Hi, I had my pcs100 working on an ancient laptop running windows 95. I recall some port setting in BIOS, but it won’t boot, I think the cmos battery’s dead. Years later, I’m trying to make it work on a newer laptop with xp, and I’ve tried everything I can think of, but I get variations of ‘hardware not detected’, or if it seems connected, after a while it will say ‘calibration failed’. I was hoping someone could explain how it could work. I have the cd it came with & the 4.04 newer version, and I think I’ve tried every option 'plug & play on/off, eps pps bidirectional, disable port…with different results…
Thank you!
Maybe you have also checked the check box “Disable LPT Plug and Play” on the PcLab2000SE startup screen.
Do you get any waveform on the oscilloscope screen before the ‘calibration failed’ is displayed?
Hi, the first time it appeared to be working, horizontal lines flashed rapidly at different voltages. The next time, many different settings later, it showed a line near the bottom of the screen, for about 8sec, then the inevitable ‘no hardware response’. This is the main issue.
Perhaps it has ‘had the biscuit’…but as I said, it worked fine when briefly used years ago.
So what the heck? bad caps? bad ‘PAL PCS100’ IC?
I’m not an lx wizard, but after days of trying different ‘if that doesn’t work, try this’ reccomendations, I wonder why someone can’t just spell out how it could work on XP, not an uncommon OS.
I bought it at Main Electronics in Vancouver, Canada, a big booster/seller of your products, so I’ll phone and get a comment tomorrow.
Thanks, H
Hi,
On the new laptop does it have a native LPT port?
Have you tried it on a desktop with a native LPT port?
If you do not have a desktop with a LPT port maybe a friends.
Have you checked the power supply fopr proper voltage?
USB and most PCMCIA to LPT ports do not work with this unit.
Hi, the laptop has a native lpt port. Normal, bi-directional, ecp, etc. Which has the best chance of working? on XP.
The voltage is 10.5 with the adapter plugged into the pcs100.
Every ‘read me’ or manual has different ‘try this, or this’ , or change this and revert to plug and play, or disable LPT1 port. The possible combinations are very many!
XP’s not an uncommon OS, why can what works not be spelled out?
Does the fact that it can appear to be working, for a few seconds, then ‘no hardware response’ mean that it’s blown?
My dealer says he’s still selling a lot of them, and that they don’t break down.
I’ll phone Texas tomorrow. Thanks, H
Hi,
You never said if you tried it on a desktop.
Trying this will tell you if you have a problem with the scope or the laptop.
You could also try downloading the latest software from the link below.
http://www.vellemanusa.com/downloads/files/downloads/pclab2000se_v4_04.zip
Hi, I talked to
scott in Texas, and he knew immediately the problem: At some point laptop mfrs reduced the power available from the parallel port (why?). He said that they don’t work often on laptops, with the optical isolation thingy needing too much power.
Once I plugged it into my vintage Bell Notebook (not dell, it’s well built, I think in Japan, cost $4000 in 1998, 64MB ram, 10G HD I think, runs windows 95, anybody know these…no brand name?) it works great. I doubt it could run the new software, but it’s working!
He says ecp port setting is best. Plug & pray whatever.
Hope this helps someone, happy ending, thanks, H