Hi listers.
Thanks to the person who posted the URL for the Dectalk update drivers, my
memory was jogged about a quirk with the Digital drivers and Windows 95. I
tried the proposed solution, and I'm happy to report that my DOS screen
reader and JFW work at the same time. The following describes what to do in
Windows. Of course, what worked for me may not work for you, but it's worth
a try. I should also mention that this has been discussed on the list
before, but it's been a while.
The documentation for the Dectalk Express mentions a quirk in both Windows
3.1 and Windows 95, where essentially the COM port is being fought over by
the Dectalk drivers and Windows. The solution is to disable the COM port in
Windows. Here's how you do it.
Hit CTRL-ESC to bring up the start menu.
Choose SETTINGS, then CONTROL PANNEL.
Next, while in the control pannel, select system.
Now, go to the device manager tab, and get to the tree view which shows the
devices on your system.
Now, in the tree view, find PORTS COM/LPT, and expand this option.
In the list of COM ports, locate the COM port that your Dectalk Express
uses, and choose PROPERTIES while that port is selected.
In this dialog box, you'll find a checkbox, indicating the status of the
COM port. Change the status of the box to disable the COM port, then hit
OK.
Windows will confirm your choice to disable the COM port. If you're using
JFW with the HJ Dectalk Express driver, you'll find it no longer functions,
at least it didn't on my PC.
Now, reboot and have the Digital drivers load. You should find that JFW
and your DOS screen reader work fine together.
That's all there is to it. I do have a word of warning about the Digital
drivers, which is different from the HJ drivers. With the HJ driver, you
can turn off the Dectalk Express and turn it back on again, and the Dectalk
Express will continue speaking with no problem. This isn't true with the
Digital drivers. If you turn off the Dectalk Express, or, more likely, the
battery runs down, you have to reboot to get speech.
I hope this works for others as well as it did for me. This solution will
probably not let the HJ driver work, but you can use a DOS screen reader and
JFW to work together.
Kevin Minor
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Visit the jfw ml web page: http://yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au/~nallan/jfw
