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GG-Pro DreamWriter and strange parallel port addresses

 
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benryves



Joined: 06 Nov 2007
Posts: 4

PostPosted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 6:05 pm    Post subject: GG-Pro DreamWriter and strange parallel port addresses Reply with quote

I have a newish PC, and like all newish PCs there is no parallel port on the motherboard.

I use a PCI expansion card to give me back a parallel port and serial ports for the legacy devices and software I use; however, as this is a PCI card the parallel port's base address is at 0xCCD8!

Is there a way to set DreamWriter to use this address? I tried manually editing the config file, but it seemed to revert to 0x278 (and the device didn't work).

I'd like to continue using the GG-Pro with my new PC rather than having to keep an old one up and running too; is there any way to achieve this?

Thanks for any help in advance!
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rbudrick



Joined: 26 Mar 2004
Posts: 373

PostPosted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 2:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

There are some hack-like programs that try to tell your computer that the address is something other than what it is, but mileage varies a lot with such programs. Either they work for you or they don't. I can't actually think of any right noe, but I believe Lava had some such downloads for their cards.

Unless your computer has a ISA slot (only old computers do), or an onboard parallel port, you may have a really tough time getting it configured correctly.

In older systems/OSs you could reassign IRQs and such, but it was a total pain in the ass, and newer OSs did away with that abilty.

-Rob
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benryves



Joined: 06 Nov 2007
Posts: 4

PostPosted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 11:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for the reply.

To get standard addresses you'd need an ISA board, as you mentioned, but chances are if the motherboard is ancient enough to have an ISA slot on it you probably already have an on-board parallel port anyway. Smile

I don't suppose there's any chance of acquiring the source for the Dreamwriter software or the protocol used to program the cart? (I find it highly unlikely, but I guess there's no harm in asking).
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kyuusaku



Joined: 26 Jul 2003
Posts: 941
Location: .ma.us

PostPosted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 4:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The card won't let you use legacy ISA ports? PCI is capable of it.
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benryves



Joined: 06 Nov 2007
Posts: 4

PostPosted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 5:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

kyuusaku wrote:
The card won't let you use legacy ISA ports? PCI is capable of it.
From the datasheet:
Quote:

In order to be compatible with most software, our PCI products and drivers will attempt to re-map the PCI addresses used back to legacy (ISA type) values. Re-map feature is supported in DOS, Windows-95, Windows-98 and Windows ME operating systems.

At the same Windows-NT/2000/XP operating systems do not support re-map function, as these versions of Windows maintain a much tighter control over the PCI devices and prevent any re-mapping at driver level. When the re-mapping is not permitted the device must use the addresses assigned by the PCI system at boot-up. The re-mapping only affects the I/O addresses.

I'm running Vista (ie, NT), which puts me in a bit of a predicament.

One thing I haven't tried is running an older OS in a virtual machine and seeing whether that can communicate with the GG-Pro via the emulated parallel port (mapping it to my physical one). I guess it's one step up from keeping an old machine in service, but still a bit of an annoyance to a problem that shouldn't really exist. Smile
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benryves



Joined: 06 Nov 2007
Posts: 4

PostPosted: Wed Sep 24, 2008 12:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, this topic has been bumped for the wrong reason, but I was wondering if anyone has any further suggestions?

I recently had the same problem with a Willem programmer. As the software used an external DLL, I wrote a drop-in replacement that redirects the port writes in the legacy LPT1 range to an address of your own choosing (click for more information). As the DreamWriter software has this functionality built-in, rather than as an external DLL, it doesn't look like a similar trick will work. Sad
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