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TROUBLESHOOTING. PAGE UPDATED 18th JUNE 2007
RUSLAN CDROMS WITH WINDOWS VISTA
We are waiting for a Vista compatible version of the Toolbook authoring program with which the Ruslan cdroms were produced. However it has been reported that the Ruslan CDRoms work well with 32-bit Windows Vista, once the necessary fonts have been installed. With other Windows versions these fonts are installed automatically during the installation of the Ruslan CDRoms. For 32-bit Windows Vista you have to install them yourself. There are four font files. Please save them to your PC one at a time, then right click on each font file in turn, and select "install".
Cyrillic Helvetica
Cyrillic Brush
Cyrillic Compressed
Baccus
On stand-alone Vista and XP machines running under 'User Control' there may be a problem if the user does not have sufficient access to install the fonts in the 'fonts' folder. The user needs Administrator permissions the first time through.
At the present time we can offer no support for 64-bit Windows Vista.
RUSLAN CDROMS ALL VERSIONS
Problems have been reported running Ruslan CDs on Windows 2000 and XP systems that have recently been updated. The problem is that files and registry settings that are associated with the 16-bit MSDOS subsystem needed to run Toolbook can sometimes be deleted or corrupted during the update.
In this case you are likely to have the following error messages:
"Config.nt The system file is not suitable for running MS-DOS and Microsoft
Windows applications. Choose 'Close' to terminate the application."
"Autoexec.nt The system file is not suitable for running MS-DOS ..."
Microsoft's help and support pages offer the following solutions:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;324767
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;889506
If you have this problem and try these remedies please let John Langran at Ruslan Limited know of your experience as we are trying to build up information on this item.
john@ruslan.co.uk
RUSLAN 1 VERSION 4.0
Users who have followed advice in the readme file in order to run this program without the CD may find that the sound works on loudspeakers but does not work when they click on hotwords. To rectify this please move the "Clips" directory that you have copied to your C:\Program Files\Ruslan14 folder to a new location: C:\RusClips\Ruslan14\Clips
You will notice that this new path has no folder names with more than eight letters.
Then alter the HDMediaPath line in the Ruslan14.ini file in your Windows folder to give the new path for the
sound files as follows:
HDMediaPath=C:\RusClips\Ruslan14\Clips
RUSLAN CDROMS VERSION 4.0
This version has been distributed for full Windows XP compatibility. Other than the difficulty noted above, no problems specific to this version have been reported.
THE NOTES BELOW WERE WRITTEN FOR EARLIER VERSIONS. SOME NOTES MAY ALSO APPLY TO VERSION 4.0 DEPENDING ON YOUR CONFIGURATION:
Earlier versions of Ruslan CDRoms
Difficulties have been experienced with Windows XP users who have their PCs set without full administrator rights, and this has caused networking problems in some schools. Please contact Ruslan Limited for an upgrade.
Ruslan 2 CDRom uses MP3 sound compression
Some users may require an additional sound driver.
In this case you get a message when you first enter
the program that no sound channel is available.
In this case please double click on the file l3codecx.exe
in the CLIPS directory of the CD to install the necessary driver.
Or download it from:http://soundamerica.com
For the Ruslan 2 Demo CDRom the same sound driver is needed
When you start the program from the Hard Disk version you just get a
starter screen and nothing more except possible error messages that
the sound files cannot be located
Probably you have forgotten to insert the CD in the CDRom drive.
Possibly the Ruslan.ini file that was created on installation
has been accidentally erased from your Windows directory.
In this case you need to uninstall and then reinstall the program.
See the readme file on the CD.
You cannot see the bottom row of navigation buttons in Ruslan 1 or 2 CDRom
This is likely to be because you have a screen setting 680x480
for your monitor and you also have your task bar enabled.
Please change the screen setting or disable the task bar.
See Windows Help.
You cannot see various sections of text or rows of buttons.
This is likely to be because you have set your PC to "use large fonts",
a regime often used for artwork and design programs. Please reset to "use small fonts".
See Windows Help.
In Ruslan 2 CDRom you cannot see the vertical scroll bar in the dictionary
and in other pages that normally scroll
This is likely to be because you are using Windows XP and you have set
your display "theme" to an unusual setting. Please reset the theme to "Windows Classic".
See Windows Help.
You use Windows XP and you have difficulties playing the video clips
in Ruslan 1 and 2 CDRoms
These video clips rely on the proper installation of MCI drivers, which may be compromised by the subsequent installation of some specialist video software for Windows XP. If you suspect this has happened to you, please contact John Langran at Ruslan Limited. We want to find out more about this possible problem.
Ruslan 1 and 2 CDRom Fonts
On initial startup the Ruslan CDRoms look for certain standard cyrillic fonts:
CyrillicHelvet (file name CYHELV__.TTF)
CyrillicBrush (file name _FF299EF.TTF)
CyrillicCompressed (file name _181171E.TTF)
If the fonts are found, the program loads as normal.
If not, the fonts are loaded before the program starts.
A problem can occur when non-standard fonts with the same names are
already present on the client computer. In this case the new fonts will
not load, and the non-standard fonts will be used by the Ruslan program.
The result is gobbledegook where you would expect cyrillic, in the text of
the dialogues and explanations, and/or on some of the buttons.
This problem is very rare in the UK, but has been more common in Israel
with Hebrew versions of Windows.
The solution is to delete the non standard fonts from your system before
loading the Ruslan program.
Networking the Ruslan CDRoms
These CDRoms were not designed to be networked, but as far as we know, everyone who has tried to do so has been successful, except with some Windows 2000 networks, see below. All schools, colleges etc have my permission to test network applications for 1 month prior to licence purchase. Longer if necessary - in this case please ask for permission. To set up a network, start by installing the hard disk version onto the server, then copy the media clips to a subdirectory on the server and edit and copy the file ruslan??.ini so that the program, when launched by the student, will refer to it, and so that it points to the media clips. The success of this method will depend on the way the network administrator has set up the network.
Please note that the fact that the program looks for cyrillic fonts when it first runs, and if they are not there attempts to install them, means that the program will not run on a networked machine without certain administrator permissions unless these fonts have been pre-installed (see above). A quick way round this problem, if you suspect it: first run the program in administrator mode to install the fonts. After this the program should run in other modes.
Unusually, some systems may delete these fonts every time the program exits. In this case please contact John Langran at Ruslan Limited for a special version with the fonts removed. With this version you can install the fonts once and then have no further problems.
A more serious potential problem is that when the program runs it creates some temporary files in the Windows directory with random names that it then deletes when the program exits. Some Windows 2000 and possibly other networks will not allow this without administrator permissions, and we are currently looking for solutions to this possible problem (December 2003). If this is a problem for you please contact John Langran at Ruslan Limited.
Ruslan CDRoms with Apple Mac
The Ruslan CDRoms will not normally work with Apple Macs, but I have had reports that they work well on Apple Macs with "Windows Emulation". I would be grateful of any reports of success with this.
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