Still PCGU1000 and Win XP problem

Hello,

I am running perfectly a PCGU1000 (with LED-HW-mod as posted in this forum) on two older desktop systems with old drivers and PCLab 3.03. In both cases OS is Win XP.

Now I tried to install it on a newer desktop system with Win XP Prof SP3. First I used old SW and drivers which came with CD, but it doesn’t worked. Then I updated to new PCLab 4.03 and Driver 5.4. It worked neither. Looking at Device manager (COM and LPT) I see “PCGU1000 Function Generator (COM7)”.

Starting PCLab I get following message:


“No Function Generator response.
Check the power adapter connection.
Disconnect and reconnect the power adapter and restart PcLab2000SE.”

If the User Account Control (UAC) is on, then PcLab2000SE has to be run under administrator account.
Right-click on the PcLab2000SE icon on the desktop or in the programs list,
choose Properties, switch to the Compatibility tab,
select “Run this program as an administrator”


Reading the threads in this forum I understood that this problem comes with Vista. But I’m using XP. In detail I cannot select “Run as Admin” since it is XP. Does anybody can help me?

Thanks in advance, Stefan

This is very strange problem.
You have made the modification described in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2514
Does the added LED be lit when you run the generator in the other PC?

Yes, I added the LED as described in your referenced post.

Starting PCLab the LED is on during the time I can see “Loading” in frequency window. After this starting sequence the error message appears and there is only a unregular and very short flashing of this LED. The “On/Ready” LED never lits.

The added LED seems to work OK.
There seems to be some communication problem in the generator.
The FPGA data fails to load to IC7.
The problem may be in the optocoupler IC2.

But the generator runs perfectly on two other (older) desktop PC…

I just checked voltages on both working and non working systems:
Vbus is always slightly above 5V (5,04V working, 5,08 V non working sys)
Signal Level of USB is around 3,3V on both lines referenced to GND of USB (measured at solder points of USB Plug)

I just got one unique effect: PCLab started without error, red LED “On/Ready” was lit. Trying to make one setting --> error appeared.

Could this be a timing problem of USB signals (either PC or PCGU)? Just thinking if clock reference for timing of USB signals of one system is at on side of allowed limit, the other system at the other side, this might result in communichation error…

**edit for typo

[quote]Vbus is always slightly above 5V (5,04V working, 5,08 V non working sys)
Signal Level of USB is around 3,3V on both lines referenced to GND of USB (measured at solder points of USB Plug)[/quote]The USB voltages seem to be OK too.

[quote]Starting PCLab the LED is on during the time I can see “Loading” in frequency window.[/quote]This indicates that there is USB communication but the data may be corrupted.

[quote]I just got one unique effect: PCLab started without error, red LED “On/Ready” was lit. Trying to make one setting --> error appeared.[/quote]This may indicate either USB communication problem or a driver problem.

The driver problem is quite unlikely. You have so far tested with two different drivers without any success.

[quote]Could this be a timing problem of USB signals (either PC or PCGU)? Just thinking if clock reference for timing of USB signals of one system is at on side of allowed limit, the other system at the other side, this might result in communichation error…[/quote]This may also be a cause of the problem.

[quote=“VEL255”]

Do you have a suggestion how to check this with only an oscilloscope?

On the other hand it is also unlikely to be a timing problem - all the other stuff on USB port is working correctly up to now…

I think it is not possible to check the USB signal timing using an oscilloscope.
I got this kind of USB signal frame when the generator is in idle mode:

There may be some compatibility problem with Win XP Prof SP3.

I used a logic analysator and made a screenshort. Unfortunately I cannot upload this image. I got a slightly different USB idle frame…

Please advise how can I send you this data.

I got also some different frames but the length of the frame was always about the same 2.64us.
Is the frame length you got different?
Did you compare the frame between the problematic PC (Win XP Prof SP3) and the older one?

[quote]Please advise how can I send you this data.[/quote]Attachments are not possible in this forum. You will have to upload your file to a file hosting site and then post the link to the image file.
Here is one such service: servimg.com

Yes, frame length was 2,6417 µs. Since your content of the frame was also different I assume that it is ok.

Please advise how to uninstall the driver completely - just t o make sure, that there is no part of an older version in use.

[quote]Please advise how to uninstall the driver completely - just t o make sure, that there is no part of an older version in use.[/quote]First go to the Device Manager and under the Ports node locate the PCGU1000 Function generator.
Right click it and select Uninstall.
Check also under the Universal Serial Bus controllers node if there is any PCGU1000 driver left. If is, delete it too.

Then go to the C:\Windows\inf folder.
Locate the .inf file containing text PCGU1000.
Delete this file and the .pnf file having same name as the .inf file.

Then in the folder C:\Windows\system32\drivers delete the files silabenm.sys and silabser.sys.

Alternative and more safe way is to use the Windows system restore and restore the XP to the time before you installed the first PCGU1000 driver.

I abandon. I tried removal of drivers by system restore and manually deleting - no success. It is not a general problem of Win XP Prof SP3. I tested it sucessfully on two other systems with this OS. Thanks for your support.

I’m sorry that this problem can’t be solved.

[quote]It is not a general problem of Win XP Prof SP3. I tested it sucessfully on two other systems with this OS.[/quote]OK. - So this problem is not operating system related.
Maybe this is hardware or PC related problem…

[quote]Looking at Device manager (COM and LPT) I see “PCGU1000 Function Generator (COM7)”.[/quote]As a final test you may try to use COM3.

  • In the Device Manager under Ports node double click on “PCGU1000 Function Generator (COM7)”.
  • Under “Port Settings”, click Advanced.
  • Change the COM port number to COM3.

In this case it helped, but it was not similar case: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3990

I tried your suggestion. Switching first time to COM2 (COM3~6 are listed as assigned) it worked - but I think this was accidentally as some seldom times before. After this it never worked again even after switching forth and back COM number.

This is very strange problem.

Please see my reply to your post in this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3990