IAN

iTrader: (3)

I went out and bought a new laptop. It's a HP pavilion dv2000 running windows vista premium.

Its slow! Windows is a hog.

Anyhow I bought a usb to dbp (Serial) adapter. Could not get it to communicate with the vista. Found a driver on the internet and vista does not recognize the driver. Called the manufactor of the adapter and they said they do not have proper drivers for it and may never.

Haltech should get into the 90's! USB man. This sucks. So know I have an idea to go back and return the whole laptop and stuff and total smash the stupid haltech rx7 sickness.................

And yes I know you can get a used laptop with a serial port but I thought for the price of new computers and such its better to get a new one.

Any ideas?

Nismo Convert86

iTrader: (7)

As far as I know all EMS' are SERIAL, but this might help you....

https://www.rx7club.com/haltech-forum-62/windows-vista-haltech-dos-software-632833/

nik

Hey Ian,

You'll just have to find a USB-serial converter that has vista drivers... Or you can junk vista and go back to win XP. Or you can return that laptop

Dosbox won't let you run windows APPs, and even if it did it would not be of any use.

Sorry to hear things are being a pain

I agree that these aftermarket ECU companies should implement USB, the reason behind the serial port stuff is that it is easy to program, and they don't see a need for the additionnal bandwidth of USB.

IAN

iTrader: (3)

I have not found a usb-serial converter with vista driver yet. They told me that running win xp on the new laptop will render some options useless. I have no idea what that meant. Also you cannot buy windows xp anymore.

Again I think of selling rx7!

nik

My advice : see if you can return the laptop, and get a used one. Having a big fancy laptop and using it in the car increases theft likelyhood, as well as wear and tear on the laptop. Unless you need/want the laptop for some other purpose, in which case take option 2 below.

If you cannot return the laptop, make sure you have an image or install disc for vista before wiping it off(it should have come with laptop as well as a cd key). Then let me know and i can mail you a cd with XP on it which I will "sell" to you for 0$.

IAN

iTrader: (3)

Found one but guess what. Its 32bit compatible. This new laptop is 64bit. Wow. I did not know this would be that confusing. 32 this 64 this, vista that xp this.

Also all of the laptops I could find are priced stupidly!

Lots of fun. Upgrade the stupid ems so that I can run a modern computer and now this.

nik

Yeah that's the problem with the 64 bit versions of windows, it's the lack of driver support. Are you sure the version of vista you are running is 64 bit? You can run 32 bit windows even if the laptop supports 64 bit.

Nismo Convert86

iTrader: (7)

You going to blame this on me too ?

IAN

iTrader: (3)

yup

eViLRotor

iTrader: (2)

Silly EviLrotor and Nik with our el-cheapo P1's.

LOL, Sorry but I have to laugh. Who the hell updates his EMS just so he can run a 'new' laptop?

Nismo Convert86

iTrader: (7)

Dude, you should have got a Dell

I think he upgraded his EMS because the 6K wasn't working too great, and wanted it to do more things, like AI.

Cheers!

What you need to do is force Vista to look for a driver, which in this case will not be digitally signed or approved my microsoft. lately It seem microosft is paranoid about anything non microsoft, even at the end of XP. Follow the guide below and use your cable's included driver instead of the radioshack one mentioned in the guide.

http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/ind...owtopic=155295

RacerJason

iTrader: (5)

Dell is still offering a laptop with XP... Dell Latitude 131L Not that I'm a fan of Dell...

IAN

iTrader: (3)

If you must know...

-Eventually I was going to replace the desktop with a laptop. But not for sometime. Just the E8 pushed me towards it.
-After selling the e6k and the savings of not buying a aux controller for AI it did not cost me anything really. Well ok it probable cost me $500+
-The E6k was with Haltech USA for the narrowband repair. IT was going to be minimum $150us. So they shipped me the E8. So no shipping for me or taxes and duty.


I should have stayed with the e6k if thats what you want to hear.

And if you have to ask I went through three laptops. I'm sick of these old shitty laptops. And for some reason I can't find any used laptops besides EBAY. Not sure I want to get a laptop through ebay.

IAN

iTrader: (3)

I called two manufactors of the available USB to serial adapters that I can get around here. Both said that other drivers other then theirs would not work. But who knows really. I didn't try. I returned the laptop and serial adapter.

RacerJason

iTrader: (5)

For anyone interested...

http://www.laptopcloseout.ca/canada/store.html

http://laptopcentre.ca/index.php/cPath/36

There is one more place on Dundas just east of Yonge on the north side that solely deals in laptops also.

The new motor is being built on Saturdays over the next three weekends if anyone is bored

Okay, I won't pollute the thread anymore.

IAN

iTrader: (3)

New motor? Cool. Details!

Thanks for the links. I saw them before. But at some of those prices you can go to best buy and buy new. But dam vista!

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

Instead of USB to serial, have you considered getting a PCMCIA serial card? These contain real UARTs instead of the crappy software emulation most USB adapters use. Mine has never failed to be compatible with something.

Claudio RX-7

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, ive used them too, its supposed to be better than using a USB adapter.

nik

That's a good idea with the PCMCIA card, but the problem here is that 64 bit versions of windows require 64 bit drivers. These need to be rewritten specifically for this, unless the manufacturer provides these then your hardware will not work. You cannot force a 32 bit driver to work under 64 bit windows. Even a PCMCIA card will need drivers. Maybe you can get lucky and microsoft will provide such a driver...

Putting on XP 32 or vista 32 would solve the problem.

Those usb to serial converters usually work quite well. Through some clever engineering they are able to generate the full RS-232 voltage swing from only 5V power source. However, some of them have buggy hardware/drivers. Stay away from BELKIN F5U109, random crashes galore.

www.raceonusa.com

There's gotta be a PCMCIA or usb to serial adapter.. maybe buy a cheap one on ebay so the risk isn't too high.. and if it dosen't work your only out a few bucks..

IAN

iTrader: (3)

PCMCIA serial card? I don't even know what that is

I had the Belkin one in my hand as well!

Update.

I bought a USB Universal Serial Bus Developed by BAO YU electronic Co. LTD. Then I proceeded to best buy and connected this adapter to one of the HP's running Windows vista basic and installed the driver. It actually said device working properly. Now the drivers supplied only said works with win98/200/me/xp but it appears to have worked on this vista computer. Now I am scared to buy the new laptop to actually see if it would connect to my E8 (Since I returned the other laptop already since 5 other computer stores said they do not have a USB to RS232 Cable that would work with vista)

I may have made a mistake in that my laptop was not 64bit but the chipset was 64bit. (If that makes any sense) Probable windows vista basic runs in 32bit? Regardless the laptop did not work with two other usb to RS232 adapters. Seems like this new adapter looks promising.

Funny how the older used laptops that are available at the computer store ranges min $330 to $600. New ones can be had for $699 and up!

Anyhow here is a company that says they have one that works. I would rather prefer a local company then pay ups or the goverment double the value!.

http://www.usbgear.com/computer_cabl...6%2C1009%2C601

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

The idea would be to buy a PCMCIA adapter that Vista supports nativly.

sereneseven

Just happenned apon this thread since I was having the same problems with vista....

I can confirm that the Radio shack 6ft USB-Serial cable # 26-183 works fine on VISTA with the driver found here http://www.floridaprobe.com/usb_install.htm

download it extract it to replace the crap driver that comes with the cable if i remember it's C:/windows/inf/ than under device manager RC on the radioshack usb-serial under other connections and hit update driver ignore warning and allow it to continue if it asks for the driver simply type in where you extracted it to and your done.

hope this helps