The DECtalk Express may speak erractically/non-sensibly when running in WIN 
95.

The problem appears to be due to the fact that Win 95 wants to control the 
COM port the DECtalk Express is attached to even though a DOS TSR (DT_DRIV) 
is already in control.

This problem is similar to the problem we found with Win 3.x where we had 
to use DEBUG statements in DTEXP.BAT to remove the COM port from the 
systems BIOS inventory.

To provide a more permanent solution for Win 3.x we automatically add a 
line in DTEXP.BAT which removes the com port the DECtalk Express was 
detected to from the BIOS inventory. This lets DT_DRIV control the comm 
port and Windows goes on it merry way never seeing it.


In Win 95 there is a way to directly remove a comm port from the inventory 
that it tries to control. This is done via the START/SETTINGS/Control Panel 
and selecting the SYSTEM applet. This will give you the System Properties 
page and the Device Manager tab needs to be selected. Next click on the box 
in front of the Ports (COM & LPT) item. This will explode the lists to show 
all COM and LPT ports Win 95 has been able to find. Click once on the entry for 
the COM port that the DECtalk Express is connected e.g., Communications Port 
(COM 1) to highlight it. Next click on the Properties button at the bottom 
left of the dialog box. Under the General tab, go to the bottom of the 
dialog box under Device Usage and make sure no box is check marked. In a 
new system it will usually on have the item "Original Configuration" listed 
with a check mark in it. Click on it once and it will clear. Click on OK at 
the very bottom of the dialog box. You will be returned to the Device 
Manager tab and the COM port that you unchecked will now have a rex "X" 
through it. If you higlighted the entry and clicked on Properties, the 
Genearl tab for the COM port would Device status a "disabled". Whew!!!

With the COM port disabled in Win 95 the DECTalk EXpress driver should work 
ok. One minor thing has to been done first. The DTEXP.BAT file needs to be 
edited and the debug statement REM'd out. Save the file and restart the 
computer. The DECtalk EXpress driver DT_DRIV  must first be loaded either 
via AUTOEXC.BAT or from the Win 95 Command prompt before the GUI starts.

Once this is all done the DECtalk EXpress should work in Win 95.

One final caveat. If the COM port that uses the same interrrupt (IRQ) as 
the one used by the DECtalk Express is also used you make get flakey 
operation or no speech. This can happen if say the DECtalk EXpress is on 
COM1 and a modem is on COM3. The remedy is to change the modem to use a 
non-standard IRQ for the COM port thereby providing exclusive IRQs. 

We hope to have a way to do all the Device Manager stuff more 
automatically. Stay tuned.   