Alden "Duet" computers Important to read

Things that are different or don't work as expected in "Duet" computers.

Updated as of Oct 19, 2004 by Danny Dodd and Don McKay of Alden Associates


  1. In order to "Ghost" or "Image" a "Duet" computer you must not add the "Duet" (also known as "Twin") software to the basic image. The "Duet" software must be manually installed, then reregistered individually after being "imaged."

 

  1. To add software, upgrade to OS or make permanent setup changes to a "Duet" system, you must first: 1) Login as administrator. 2) Disable the "Duet" software. 3) Enable the software after the changes have been made.


  1. Both displays need to be attached and turned on when you turn on a "Duet" computer or XP will not pickup the other station"s display and change you video driver. If you start the computer without both the monitors hooked up and turned on, Windows will automatically disable the second monitor driver, which now must be reconfigured. The most common fix to this is manually reinstall the video drivers with both monitors turned on. To prevent this from happening each time the computer is turned on without both monitors being on, and restore the computer setup to the correct setting each time it is rebooted use: 1)"Deep Freeze", 2)"Phoenix - FirstWare Recovery Pro" 3)Make a system "restore point" were the computer video drivers are correct. 4)In theory you could make a batch file the corrects the registry entries.


  1. Another reason for the second station not working is if the Magic Twin software has not been updated to the current version that matches the Windows XP version being used.


  1. Only one of the front-panel USB ports is enabled. Both rear USB ports work as normal.


  1. On some "Duet" dual videoboards or motherboards with built-in video graphics, you can only set the display at 75Hz (preferred on most flat panels displays) at a maximum of 1024X768 16bit colors instead of the normal 32bit colors.


  1. To use a second set of speakers/headphones, you must add an additional soundboard as only one comes with all motherboards. With adding a second PCI sound, the game port is disabled. To setup with a PCI sound card, you must set the BIOS for the motherboard sound to "Enabled" not "Disable" or "Auto." If you want to use the onboard game port and two sets of speakers or headphones, then you must use a USB soundboard which costs more.


  1. You need to use pretty new monitors "plug-and-play" type with 14 pins on the VGA cable with "Duet" video boards. Older 13-pin monitors won't work.


  1. "Duets" will not work, with two users, using software design to only allow one user access at a time. There are very few software programs like this that will not work.


  1. Both users of a "Duet" share "MAC" and "IP" address but have a different "SID" number (IP and Port Address), which is how Windows XP keeps track of what belongs to who. Software that addresses users by IP address or MAC address only will only show one user.


  1. If you loose the install disk for the Duet (Twin) software it prevents reinstalling. Keep this disk in a save place.


  1. "Duet" (Magic Twin software) not able to be registered. Occasionally when a user attempts to update the magic twin software to fix a station 2 problem, they will get an error code that indicates that the activation key is not valid or correct (when it is). If this is the case, check to see if Windows as been activated itself! This is happened a few times to my knowledge that Windows has not been activated. First activate Windows if necessary. Second, disable Magic Twin. Reboot. Un-install magic twin thru the Windows add/remove programs wizard. Reboot. Re-install Magic Twin software. Register it. Update it. Reboot. As Michael White has mentioned, on Windows activation. The systems that go out should all be activated. Twin software is also going to be registered by them. The only time you should have to activate Windows on an Alden machine is if a motherboards been swapped out, Windows has been re-installed, or the systems have been "Sysprepped" (which also causes a variety of other problems so don't prep systems this way, Ghost is less problematic). And of course they would need to be activated if that was overlooked in the process between Microstandard and Alden. At Alden we test both users.


  2. Other generic troubleshooting tips with the duets: If video issues are happening, after steps 2 & 3 above have been concluded a simple test of the video output is disabling Magic Twin, rebooting, then enabling "extend my windows desktop" on the display properties. This will let you know immediately if your second video connection is properly activating. Disable it, re-boot and enable Magic Twin. I have had one NVIDIA motherboard so far that actually had bad video circuitry on it.

  1. USB devices (and some keyboard/mouse combos on Station 2 mainly) not working. Go into the Magic Twin Console and check the device assignments. There is a good chance that the top keyboard and mouse are not assigned. Assign them to "main console". You WILL get one or two error boxes but the settings will stay.

 

  1. Users have started mentioning problems with Real Player and QuickTime. I haven't been able to look into this yet.

Special Programs and Duets


VNC from Craig Johnson

We just set up a Duet for a customer and it went into a reboot cycle. It appears the free remote control program VNC (Installed by customer) is not compatible with the Duet. VNC creates an additional Display adapter in the Device Manager and Duet tries to use it. We disabled the extra display driver and all was well. VNC is now disabled on this computer.


Deepfreeze From Danny Dodd, Alden Sales/Service Engineer

There are a couple of ways to install Deepfreeze with "Duet" Software. 

1. This would be the correct "supported" way of installing Deepfreeze within the normal installation guidelines involving Magic Twin software.

Following this process I was able to make changes from both stations with Deepfreeze protection re-setting those changes.


2. Theoretically, you can leave Duet (Magic twin) enabled and simply install Deepfreeze from the main console but the "virtual thaw" if used is untested.

 

Side Note: It is always best if using Deepfreeze and wanting a "thaw space" to actually partition your hard drive prior to installations and set your document folders and other data that requires kept changes, such as email to the second partition and not to use the "virtual thaw" options as a partitioned drive runs faster and is less prone to data corruption. 

Disclaimer: The Deepfreeze administration aspect of the software has not been tested. Other possible installations have been considered but not tested at this time. The Deepfreeze management console will be available on the main station if step 1 is followed above. I suspect if installed from station 2 while Magic twin was enabled the Deepfreeze console would then not be available from Station 1. This is untested however.

 

Vision Software From Brian Johnson of Naches School district

Install the Vision software and disable the display adapter called master eye mirror, and the vision software will work ok while in "twin" mode. It gives me an error when I try to take control of the computer. I can still use it to demo and supervise (odd little bug about joining, but you can tell it to never ask you again and the box stops appearing. I think this has to do with the MAC address issue). Basically, from my limited testing so far if you disable that one installed driver it allows Vision to work minus the ability to remote control the computer. Supervision capabilities appear to work just fine.

 

I guess I'm trying to have my cake and eat it too. I would welcome any help or advice Danny could give me. These duet computers so far are just awesome, the only snag so far is the lab management portion, if I could get that working this type of computer would be perfect for a lab or class like mine.

 

In fact as I write this I am demonstrating it to the duet computer, it only shows up on the duet 1 machine, not the duet 2 machine.. but this would be fine. Just got to get it to work with the remote control and I would be ecstatic. :-)


From KH Yang of Jetway 

1. MagicTwin will not support Vision5 now, our programmer in Europe has talked to Master Solution regarding this, actually, MagicTwin has provided to Master Solution a solution to solve this but still not yet accepted by Master Solution. In the case schools are very interested in 2-users PC but also want to use Vision5, maybe they can directly write to them to push.Rene.Schaedlich@mastersolution.com

 

2. In the case, schools can consider use of other lab management software, they can try:

    a.   HiClass by Ikonnet

    b.   NetOpSchool by Danware, you can down load a trial version at   www.netop.com

 Both solution should be OK with MagicTwin.