SMART Board User’s Guide
13
If Your Laptop’s Serial Port is Unavailable
If you’ve connected an interactive whiteboard to a COM port on your laptop computer, but the
interactive whiteboard remains unresponsive, you may be experiencing a COM port conflict
created by software on your laptop. If you use a laptop or personal digital assistant that
transmits information to your computer using infrared (IR) light waves, software resident in
your StartUp directory may be telling the COM port to continually monitor for nearby IR
devices.
Although you can physically connect a serial device such as an interactive whiteboard to the
laptop’s COM port, the software can override this connection, reserving the COM port for the
device specified by the software.
One solution is to use a different COM port. If your IR device software uses COM1 but your
computer has COM2 available, perform the following procedure:
1
Plug the interactive whiteboard into COM2.
2
Click the SMART Board icon in the system tray and select
Control Panel
.
3
Click the Connect button under
Serial Ports
in the Boards tab.
4
Select
COM2
from the drop-down list and click the Select button.
If you have only one COM port, you’ll need to disable the detection feature of the infrared
software so your interactive whiteboard can use the COM port. If you require further
assistance, consult your laptop owner’s manual or call SMART Technical Support at
1.866.518.6791.
On-Screen Display Controller for Windows Operating Systems
When you use an interactive whiteboard with a projector or a SMART Board
for Plasma
Displays
interactive overlay, you’ll also want to use the On-Screen Display Controller.
With an On-Screen Display Controller installed, you’ll never need to hunt for an elusive
remote control again. The On-Screen Display Controller offers you the convenience of
controlling your projector or PDP – right at the SMART Board (or overlay) surface. And,
unlike your remote control, the on-screen controller is no further away than a finger-press on
the On-Screen Display Controller icon in the system tray.
To help preserve expensive projector lamps or simply to prevent image burn-in in your
plasma display, SMART’s On-Screen Display Controller detects the presence of any screen
saver you may have installed. The On-Screen Display Controller responds when the screen
saver becomes active by automatically turning off the projector lamp or putting the plasma
display into sleep mode after a specified period of time has elapsed.
As soon as activity resumes on the interactive whiteboard
−
i.e., after the overlay or
SMART Board surface is touched or the mouse is moved
−
the On-Screen Display
Controller will turn the projector lamp back on or reactivate the plasma display panel.
To summarize, the On-Screen Display Controller:
•
allows you to control such aspects of the projector or plasma display as volume, power
and input source right at the SMART Board surface
•
works with your screen saver to put your display into standby mode (turning off your
projector lamp or putting your plasma display into sleep mode) after a period of
inactivity. The next time you touch the interactive whiteboard, the projector lamp or
plasma display is reactivated.
In order for an On-Screen Display Controller to work, you’ll need:
•
an available COM port on your computer
Tip
If you don’t have a
screen saver installed,
consider installing the
SMART Bulb Saver,
which is especially
designed for use with a
board. See page 15 for
details.
Win
