Screen Corruption with ATI Ultra and Other Video Drivers

• Microsoft Word for Windows, versions 6.0, 6.0a, 6.0c

SYMPTOMS

Any of the following screen display problems may occur due to problems with the video driver supplied with your video card:

• Screen distortion, such as "snow" or "remnants," may appear when you type or scroll in Word 6.0 with certain video display drivers, such as the ATI Ultra. When Word redraws the screen, the distortion disappears, but it recurs the next time you type or scroll. The problem may be more noticeable when you type bold or italic text.
• The hot spots on the status bar appear to do nothing when you double-click them, even though they are actually functioning normally.
• The text and messages on the status bar may be hard to read or may not display at all. For example, when you press the INSERT key to turn on overtype mode in Word, "OVR" does not appear on the status bar to indicate that you are in this mode.
• The shading applied by some wizards does not display correctly. For example, the shaded border around an award certificate you create using the Awards Wizard displays incorrectly. It prints correctly, however. Microsoft has reproduced this problem using version 2.0 of the video driver supplied with the ATI Ultra video card.

The video driver causes these display problems. Contact the manufacturer of your video card for information about obtaining a new or updated video driver.

RESOLUTION

If you have the ATI Ultra video card, you can obtain an updated video driver by contacting ATI Technical Support at (905) 882-2626 or by connecting to the ATI bulletin board at (905) 764-9404.

WORKAROUNDS

Method 1: Use the standard VGA video driver supplied with Windows instead.

Method 2: You can set the Display switch in the WINWORD6.INI file to

          moderate screen display problems that occur with particular
          screen drivers. The following table, which describes the
          arguments for the Display switch, include specific instructions
          for the ATI Ultra video card.

          Syntax
          ------

          [Microsoft Word]
          DISPLAY=<0-3> (6.0)
          DISPLAY=<0-4, 7> (6.0a, 6.0c)


          Argument   Description
          --------   -----------

          0 (zero)  Overrides Word's autodetection of appropriate redraw
                    behavior for some screen drivers. Word automatically
                    adopts special redraw behavior for some screen
                    drivers. This setting overrides that behavior. Not
                    normally needed.

          1         Eliminates line redraw problems that occur with some
                    screen drivers. Use only if "snow" appears when you
                    type. This argument turns off the off-screen bitmap
                    display for the current line. Use this switch if you
                    have an ATI video driver that causes screen
                    corruption, or "snow," when you type.

          2         Eliminates screen redraw problems that occur with some
                    screen drivers. Use only if screen "remnants" appear
                    when paragraph line spacing is not single-spaced and
                    the style area is displayed. Use this switch for the
                    newer ATI cards that cause screen redraw problems when
                    you scroll.

          3         Sets both arguments 1 and 2 above.

          4         Eliminates problems with ATI Crystal Fonts. Available
                    in 6.0a and 6.0c only.

          7         Combines the effects of 4, 2, and 1.

MORE INFORMATION

The ATI Ultra products included here are manufactured by ATI Technologies, Inc., vendors independent of Microsoft; we make no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding these products' performance or reliability.