Direct Scan help (another one)

[at7we2]

recently picked up a used DirectScan from another member. I'm having the same problems everyone else seems to have with XP. I understand DS will NOT work with XP, but I have not been able to create a DOS boot disk that will work either.

The hardware I'm trying to use is probably a little different than most. I've got a Dell D520 laptop which has no floppy and no parallel port. I searched this board a couple of weeks ago and found where several guys had managed to get a PCMCIA parallel port to work with DS. I bought a PCMCIA parallel port and installed the drivers so I'm able to connect everything.

The laptop is loaded with XP so I know I'll have to create a DOS boot disk but since this laptop has no floppy drive, it will have to be a bootable CD.

I have borrowed a USB floppy drive from work and created a bootable floppy directly off the laptop and then used Roxio Easy Media Creator to make a bootable CD from the floppy. The bootable CD works - sort of. It brings the laptop up in DOS, but it will not let me access the hard-drive (which is where I have DS installed).

I really don't have the cash to buy a dedicated laptop for DS and partitioning the HD for Win98 is not an option.

Anyone know what I need to do to create a bootable CD that will let me access the HD?

Thanks,
Rob

 

[Blazer406]

PM sent.

 

[at7we2]

still trying to get it to work

haven't managed to get DS to work yet. I keep getting the "Direct Scan hardware not found" error message.

Question:
Does anyone know if you have to have the DS box actually connected to the ECM for the software to find and communicate with the DS box? Right now I *DO* have it connected, but it would be nice to be able to bring the laptop and DS box inside the house to work on getting the laptop setup correctly.



Rob

 

[Jbenn911]

yeah, you do... the thing you're probably running into is the port address... Most of those adapters dont assign a normal old school parallel addresses of 278h, 378h and 3BCh. Those are the ones that DS needs to see. Check the address of the port that is assigned with your adapter. There are a couple utilities you can put on your boot disk that might help you out..

Check out:
Free NTFS Bootdisk, NTFS4DOS, NTFS Boot CD or google ntfs bootable... I gave up a while ago and sold my DS for PowerLogger..Why cant you partition off a gig for win98 ??? DS needs nothing space wise...

 

[at7we2]

yeah, you do... the thing you're probably running into is the port address... Most of those adapters dont assign a normal old school parallel addresses of 278h, 378h and 3BCh. Those are the ones that DS needs to see. Check the address of the port that is assigned with your adapter. There are a couple utilities you can put on your boot disk that might help you out..

Check out:
Free NTFS Bootdisk, NTFS4DOS, NTFS Boot CD or google ntfs bootable... I gave up a while ago and sold my DS for PowerLogger..Why cant you partition off a gig for win98 ??? DS needs nothing space wise...

Thanks for the info!

I was wondering if it might be a port address isssue. I'll check that first, then I'll checkout those sources for boot disks.

I can't partition the drive because I'm actually using a company laptop :biggrin: I've got a lot of software and custom configurations on there. They wouldn't be to happy if I brought it back to them and said, "Hey can you re-load *EVERYTHING* and by the way, just ignore that Win98 partition on there."

You said you finally gave up and sold your DS in favor of a PowerLogger - why did you give up on DS?

I think I'm about to do the same. I went with DS because I thought it would do what I needed and I was able to pick up a used setup off here for about half the cost of a PowerLogger, but if I can't get it to work without buying more bits and pieces or even a dedicated laptop then I might as well sell it and get a PL also.

 

[Jbenn911]

I had a nice older lappy that I was using for DS and it was getting tired, and the new one only had a serial port and usb...tried many different adapters and couldnt get any of them to assign a good port and IRQ combo for DS, even tried getting a hold of Kent Chu to see if the exe could be hacked to allow for it....No dice... DS is great if you have an older laptop, but if you have a newer one or on the fence about which one to buy, PL has it over DS hands down...so many more features

 

[TurboDave]

Thanks for the info!

You said you finally gave up and sold your DS in favor of a PowerLogger - why did you give up on DS?

Probably for the same reason many of us have. DS was designed to run on what is now becoming very old and hard to find WIN98 machines. It's not very forgiving, and not being well supported.

PowerLogger on the other hand is designed to run on the more readilly available laptops of the XP and newer generation, and is continually being updated and has a strong support network.