[Techtoolslist] Xeltek SuperPro III VMware Player/Workstation Image

[Brad Gass]

I had my SP3 running on a Windows 2k laptop fine when it died, but moving it to my Windows XP desktop (with USERPORT - http://hem.passagen.se/tomasf/UserPort/) just didn't work.  The SuperPro program would simply freeze on launch, eventually needing to be killed from task mananger.

I did try different parallel port settings (EPP vs ECP) with no change in behaviour.  So, as a last-ditch effort I recycled a DOS VM I had built for another purpose and dropped the Xeltek software into it, and then it worked perfectly.

*shrug*

It worked well for me - I'm really not sure why it didn't work, but I've found that's kind of the way it goes with aging hardware like this - YMMV.

Others may also find that DOS VM image of use to talk to other parallel port attached hardware that is either picky when run in Windows, or flat-out won't run in Windows.  The image is pretty generic, just delete the SP3 directory and put whatever you need in it.  One nice feature of VMware player is the ability to mount the drive image in Windows for file transfer, which is really handy for quick access.  However, the VM must be powered off to do this, hence the need for network connectivity for file access while the VM is booted.



----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Coates" <mike at the-coates.com>
To: "Technical Tools Mail List" <techtoolslist at flippers.com>
Sent: Monday, April 1, 2013 9:03:27 AM
Subject: Re: [Techtoolslist] Xeltek SuperPro III VMware Player/Workstation Image

I'm using a xeltek superpro 3L on parallel port on Windows 7, 32 bit 
without any problem.

I think you can get them working on any 32 bit windows based US using a 
program called USERPORT

I also have my Xeltek 280U working on Windows 7 64 bit using a custom 
driver, (it's one of the USB ones) details on my webpage as to how to do 
it of you have one and want to give it a try. (apparently works with 
3000U as well)

On 29/03/2013 22:12, Brad Gass wrote:

> If anyone has an aged Xeltek SP3 around that you've been saving an equally aged laptop/PC to drive it, I took the time to construct a VMware Player (free to everyone, should work on Workstation and newer versions of Player also) with the latest version of their DOS software loaded, MS-DOS 6.22, and the MS Networking Client (you have to boot into one or the other though - networking useful for pulling files from shares).

>

> My old laptop I was using with it finally died, and rather than spend a pile of time fixing that old beast, I wanted to give this a shot to see if it would work - and it did (on my system, Windows XP Pro, Player 3.1.4 - I know - old, YMMV).

>

> You *must* have a hardware parallel port to pass through to VMware - USB parallel adapters will not work.  Granted, that's getting harder to find nowadays, but not quite as impossible as finding parts for that old laptop :)

>

> It's about 7MB zipped, if you're in need of it, let me know.

>

> --Brad

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