回复： Moved an old software (16 bit) program to XP, won't run.

[sliverFish]

We were running a spectrophotometer on a Windows 3.1 machine via a GPIB-PCII/IIA card, but when the computer died we couldn't find another one with the older card slot so we used ae trying the GPIB-USB-B on an WinXP computer. The GPIB Explorer can communicate with the instrument but the software program doesn't see the instrument. In the original help file for the spectrophotometer's software it says to go to system.ini and add the line device=c:\gpib-pcw\vdmad.386. 

Since we no longer have this file we looked at the Windows\System32 folder and found several gpib*.dll files. We have tried  gpib.dll, gpib-vdd.dll and gpib-32.dl, in place of vdmad.386 (we have corrected the path name too) so far but none of them have worked. We also ran the updatdos.exe successfully but seen no effect. We do have a Win 98 machine which has a USB port but we need a driver to run it. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[sliverFish]

We found a tower with an ISA slot and installed Win 98. We can communicate with the device and get it's binary address. We also can start the software, but the software although it loads and the GPIB Measurement and Analysis sees our instrument, gives an initial error of 'Unable to find GPIB device' then another error of 'Invalid GPIB device setting (board or software)' before quitting. It seems that in moving from one computer to another the binary address got reassessed but the software is looking for the one one? Not really sure if there's anyway to fix this.

[Eric_K]

silverFish,

So as I understand it you have a GPIB-USB-B device that is installed and working on a XP system.  You then have a spectrophotometer that you can communicate with, just not with the software that came with the device. 

Can you tell us what device you are using, and what documentation and software you have for it?  Is this a program that is made for Windows 3.1 that you are using on XP? 

Also, do you know all of the commands the device uses, and do you have LabVIEW?  If so it would take some programming, but it would be possible to write a program in LabVIEW to control the device if you knew the commands that it used.

Eric K

Applications Engineer

National Instruments

[sliverFish]

Originally we had a Windows 3.1 desktop hooked up to a Hitachi F-4500 Spectrophotometer via  a GPIB-PCII/IIA ISA card. It had the installed software on it. The computer had been laboring for a while so we copied the entire System and Hitachi folders onto floppies. We were attempting to use a Windows XP machine computer with the GPIB-USB-B interface, but we were told a couple days ago that Windows XP doesn't support 16-bit programs anymore. So we found an older tower with an ISA slot and installed Windows 98. We got the ni driver ver. 1.7 and installed it. At this point when we go into Measurements and Automation we can communicate with the board. If we send an IDN? query it returns a binary address for the board.

Now we are trying to get the software to see the device. According to the readme file we need to make changes to autoexec.bat, win.ini and system.ini. The first two files were straightforward but in system.ini the modification calls for adding the device vdmad.386, since this is an older out of date file, we looked at the installed files by National Instruments and chose to install the gpibplug.vxd device instead. This worked better than some of the other choices like gpibnat.vxd or gpidnoif.vxd. However the software still comes up with two errors. When first attempting to bring up the program we receive the error "Unable to find GPIB device" after clicking on ok and attempting any of the functions (like Timescan) we get the error "Invalid GPIB setting (board or software)" and then the program closes. 

I've recently attempted to make changes to the Registry due to this post http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=170&message.id=204735&query.id=219557#M204735

but that had no affect. We have the Windows XP machine and GPIB-USB-B interface still around. It does communicate with the instrument but we've had no luck with running the software.

[sliverFish]

We don't have LabVIEW.

[Eric_K]

silverFish,

As I'm sure your aware, a lot has changed fro Windows 3.1 to Windows XP.  If the software will not work on XP then I would normally suggest trying to search for a way to run it in compatibility mode such as described here http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/appcompat.mspx, but I don't believe this will give you access to the .ini files that you are in need of.  Without knowing how the software was written I do not know how to move it from Windows 3.1 to Windows XP successfully.

I asked if you had LabVIEW because if you can get all of your commands to work properly in Measurement and Automation Explorer then you could write a new program yourself to send and receive commands from the instrument, but this may take quite a bit of programming.

Eric K

Applications Engineering

National Instruments

Message Edited by Eric K on 01-12-2009 11:57 AM

[sliverFish]

After getting a protocol from the Hitachi representative I think I've figured out how to fix the problem. We got NI488.2 version 1.7 to run on Windows 98 and we can see the instrument and when I open the properties I can set things like the bus timing and primary address. What I can't find is the device template to set the device settings. I think the software is looking for the instrument with F-4500 as a name and so we need to set this device name, but in the properties dialog box when I click on advanced, I don't have any options for chaning the device settings. How do I do this in NI488 version 1.7?

[sliverFish · Accepted solution]

I got the device renamed. The instrument is now running on the XP machine, but still not working on the Windows 98 machine. I'm going to keep trying because the software boots up the  98 machine and then freezes so I feel I'm close here too. To rename the device in Windows 98 I was able to follow the NI help file to the device templates tab. In Windows XP I had to search for help on the Configuration utility to find the device template dialog box.

[Millo2]

Hi, I have exactly the same issue. The FL4500 spectrometer is a great instrument but the PC running the Windows 3.1 operating system has died.

Please could you let me know how you got it up and running on XP ?

thanks, Keith

[lhcii]

Hi. I got same problem. Our Very old computer is dead. So I plan to upgrade. I bought a PCI GPIB card and install it a computer with XP system. I used ni4882 version 2.6.

I change the name of DEV1 to FL, as someone said. The machine seem to boot after the software is run. But it seem freezed. I check the NI SPY as follow: please help me,. Any suggestions would be appreciated.