WD6X: Screen Display Problems Q & A

• Microsoft Word for Windows, version 6.0
• Microsoft Windows operating system version 3.1

SUMMARY

This article contains Questions and Answers ABOUT Screen Display Problems in Word for Windows.

MORE INFORMATION

    1. Q. Why do I have distortion, or garbage, on my screen in Word 6.0?
   
       A. Any of the following screen display problems may occur due to
          problems with the video driver supplied with your video card:
   
           1. 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.
   
           2. The hot spots on the status bar appear to do nothing when
              you double-click them, even though they are actually
              functioning normally.
   
           3. 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
              INS key to turn on overtype mode in Word, "OVR" does not
              appear on the status bar to indicate that you are in this
              mode.
   
           4. 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.
   
          If you have problems that relate to the video driver supplied
          with your video card, ask the video card manufacturer if there
          is an updated driver. 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 ATI's bulletin
          board at (905) 764-9404.
   
          If no new video driver is available, you can use the standard
          VGA video driver supplied with Windows instead. You may be able
          to correct these screen problems by setting the Display switch
          in the WINWORD6.INI file. For information about the Display
          switch, see the online README Help file in Word. If you have an
          ATI Ultra video card, use one of the following Display switch
          settings to correct the problem:
   
           1. If the screen distortion occurs when you type, set the
              Display=1 switch.
   
           2. If the screen distortion occurs when you scroll, set the
              Display=2 switch.
   
    2. Q. Why does a general protection (GP) fault error sometimes occur
          while I edit my Word 6.0 document?
   
       A. A GP fault error may occur in Word when you use the Dell(R) S3
          video driver, which is supplied with some Dell computers.
          Microsoft has reproduced this problem using the Dell S3 video
          driver version 3.1.3a. The problem does not occur in Word 6.0
          when you use version 3.1.4 of the Dell S3 driver (S3645K.DRV).
          To obtain this updated version of the video driver, contact
          Dell Computer Systems at the following phone numbers:
   
             Dell Technical Support: (800) 624-9896
             Dell Bulletin Board Service (BBS): (512) 728-8528
   
          To work around this problem, use the standard VGA video driver
          supplied with Windows.