Question about serial port problem with RSS

RFI · Post by **RFI** » Tue May 15, 2007 11:45 am

My trusty old p2 died and have been trying to find another old laptop around the company to use on our older radios. Someone came up with a mint old dell 7500 p3 running widows 98 and I thought this is perfect for the old spectras, mtx8000's and 810's etc, but unfortunately I have a problem with the serial port, and I get the no commuication errors in the rss and red light stays on on the rib when in DOS as well as the data is solid green, when in win 98 the red stays solid and the green data flashes. I trued deleting the joystick controller junk that come with win 98 and still no success, any thoughts are appreciated, I guess I'll have to look for another old computer but this one seemd in nice shape other than the serial port problem., I tried a couple different cables and a couple different radios that worked fine on the previous old laptop.

tvsjr · Post by **tvsjr** » Tue May 15, 2007 11:53 am

Old software WILL NOT RUN IN WINDOWS. You WILL create a brick.

Reload the computer with DOS 6.22. Then, you'll discover it's too fast. A P3 is way too fast for a Spectra, and especially for an MTX810!

You need an old, trusty, 386.

Bruce1807 · Post by **Bruce1807** » Tue May 15, 2007 1:04 pm

i've used P3's running MoSlo and in Bios you can sometimes cut the processor speed.
Running on battery if you have everything set right can cut the speed in half( well on my Dell anyway)

jmr061 · Post by **jmr061** » Tue May 15, 2007 2:00 pm

I use a 900 mhz centrino in dos 6.22 on spectras all day long. No problems. Dual boot, XP and Dos 6.22.

Jason

Post by **akardam** » Tue May 15, 2007 2:07 pm

According to the Pentium Compatability Matrix, both the Spectra and MTX810 software, if new enough versions, should be able to be run on Pentium or higher class machines.

Keep in mind they will need to be run under pure DOS mode, no command prompts under Windows, in order to program, and possibly even to just do editing of the codeplug.

RFI · Post by **RFI** » Tue May 15, 2007 2:53 pm

Yes I use DOS and it worked on the last laptop, the question is regarding the serial port inoperability. I've never had this problem before with the serial port always being taken by something or perhaps its just a bad serial port

misawatech · Post by **misawatech** » Tue May 15, 2007 3:35 pm

Windows 98, and others, normally assign the mouse or mouseport com 1. There are times that the computer will leave you a spare com 2 port but not very likely. That is the reason for running in DOS. There will be no ports saved for specific attachments. If you want a windows based OS then you could try and find a copy of windows 95. I am running it on a desktop and can program spectras, maxtracs, sabers, etc. The speed of my systems is P3 750 with 512 ram.

My laptop is running windows 98 with an AMD K6 3D but I have no idea what the speed is without searching the net.

I do have the most current version of the software, before it became NLA, so that would make a difference as was already stated. Did you check the seraial port with another device. It is possible it could have been turned off in the BIOS. If so it won't work when you boot to DOS either.

PropellorHead · Post by **PropellorHead** » Sun May 20, 2007 12:52 am

I have an old Gateway Handbook 486 with internal and external cache disabled. The thing is about half the size of a conventional laptop and works great with everything from finicky syntors to maxtracs, spectras and sabers.

It only has two ports on it...a serial and a parallel port for the external floppy drive. It has a monochrome display and the only thing installed is DOS and RSS.

The thing works like a champ, and EXTREMELY portable, even more so than conventional laptops. They pop up on ebay every now and then...I would suggest trying to find one.

AEC · Post by **AEC** » Sun May 20, 2007 6:24 am

One other item you may wish to try, is disabling the IR port and its associated IRQ as well (if you have this).

But for others here, I have programmed Sabers, Jedis and Genesis radios while under the Winblows DOS prompt with no trouble.

I had this happen one day as I failed to switch to dos, but after I had everything finished, I noticed I never switched out of windows.

It doesn't always work for everybody, but it has and does work for me.

I have a COmpaq LTE5300 as well as a Panasonic toughbook...both work fine in either 'mode'.

YMMV, of course.

I disable anything unnecessary for use.....IR, cache, specific IRQs...Etc....

Post by **wavetar** » Mon May 21, 2007 4:19 am

If you use the Win98SE "MS-DOS Mode for Games with EMS and XMS Support", there are no issues whatsoever. In fact, it often works when a DOS boot disk doesn't. You may have a TSR (Terminate & Stay Resident program - similar to background services) loading if you are using the regular "F8-command prompt only" or "reboot into MS-DOS" options...this may be your issue. Find the option I mention above in the "C:\Windows" folder & see if it works. Of course, an actual serial port hardware problem will hose you no matter what.

Todd