features: 
*14,400 Baud modem or higher for Internet access.
*Windows compatible printer.
*Installing the optional AT&T WorldNet Services(sm) requires 11 MB
 of additional hard drive space.

You may install AT&T WorldNet Service later by doing the following:
1. For Windows 3.1: 
   A. Insert the Mavis Beacon CD in your CD drive label side up.
   B. From the File menu click run. 
   C. In the menu box type your CD drive letter followed by attsetup.exe
      For example: E:\attsetup.exe 
   D. Then click the O.K. button.

2. For Windows 95: 
   A. Insert the Mavis Beacon CD in your CD drive label side up.
   B. Click on Start. 
   C. Then click Run. 
   D. In the menu box, type in your CD drive letter followed by attsetup.exe
      For example: E:\attsetup.exe
   E. Then click the O.K. button. 
   
_____________________________________________________________________________

Troubleshooting tips to try if you experience any of the following problems:

1. Problem: Mavis Beacon is running too slow.
    Solution: If you are experiencing slow access time with Mavis Beacon on 
              your computer (especially on a 486 DX 66MHz), uninstall Mavis, 
              then reinstall using the maximum install option. Unfortunately, 
              you will have to restart your lessons.  However, the program's 
              access time should improve. We apologize for the inconvenience 
              regarding hard drive space.

    Additional help for speed problems for Windows 3.1 customers:
    A. Within your Mavis5 subdirectory on your hard drive there should
       be a file called MAVIS50.INI. You may add the following line to
       improve performance in the animations:

                [Animations]
                SpeedPct=0.75 
     
       If this does not significantly increase the speed of the animations,
       you may use a number value between 0.75 and 0. For example, 
       SpeedPct=0

2.  Problem:  Experiencing video pallet corruptions in the program. This 
              problem may occur during the opening screen animations.
    Solution: Try changing your video resolution to 64,000 thousand colors 
              instead of 256 colors.  Example: If you are currently running 
              640x480x256 colors change the resolution to 
              640x480xHiColor(16bit) or 640x480x64k. If you are not familiar 
              with making this change please consult your video card manual 
              or call the manufacturer for assistance.  If the problem 
              persists, please try solution to problem #1.

3.  Problem: Sometimes audio is cut off and you may need to replay it. 
    Reason: Occasionally, normal usage patterns cause Mavis Beacon to play 
              two 'wave' audio files simultaneously.  Windows is unable to
              do this simultaneously.
     
4.  Problem: When you are in a lesson and turn Audio to off, then create a 
              custom lesson using the two speed game, there may still be some 
              audio effect.
    Example: Shark, car, or sub game.
    Solution: Try turning your volume down on your sound card or turn
              your speakers off.

5.  Problem: Your name is cut off in the progress chart screen.
    Solution: Sign in as a new user, start over, and use a shorter name.

   We recommend you don't try following:
   A. Please do not use Mavis for multitasking with other products.
   Reason: Multitasking and interrupting the Mavis credit screen may cause 
           the program to be unstable.     
   B. Please do not un-install while Mavis is minimized.

6. Dictation Lessons: Your manual indicates 10 dictation lessons
   are available when the program only has 5.  We have corrected 
   this problem in our documentation which will approximately be 
   availble by October, 30, 1996. We apologize for any inconvenience.

7. Saving to a network drive: Some network drives do not support long
   file names.  If you encounter a problem saving to a network drive,
   change the typist record file name to 8 characters or less.  For
   example: "mavisbcn.rec" instead of "Mavis Beacon.rec"

8. Dvorak keyboard: In order to learn the Dvorak keyboard, you need to
   set your keyboard to Dvorak outside the program.  This is done
   through the International Control Panel in Windows 3.1, or in the
   Keyboard Control Panel in Windows95.  If you are unsure how to change
   keyboard settings, please refer to your Windows 3.1 or 95
   documentation.

9. MEDIA VISION Pro Audio Spectrum Sound Card: If you are running 
   Windows 3.1 and Mavis hangs when starting up, the sound card may not
   be properly configured.  If the card is configured to use IRQ 5 and
   DMA 3, the problem may be resolved by changing the DMA to 1 or 5.
   If you are not familiar with making this change, please consult your
   sound card manual or call the manufacturer for assistance.

If you continue to experience problems with Mavis Beacon, please contact 
Mindscape Technical Support.  
_____________________________________________________________________________
Technical support contact information:
Our technical support can be reached via telephone during the following
Hours:  Monday - Friday: 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. PST

Note: The best hours to contact technical support via voice is the following:

Best Times: Wednesday - Friday / Mornings: 8:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m PST
                               Afternoons: 2:00 p.m  -  4:00 p.m PST

We also encourage contacting us via fax and on-line/Internet services.
Thank you patience and we apologize for any inconvenience.

Main voice: (415) 898-5157
Fax: (415) 897-5186
24 Hour Automated Support (800) 409-1497 Note: Please call this number after
October 1, 1996 for information.
Bulletin Board: (415) 897-2867
Internet: Support@Mindscape.com
America Online/Keyword: MINDSCAPE
CompuServe: GO MINDSCAPE

Mailing address:
Mindscape Inc. 
88 Rowland Way
Novato, CA 94945
Attn: Technical Support
     
Thank you for purchasing Mavis Beacon.  We value you as a Mindscape customer 
and appreciate any product input you may have.  
