We've got a very old in computer terms, ie mid 90s, flat bed engraving which is running on what would now be considered antique software.
The computer we were running the software on has expired and because we need to run the software on a machine that can run Windows 98 and has a parallel LPT port we are now running the machine on and old 98 laptop we had knocking about.
Unfortunately although the laptop is communicating with the engraver, the programme is running in "demo" mode which means we can't do any engraving.
We are reliably informed that the problem is that the computer can't see the dongle that came with the software.
Does anyone with IT skills have any good ideas about how we can have a go rectifying this?
Could the dongle have died?
Do we need a dongle driver to see the dongle?
Is there some software that can investigate the status of the dongle?
Any help would be appreciated.
Comments
I should add that the company that made the machine / wrote the software are no longer trading.
Not terribly helpful I'm afraid; is there another Win9 machine you could try?
Otherwise you could see if there's a version of the software out there that doesn't need the dongle (if you get my drift), or see if the machine can be controlled by other software - maybe Mach3?
Is there any sort of software setting that you need to switch on to tell the software that you've inserted the dongle in port X, and to tell the software to look at port X to confirm presence of said dongle?
Back in the old days, you have to be quite specific about which port something had been plugged into - not like today's approach of plug it into any USB port and wait for the OS to notice, identify it, and then install the correct driver to use it.
Is there anything in the Windows 98 control panel to aid finding the dongle?
How would we diagnose whether the port is a proper hardware parallel port or a printer port.
The software is so old there isn't even a crack on the net (the software is called Wincisive by the way).
We are exploring using other software.
A PCMCIA parallel port card (if you can find such a thing) ought to work. Worth a look on t'bay.
The problem is that software needs Windows 98 which you can't run natively on a modern lap top.
We were running a virtual machine in XP, but that machine expired.
We have tried running 98 as a virtual machine on a modern computer with a USB / LPT adapter. We may revisit this though.
Is it possible that the USB to LPT port is a "printer only" converter and not a "hardware" port?
Thanks.
As has already been said, the issue is likely to be either the dongle driver or the parallel port of that particular laptop. Are there any markings on the dongle to indicate manufacturer? They may still be in business even though the software is defunct. BTW the Italian company Venture SRL that handled Wincisive still has a Facebook presence but not updated for three years so presumably they failed soon after that.
Trying either a different Win9* pc, if you can find/borrow one, or even the German one suggested by @olafgarten (not bad for the price) might resolve the issue.
I was glad to see the back of dongles when AutoDesk moved to other methods of piracy protection. We could never get our insurers to understand that the true value of a dongle is far greater than its face value as a small piece of hardware.
My Uncle had the same issue in the school that he works at, this one worked with their CNC Machine.
They have definitely stopped trading.
There is nothing obvious in Wincisive re the dongle setup.
We have had the machine working from another computer running the software in a virtual Windows 98 machine, which suggests to me that the problem is with the port.
We also have another Wincisive dongle, which I am now trying to find.
Thanks for the info!