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CrackLtd · Joined: 05 Feb 2007 Posts: 239

Since i upgraded from '98 to XP i am not able anymore to send games from the PC to the copier using the LPT. VGS, Wildload, RTool wich all use LPT1 are not working anymore. (The used PC is the same of course). From what i read its because XP doesnt mount the LPT ports physically but logically. Thus making the old sendprograms not work anymore. You might already know the question coming: What can i do to make these programs to work again on XP? Any help is greatly apreciated. Thanks.

madman · Joined: 07 Jul 2006 Posts: 598

You need an IO port driver. Look at ucon's website.

CrackLtd · Joined: 05 Feb 2007 Posts: 239

Thanks for that advice. I checked the site and the FAQ and i did as stated there. The files giveio.sys, io.dll, inpout32.dll and dlportio.dll are all in my uCon64 directory. But: no luck. I still get prompted the message: "Error! No (working) I/O port driver. Please see the FAQ. Question 4" This happens both on DOSprompt or when using the desktop frontend. Now i am a bit desperate, and more hints available? What am i doing wrong?

madman · Joined: 07 Jul 2006 Posts: 598

Are you starting the executable for the DLL prior to trying ucon?

RGB_Gamer · Joined: 01 Oct 2007 Posts: 879

I would also like an answer to this as this is happening with my Bung GBXchanger

CrackLtd · Joined: 05 Feb 2007 Posts: 239

Hi, i will test it again soon. But so far i already can say, Wildload and RTool still dont work.

RGB_Gamer · Joined: 01 Oct 2007 Posts: 879

Somebody seriously needs to write a fool-proof guide on this subject because like many, I have tried many of the methods that I found here and on google searches with no luck. I have an older laptop that has a parallel port and it would be great to be able to use it for parallel port based hardware.

CrackLtd · Joined: 05 Feb 2007 Posts: 239

With my knowledge today i would say the foolproofest would be to go back to Win '98, lol. Maybe i get myself a dedicated laptop like yours, with a parallel port and its hdd full of roms just to feed all my copiers.

RGB_Gamer · Joined: 01 Oct 2007 Posts: 879

RGB_Gamer · Joined: 01 Oct 2007 Posts: 879

I tried VMware with windows 98 and tried to send games to my GB Xchanger and my SMS-Pro. It didn't work. Someone, PLEASE write a difinitive guide on getting a parallel port to work with XP! I set up a Windows 98 machine but it died on me today Sad

or perhaps someone knows of a tutorial for setting up a laptop (I have a thinkpad T41) for dual booting XP/98?

lanfart2008 · Joined: 02 Jan 2009 Posts: 5

Hi,

You may want to try PortTalk (freeware):
http://www.beyondlogic.org/porttalk/porttalk.htm

A friend of mine is using it successfully. He had to use ports 379 and 37A in input/output, using control lines on port 378 and not data lines. Please note that I don't know much more than what he explained Wink

Some people used this Port I/O Driver successfully too.

Another good one is NT Port Library (but not free):
http://www.zealsoft.com/ntport/index.html

Cheers,

Lanf

RGB_Gamer · Joined: 01 Oct 2007 Posts: 879

I finally just broke down and installed Acronis OS Selector. I now have a dual boot laptop and choose between Windows 98 and XP. This is by far the best solution, as I never got XP to reliably work with a parallel port. I only use 98 for flashing to paralell port linkers (GBXchanger, GB Transferer, SMS-PRO and MD-Pro), and XP for general computing.

CrackLtd · Joined: 05 Feb 2007 Posts: 239

@lanfart: The problem seems to be the send-util programs are already existing! They just dont see the LPT port on XP even if the drivers are installed. I guess without reprogramming the sendtools there is no chance to solve the problem. And who will reprogram such ultra oldies. uCon64 states in its manual it should work, i will test that soon.

RGB_Gamer · Joined: 01 Oct 2007 Posts: 879

I did a reinstall of XP on my laptop after I had installed Windows 98/Acronis OS selector. After setting it up, I decided to try the Dreamwriter software for the SMS-PRO and MD-PRO and now all of a sudden it works! Perhaps something was corrupt before or a 3rd party application screwed with XP's ability to use the parallel port.

I got curious and opened up the folder that stores the Dreamwriter software for the SMS/MD-PRO and both had a file in there called zlportio.sys which leads me to believe these programs use this file to access the parallel port.
GBX-Tool v1.8 which I use for my GB Xchanger (64mb flash carts) also now seems to work with XP and in it's install directory contains the file GIVEIO.SYS which I also believe gives access to the parallel port in XP. Unfortunately, DGB-Max Win v1.6 which is another GB Xchanger tool (which I preffer over GBX-tool) doesn't seem to work properly in XP since I can't get into the config menu to change my parallel port type (all the programs seem to only work when switched to SPP even though my bios is set to ECP).

*update* I got DGB-MAX to finally work by downloading ntdriver from the website, and activating the GIVEIO.SYS from within the DGB-MAX directory. The only program I don't have working yet on XP is Ucon64, but I really don't need it since all my other programs work (I honestly don't see any advantage to using Ucon64 for the Tototek carts since the Dream Writer software works fine and looks better). I guess if you have a parallel port copier, then Ucon64 would be fine if you can get it to work with XP.

kiki77 · Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2009 9:05 am Post subject:

My GDSF6 works with Ucon64 on Win XP and parallel connection. I use UserPort. It's free.
http://www.embeddedtronics.com/public/Electronics/minidaq/userport/
I can explain you how it works and what you have to do. My problem is that my Win ME or Win 98 laptop says always "File Size Error". I can change it only to SPP or ECP.