Need help w/DOS based program

[Panama Red]

I have a customer running an engine dyno with a program called Depac. This program runs in DOS. His Win 98 based pc (oooooold Compaq) began giving up the ghost so I gave him a newer HP with an early P4. Loaded it with Windows 98 SE with default drivers (don't care if the 98 is fully functional). We can reboot to dos, load the Depac program and the program runs fine. The problem is this: we are getting no Depac link to the Depac controller. This is done thru the Com/serial port. I thought maybe it was a com port issue so I loaded up another old computer (a Dell) with 98 se. It does the same exact thing - "no Depac link". If we install the old Compac pc and get it to run, the com connection is fine. My customer tells me he didn't have to do anything to configure the connection originally. I've been thru the manual which offers no troubleshooting info and I've searced the web for anyone else reporting a similar issue - no luck with either. Any DOS experts out there have an idea of something to try?

[edfair]

What DOS is the operating machine working under? There are 2 possibilities, original DOS, or the 98 version. It is possible that the default speeds are different.

At command prompt "ver".

[glc]

Compare the properties of the COM port between the machines. It may need a specific baud rate and associated settings - bits, parity, flow control. Check both the Windows settings and the bios settings - make sure the port number and the addresses are the same.

[Panama Red]

Thanks guys. I'll be up there again later this week and do some more checking.

edfair: All are running dos from 98. Boot to 98 then restart in dos.

[edfair]

Comment doesn't affect your problem, but you could edit the msdos.sys file to throw a menu to go directly to command mode rather than reboot to it.

add:
BootMenu=1
BootMenuDefault=5 command prompt
BootMenuDelay=x however long in seconds before it goes to it.

If the replacements have modems as one of the serial ports you may have issues with swapped port assignments. You may have to look in the application setup to see if there is a way to change the port used.

You could use the 98 and the communications program to see what the serial port assignments are.

You could probably use one of the 232 signal level indicators to see what signals are available both ways. And probably would need 9/25 adapters on both ends as current serials are 9 pin and the indicators are 25.

[Petef56]

Originally Posted by glc Compare the properties of the COM port between the machines. It may need a specific baud rate and associated settings - bits, parity, flow control. Check both the Windows settings and the bios settings - make sure the port number and the addresses are the same.

I seem to recall the DOS "MODE" command for addressing problems with COM ports. Below is a summary of the MODE command. ---pete---


Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>mode /?

Configures system devices.

Serial port: MODE COMm[:] [BAUD=b] [PARITY=p] [DATA=d] [STOP=s]
[to=on|off] [xon=on|off] [odsr=on|off]
[octs=on|off] [dtr=on|off|hs]
[rts=on|off|hs|tg] [idsr=on|off]

Device Status: MODE [device] [/STATUS]

Redirect printing: MODE LPTn[:]=COMm[:]

Select code page: MODE CON[:] CP SELECT=yyy

Code page status: MODE CON[:] CP [/STATUS]

Display mode: MODE CON[:] [COLS=c] [LINES=n]

Typematic rate: MODE CON[:] [RATE=r DELAY=d]

[Panama Red]

Spent some time this am comparing the pc that works with the ones that don't. All Com ports settings are the same and both are running the same version of Win 98se. The only difference is the 2 that don't work never came with 98 installed. They were originally XP machines (1.6GHz p4's, both running 512Mb ram). Both are clean installs of 98 and I ignored the sound and ethernet devices as they won't be used for the dyno app. The one that does work DID come with 98 and was fully updated with all devices working. I brought one of the problem pc's home with me to see if another clean install with all the devices working will make a difference.

btw, edfair, typing "ver" while in dos doesn't show the dos version. It shows the 98 version.

[jdeb]

Originally Posted by Panama Red Spent some time this am comparing the pc that works with the ones that don't. All Com ports settings are the same and both are running the same version of Win 98se. The only difference is the 2 that don't work never came with 98 installed. They were originally XP machines (1.6GHz p4's, both running 512Mb ram). Both are clean installs of 98 and I ignored the sound and ethernet devices as they won't be used for the dyno app. The one that does work DID come with 98 and was fully updated with all devices working. I brought one of the problem pc's home with me to see if another clean install with all the devices working will make a difference. btw, edfair, typing "ver" while in dos doesn't show the dos version. It shows the 98 version.

compare the autoexec.bat files for the heck of it...

[Nuclear Krusader]

It's probably DOS 7.0, the last version of DOS, if I remember correctly. Packed with Windows 9x and ME, I think; it was never available as stand alone. The last "true" DOS was 6.22.

[edfair]

One other question you probably need to look at, whether there is any hardwired handshaking involved or needed, especially since the failure machines are later designs.

It would probably help if you had a chart of the connections in the serial cable.

Don't do much serial anymore but in the past I've run into several variations in what handshaking pins needed to be active to get data to pump.