Vista Support for PPP and Flowcode?

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EddieB
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Vista Support for PPP and Flowcode?

Post by EddieB »

Hello,

I recently bought a copy of windows vista home premium, and I cannot use PPP with it, flowcode3 seems okay although as it uses ocx's, they dont work in vista... So I can only use some components...

Now the problem with PPP: ( Please not the drivers install correctly ).

When I start it I get "Cannot connect to service control manager".

Then when I try and send a file to the pic micro development board, I get errors saying that the cable is not connected...

Do I need latest pic micro drivers for vista? Or has the hardware layout of vista changed from XP?

Many thanks,
Eddie

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Steve
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Post by Steve »

That error with PPP can safely be ignored, but if you want to permanently remove it, reinstall PPP and make sure all options are installed (including the "LPT port driver" option).

I don't know why you get the "cable not connected" error message. Perhaps PPP is looking for the older LPT board? Check in the "options" screen of PPP and make sure "E-Blocks/v3 dev board" is selected.

EddieB
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Post by EddieB »

Hello Steve,

I was playing around with these settings the other night, but I have been using my laptop lately for my multiprogrammer...

Ill try a re-install and post back.

Cheers

EddieB
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Post by EddieB »

Hello Again,

I have reinstalled PPP with the LPT port driver, and I dont get the service control error any more... Although It still thinks my board isnt connected via USB... All the PPP settings are correct for my board.

Cheers

EddieB
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Post by EddieB »

Hello,

I had a thought, could vista be setting up devices differently than XP? Putting them under different "class's"... Did you use a USB library when writing the software? Or did you hardcode it all to specific locations?

Cheers

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Benj
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Post by Benj »

Hello Eddie

A simple fix for now is the following

Goto the start menu and right click on computer
Select properties from the menu
Then click on the Device Manager link on the left
Then click on Universal Serial Bus Controllers
Then double click on Matrix Serial Bus Controllers
Then click on the Power management tab
Untick the box - Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power

This should allow your programmer to function again

EddieB
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Post by EddieB »

Hello,

Haha! It works :)

Thaks Ben!

Cheers

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Steve
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Post by Steve »

Eddie,

You've got me panicking, so I've come to work on Sunday to solve some of your Vista issues. I think I've had some success:

PPP "cable not connected" issue
Ben's answer about Power Management should solve this one

PPP "Cannot connect to service control manager" issue
To fix this, download the latest PPP installation (v3.8). Unzip the file and then right-click the exe and select "Run as administrator". Select the "modify" option and make sure the "Parallel port driver" option is set to install to the hard drive. Complete the installation.

Flowcode "missing components" issue
Download the latest Flowcode v3.1 installation (full upgrade) from the website. Right-click the installation exe and select "Run as administrator". Complete the installation process (selecting "repair" may solve this issue; otherwise, uninstall and reinstall it).

Another way to fix the missing components without a re-install is to run the "registerme.bat" file in the "components" subdirectory of Flowcode. But you have to do this via an "elevated command prompt". I've got some screenshots of how to do this, and I'll put up a page into the "support" website with more info on this.

EddieB
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Post by EddieB »

Hello Steve,

I resolved the other issues on friday, but the flowcode missing component issue is my only current issue... I'll try some of the things you have said and report back...

Many thanks for all the support,

Cheers

EddieB
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Post by EddieB »

Hello,

Im still not having any luck with Flowcode, most of the components cannot be registered no matter what I do...

Is there a way I can get input from a keypad with flowcode even though I dont have the macros?

Cheers

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Steve
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Post by Steve »

Eddie,

You should be able to rerun the installation as an administrator - that should solve the issue. Alternatively, run "cmd" as an administrator and navigate to the "components" subdirectory of Flowcode (in a DOS-like way). Then run the "registerme.bat" file from this command prompt.

Remember that in Vista, you need to explicitly run each program (even installations) as an administrator by right-clinking them and selecting "Run as administrator". Just having an administrative user account is not enough (as it was with XP).

I'll email a note about this.

EddieB
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Post by EddieB »

Hello,

"Just having an administrative user account is not enough (as it was with XP). "

Thats probably my problem, Im doing everything else to the word.

Cheers

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Steve
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Post by Steve »

An update on this...

The problem has now been resolved: Vb5 runtime is needed. Anyone with Vista should go here and download the vb5 runtime files…

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... layLang=en

You will then need to register the components again (reinstall flowcode, or run the registerme.bat file).

Or better still, install the VB5 runtimes before installing Flowcode onto Vista.

I'll try to include VB5 runtime in the next Flowcode installation.

There may be another problem related to help files, as Vista does not support ".hlp" files (apparently Microsoft are going to release a patch that allows .hlp support). In the meantime, I've been told of this workaround from another user:
There is a sort of not recommended work around which is copy winhlp32.exe from XP add it to vista as program in its own folder then associate .hlp files with it

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