RJM62
Touchdown! Greaser!
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2007
- Messages
- 13,157
- Location
- Upstate New York
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Geek on the Hill
This, as I mentioned in another thread, is a DOS program for car mechanics. It originally was written in 1992, the developer is dead, and he didn't support it for the last six years of his life.
I have quite a few clients who use this software, and I've never had an issue with it. But recently, a client replaced an old computer, and the new run (running XP Professional SP-3 D/G from Vista) won't run it.
On all the other machines, all that's done to run the program is to map the program's folder on the "server" (actually, just another XP Pro machine), and create a shortcut to the BAT file. But on this new machine, no joy. It returns an error that the computer hasn't been configured as a network node.
However, when I copied the files over to one of my own computers (also running XP SP-3), it worked just fine, with no configuration at all.
I think the problem may have to do with the parallel port dongle, which contains the serial number (and maybe some other information). The new machine didn't have a parallel port, so I installed a SIIG PCI parallel port. It's recognized by Windows as LPT-1, 2, or 3 (selectable), but uses a non-standard hardware address.
But what's mystifying is that when I start the program without the dongle on my own machine, it gives an error that the security block is missing. But when I start it on the new machine without the dongle (or with it, for that matter), it calls the network node error. It neither recognizes the dongle nor that it's missing.
Also, if I disable the parport on my own machine and start the program, it returns the missing security block error. So I would think that if the program is not recognizing the parport on the new machine at all, then it would return the missing security block error. But it returns the network node error, instead.
I also tried to run it in DosBox Megabuild with the LPT mapped to the hardware address of the PCI parallel port. No joy.
Any ideas, anyone?
Richard
I have quite a few clients who use this software, and I've never had an issue with it. But recently, a client replaced an old computer, and the new run (running XP Professional SP-3 D/G from Vista) won't run it.
On all the other machines, all that's done to run the program is to map the program's folder on the "server" (actually, just another XP Pro machine), and create a shortcut to the BAT file. But on this new machine, no joy. It returns an error that the computer hasn't been configured as a network node.
However, when I copied the files over to one of my own computers (also running XP SP-3), it worked just fine, with no configuration at all.
I think the problem may have to do with the parallel port dongle, which contains the serial number (and maybe some other information). The new machine didn't have a parallel port, so I installed a SIIG PCI parallel port. It's recognized by Windows as LPT-1, 2, or 3 (selectable), but uses a non-standard hardware address.
But what's mystifying is that when I start the program without the dongle on my own machine, it gives an error that the security block is missing. But when I start it on the new machine without the dongle (or with it, for that matter), it calls the network node error. It neither recognizes the dongle nor that it's missing.
Also, if I disable the parport on my own machine and start the program, it returns the missing security block error. So I would think that if the program is not recognizing the parport on the new machine at all, then it would return the missing security block error. But it returns the network node error, instead.
I also tried to run it in DosBox Megabuild with the LPT mapped to the hardware address of the PCI parallel port. No joy.
Any ideas, anyone?
Richard