Author Topic: Parallel port from docking station  (Read 7408 times)

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Offline mqsaharan

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Re: Parallel port from docking station
« Reply #50 on: November 27, 2024, 11:15:52 am »
I'll try it later on today if I get time. If it's legacy boot, then it may not work for me as for some reason when my laptop is set for legacy, it just doesn't work. I suspect I'll give up soon, but I'll give this a try first.

As far as I know, Windows XP 32bit is a legacy OS and it is not UEFI aware. If your computer's firmware support legacy os then it should not have any problem running any legacy os including DOS.

If you suspect that legacy os option is not working as intended, you can try to reset the firmware. And the simplest way is by uploading setup defaults, then save and exit. Your computer will reboot and in case of UEFI it might reboot twice before it'll try to load the os from any attached drive.
If it still doesn't work, then I am out of tricks.

If you would like to try some other legacy os that boots via USB and works on modern computers with Legacy OS option, just to make sure your computer's firmware is not broken, you can try FreeDOS (https://www.freedos.org/download/).
 

Offline SquarewaveTopic starter

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Re: Parallel port from docking station
« Reply #51 on: November 27, 2024, 12:50:42 pm »
I tried the regular XP, not the integral and even that ISO wouldn't boot. There may be an issue with the laptop in that area in that case, in which case it's unlikely I'll go any further as it won't be a sustainable system if I have to go through too many hoops to get it working.
 

Offline SquarewaveTopic starter

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Re: Parallel port from docking station
« Reply #52 on: November 30, 2024, 05:11:38 pm »
I managed to change a few settings when making a bootable USB from the ISO for W7 and can now get the Dell to boot from the W7 installation ISO.

So what I'll do is swap over the SSD and install 7 and see how I go. All of this now is out of curiosity as it's not 100% necessary as my old laptop is now working on a new SSD. I may have driver issues trying anything earlier such as XP or anything at all earlier.
 

Offline Postal2

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Re: Parallel port from docking station
« Reply #53 on: November 30, 2024, 08:13:21 pm »
..... I may have driver issues trying anything earlier such as XP or anything at all earlier.
Video driver, just in case:
http://www.win3x.org/win3board/viewtopic.php?t=2462
 

Offline SquarewaveTopic starter

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Re: Parallel port from docking station
« Reply #54 on: December 03, 2024, 04:30:25 am »
Ok, couldn't install XP, the Dell will not see the installation USB at all.

Couldn't install 7, as it comes up with a strange message asking for CD/DVD drivers.

I guess the answer from this is no, no parallel port from docking station.
 

Offline Postal2

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Re: Parallel port from docking station
« Reply #55 on: December 03, 2024, 05:52:43 am »
A USB drive consists of a chip that creates a bridge between the USB and the flash chip, and the flash chip itself. Sometimes I managed to buy one with an eMMC chip as a flash - these drives work well and do not have setup utilities. However, most USB drives contain a NAND flash as a carrier for reasons of cheapness. Accordingly, the USB bridge chips of such drives have setup utilities. I installed such a utility once, it contains viruses and irreparably damages the USB subsystem (requires a rollback in the form of a system image).

However, in the utility settings, in addition to various parameters for NAND, there is a window for choosing what this flash drive will be. You can choose a USB floppy, USB cdrom.

And so I constantly hear that everyone creates "bootable" disks with some program. Therefore, I decided to write this text to improve understanding of the issue.
 

Offline SquarewaveTopic starter

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Re: Parallel port from docking station
« Reply #56 on: December 03, 2024, 01:34:12 pm »
It works on other computers, just not this Dell, so the bootable USB isn't the issue.....
 

Offline Postal2

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Re: Parallel port from docking station
« Reply #57 on: December 03, 2024, 01:50:55 pm »
So, instead of using another USB flash drive, you suggest manually rewriting the BIOS from this Dell?
 

Offline SquarewaveTopic starter

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Re: Parallel port from docking station
« Reply #58 on: December 03, 2024, 02:22:18 pm »
No I've never made that suggestion.

The flash drive isn't the issue, it's been used to put W10 and Linux on this laptop. Just this laptop doesn't want to see WXP or 7. No big deal, I have the other laptop with a parallel port.
 

Offline Postal2

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Re: Parallel port from docking station
« Reply #59 on: December 03, 2024, 02:42:35 pm »
These are different systems, and they understand the hardware differently. You might as well try to install Windows XP on a computer with AHCI enabled. If I couldn't install Windows XP with CSM enabled and AHCI disabled, I would personally try to change the flash drive.
 

Offline SquarewaveTopic starter

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Re: Parallel port from docking station
« Reply #60 on: December 03, 2024, 02:54:17 pm »
What I might try, is taking the ssd out, cleaning it, then partitioning it and putting the installation bootable onto a small partition and try that.
 

Offline Postal2

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Re: Parallel port from docking station
« Reply #61 on: December 03, 2024, 03:04:09 pm »
I heard about another method. Install Windows XP on this SSD using another computer with the most similar chipset (disabling AHCI of course). Immediately after installation, in the device manager, delete all hard disk controllers, turn off, and put this disk in the desired computer (which should have AHCI disabled).
 

Offline SquarewaveTopic starter

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Re: Parallel port from docking station
« Reply #62 on: December 03, 2024, 09:43:56 pm »
I've tried an external CD/DVD drive, I get the same error message with W7.

With XP it bluescreens as the system isn't ACPI compliant, regardless of whether AHCI is disabled or not.

I can't install using another computer with similar chipset, as I don't have another one of these and the same thing would likely happen  :-//

I'll try a boot partition next with the installation files.
 

