Will FAST communicate through a printer port?

[Reggie West]

Laptop does not have a serial port but I can use the printer port.

Will that work?

Anyone?

Thanks for the help.

 

[50Bucket]

Highly doubt it, do you have a USB? You can get an adapter for it...From what I know though the FAST needs an old dinosaur machine to run DOS based software? I'm not sure if they can run with the new OS's....

 

[Two Lane]

Originally posted by 50Bucket
[B I know though the FAST needs an old dinosaur machine to run DOS based software? I'm not sure if they can run with the new OS's.... [/B]

Nope...no talkie with new Operating Systems.

 

[Reggie West]

The laptop is running on Windows 98 but I dont have a serial port on the back of it.

Sounds like a problem to me.

 

[Craig Smith]

The Windows software will work, but you need a USB to serial port adapter.

I don't believe that I've ever talked with anyone who has successfully used a DOS-based program of any sort in conjunction with a USB to serial port adapter.

 

[Reggie West]

OK update on the USB port.

It works. You can use a serial to USB adapter to interface with the laptop.

The adapter uses a driver to configure the port ( COM 1 ) for a serial adapter. This is used a lot for PDAs but, for $30 it is a neat fix.

Craig so far I have had the FAST program lock up on me twice. It seems to do it if I have 3 or 4 windows minimized at the same time. For instance, spark table, fuel, VE and so on.

The laptop is using Windows ME, I dont know if there is a patch for this or not.

 

[Two Lane]

Good thing you have Windows ME! I think that's the LAST edition of Windows that can access its prehistoric DOS roots.

The current version, Windows XP, cannot...or so I'm told by my Computer Science neighbor.

 

[Reggie West]

The real problem will be when we go to buy a new laptop.

I am hoping Dell will load ME or Win 98 on it instead of XP. The last I heard, the XP patch is not coming until June!!

 

[TwinTurboIroc]

not sure if you know but there is a program out there that will let you pick an OS to start your PC with. It kinda ghosts one or the other....that is what some were doing a while ago with their ME or XP computers. Boot it up with 95 or 2000

 

[Two Lane]

True...the cheapest way around this FAST problem is to get a copy of Windows 95 and put that in your new computer as a 2nd operating system (in addition to its factory-installed XP).

Windows 95 even boots up momentarily directly in DOS, so that's the ticket for the FAST problem.
________________________________________________

There's just so much more the new Accel Gen 7+ can do so easily and beautifully with its full Windows XP compatibility.

HTH

 

[Craig Smith]

Originally posted by Two Lane
True...the cheapest way around this FAST problem is to get a copy of Windows 95 and put that in your new computer as a 2nd operating system (in addition to its factory-installed XP).

Windows 95 even boots up momentarily directly in DOS, so that's the ticket for the FAST problem.
________________________________________________

There's just so much more the new Accel Gen 7+ can do so easily and beautifully with its full Windows XP compatibility.

HTH

This implies that the FAST system doesn't work under Windows XP, and this simply is not the case. The DOS version will not work under Windows XP, but the Windows version works fine. I have hundreds of customers doing this and I am not sure why some people are having trouble. We have a couple machines here at the shop running under XP tha work great. I can definitely rule out operating system compatibility as the culprit.

Most of our luck in solving these problems so far has come from shutting off some of the 8 billion programs that are running in the background on new XP machines. The trend from PC manufacturers and dealers these days seems to be to jam as many programs into a PC as possible (which is good) and set them all up so they all start running when you power up the PC (which is bad).

Reggie, sounds like you are past the communication problems so that is good. If you continue to have trouble with C-ComWP locking up, you may want to try and begin closing other applications on the PC. Press CTRL + ALT + DEL once, and the task manager will appear. You will see a list of everything running on the PC. The PC only needs the applications called EXPLORER and SYSTRAY to run. Everything else is extra. Obviously you will need whichever program is installed for your USB adapter and then C-ComWP itself, but try closing everything else. I don't believe Windows ME was the most stable version of Windows.

Hopefully this will help. I have some answers for you on your other post but I gotta get caught up on a few things here, I missed a couple days last week.

 

[Reginald West]

Thanks for thehelp Craig. I have been at Dads house all day playing with the FAST system.

I have encountered the FAST program locking up when I have two or three windows open at the same time. For instance, fuel, spark and Idle speed vs coolant temp.

I will close the other programs and try that. The laptop we are using right now is a loaner and we have to buy another one. After reading what you have said it sounds like buying a new laptop with XP is not a problem. I will check that out.

I like multi tasking but there is a lot of clutter on some of these machines that just make them run that much slower.

One little tip when using this PDA adapter. Make sure the driver is running on the port when you boot up the laptop. I have noticed you cannot do a standby with this one. The driver is no longer there when I go to use it again. I have to either re start it or shut it down completely for it to load the driver.