Offline Postal2

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Re: Parallel port from docking station
« Reply #63 on: December 03, 2024, 10:30:41 pm »
It looks like you really won't be able to install Windows XP on your laptop. This is very sad, because not only will you not be able to use your programmer normally, but many useful things won't run on this laptop. I can offer a good game for your laptop.
 

Offline SquarewaveTopic starter

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Re: Parallel port from docking station
« Reply #64 on: December 03, 2024, 10:42:35 pm »
I can use the programmer on my Pentium 4 Laptop, but I really wanted to try and get it working on this Dell.

I've just put the W7 ISO onto the SSD using rufus, then shrank the volume, booted from the installation volume and installed it onto the bigger partition. All was looking good, but none of the USB ports work on this installation  :-DD

I did read that the same happened to other people, I've no bloody idea what's going on, I've never had this issue when installing Windows on any computer ever  :-DD
 

Online MarkL

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Re: Parallel port from docking station
« Reply #65 on: December 03, 2024, 10:53:52 pm »
There's still the Linux option, if you are willing...
 

Offline SquarewaveTopic starter

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Re: Parallel port from docking station
« Reply #66 on: December 03, 2024, 10:59:01 pm »
There's still the Linux option, if you are willing...

I tried Kubuntu and installed Ice WinLV on wine. Whilst it opened as it should, it didn't open the parallel port, so perhaps late versions of Linux are much like later windows with no real parallel port support.
 

Offline Postal2

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Re: Parallel port from docking station
« Reply #67 on: December 03, 2024, 11:04:54 pm »
I had problems installing Windows 10 on a laptop that already had Windows 10 installed. And although I had already read how to do it and downloaded the necessary files (some strange drivers for the disk that need to be slipped in during installation, like Windows XP), I put it off. Should I give you a game for w10x64?
 

Offline SquarewaveTopic starter

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Re: Parallel port from docking station
« Reply #68 on: December 03, 2024, 11:32:29 pm »
A game?
 

Online MarkL

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Re: Parallel port from docking station
« Reply #69 on: December 03, 2024, 11:38:08 pm »
There's still the Linux option, if you are willing...

I tried Kubuntu and installed Ice WinLV on wine. Whilst it opened as it should, it didn't open the parallel port, so perhaps late versions of Linux are much like later windows with no real parallel port support.
Mmmm...  I'll download Kubuntu and try a Live-USB on the Dell M4400 I know has the parallel port.  It's currently running an ancient version of CentOS 6.8.  All it does is EPROM programming, so there was never a reason to hassle with upgrades.
 

Offline Postal2

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Re: Parallel port from docking station
« Reply #70 on: December 03, 2024, 11:39:57 pm »
Very good game, I guarantee. But you will have to download 10 GB from me. And your laptop will give you pleasure at least in this.
 

Offline SquarewaveTopic starter

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Re: Parallel port from docking station
« Reply #71 on: December 03, 2024, 11:58:44 pm »
There's still the Linux option, if you are willing...

I tried Kubuntu and installed Ice WinLV on wine. Whilst it opened as it should, it didn't open the parallel port, so perhaps late versions of Linux are much like later windows with no real parallel port support.
Mmmm...  I'll download Kubuntu and try a Live-USB on the Dell M4400 I know has the parallel port.  It's currently running an ancient version of CentOS 6.8.  All it does is EPROM programming, so there was never a reason to hassle with upgrades.

That's interesting, maybe I could try CentOS 6.8 if I can still get it? That way I can at least test if my docking station parellel port will run full IEE284....
 

Online MarkL

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Re: Parallel port from docking station
« Reply #72 on: December 04, 2024, 12:09:06 am »
...
That's interesting, maybe I could try CentOS 6.8 if I can still get it? That way I can at least test if my docking station parellel port will run full IEE284....
That's certainly option to see if the parallel port is there.  But I don't think you'd want to run it as a final solution.  It's really, REALLY old.

In the meantime, I have kubuntu 24.04.1 (LTS) downloading.  Looks like it's going to take several hours so I'll let it run overnight.
 

Offline SquarewaveTopic starter

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Re: Parallel port from docking station
« Reply #73 on: December 04, 2024, 12:12:15 am »
...
That's interesting, maybe I could try CentOS 6.8 if I can still get it? That way I can at least test if my docking station parellel port will run full IEE284....
That's certainly option to see if the parallel port is there.  But I don't think you'd want to run it as a final solution.  It's really, REALLY old.

In the meantime, I have kubuntu 24.04.1 (LTS) downloading.  Looks like it's going to take several hours so I'll let it run overnight.

It will be interesting to see what happens when you try it, one way or another I could at least try and rule out this port. Are you using Wine for your programmers software?
 

Online MarkL

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Re: Parallel port from docking station
« Reply #74 on: December 04, 2024, 02:56:47 am »
...
That's interesting, maybe I could try CentOS 6.8 if I can still get it? That way I can at least test if my docking station parellel port will run full IEE284....
That's certainly option to see if the parallel port is there.  But I don't think you'd want to run it as a final solution.  It's really, REALLY old.

In the meantime, I have kubuntu 24.04.1 (LTS) downloading.  Looks like it's going to take several hours so I'll let it run overnight.

It will be interesting to see what happens when you try it, one way or another I could at least try and rule out this port. Are you using Wine for your programmers software?
Yes, wine, but I've actually been using the commercially supported version of wine from codeweavers.com.  Here is the link to the "tip" to get the GALEP-4 parallel programmer to work under the codeweavers version, but it will work under vanilla wine also (yes, I tried it and it does work):

  https://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility/crossover/tips/galep-4-device-programmer/601

The trick is adding an entry to the registry to map ppdev to the physical parallel port device on Linux.  You'll also need to change the permissions on the Linux device to allow access by a user other than root.
 


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