I have a pocket programmer II, which was purchased ~ 2 years ago. It came with the ancient looking programming software, but it ran under XP Pro, as advertised.

Zoom forware a couple years- My car has been down for a while (read almost a year and a half), but I finally got her back up and running. Great- lets do some tuning!

I go to run the programmer 2 software, and wouldn't ya know, it wont work anymore.

I call up the manufacturer, to find out that:
1) Microsoft broke the parallel port drivers in a securit update
2) A fixed version of the programming software was released to fix this problem.
3) Since it is over a year old, I have to pay $50.00 (1/3 the cost of the hardware ) to get updated drivers (even though I was clearly told when I purchased the hardware that it would run under "Windows XP"). Oh, and there are no new features in the software over what I have- other than the fact that it will work after such and such a security update.

So, my question is this- is there any other software that will run the Pocket Programmer II? Are there any good hardware alternatives to the PP2?

I'd rather pay $100 to another company, than give this manufacturer another dime with their (IMHO) terrible customer service/upgrade policy.

 

No alternative software. Pay the $50.

FYI, I am running an older version of the PP software (v 1.30 to be exact which is more than two years old). This software works on the most current version of XP software and it works great.

I personally think there is possibly something than just the software.

 

Wow, then there might be something else wrong. Thanks for the info Glenn- I'll try to get it to work (I think mine is V. 1.47 or something like that).

As for the $50, I'd rather pay Craig Moates $85 for his USB chip burner, and know that I can upgrade the software if, heaven forbid, MS breaks something.

 

That may be your best option then. I know a few people had their PP get accidentally fried (and Xtronics fixed it for free). Where the problem shows up is usually on flash proms.

A simple test would be to find an older W98 machine and test the hardware & software on that. ME won't work to my knowledge, but W98 works fine.

I do feel for you as MOST companies do offer free (or cheap)software upgrades as part of the deal.

 

Glenn-

THANKS! I ended up getting it working, since you said it could be done. I kept getting a "can not load zntport.sys" error. For some reason zntport.sys was located in /windows/system/drivers rather than /windows/system32/drivers. Once I moved it, everything works great!

Only thing that is funny, is I can't change the size of the window (it is full screen, and wont change size) but that is the least of my worries!

Thanks again!

-Mark

 

Isn't it funny how you sometimes need someone to say something that makes you go HMMMM! Good luck with the tuning.

As for the Window size, it is "fixed" at 800x640 as I recall. Made it unworkable on one of my older notebooks.

 

Exactly. I was having problems, called the company, and they said "It is broken because of a windows update" so I just trusted that. Your tip saved me some headache..

Humm.. if it was smaller, that would be easier- it is actually taking up the entire screen (1280xsomething or another- 15" Dell), though the buttons, etc, only take up the upper corner. No worries- I can just switch between apps using ctrl-tab, but I found it a little funny.

 

I have a OLD Win 98 laptop, that's just used for PPII. It's probably done several thousand chips, and works just fine.

IMO, it's worth having a $50 laptop to drop in the car, or put at risk for being dropped, rather then using a high $ one.

 

I feel your pain(if you would have grabbled your ankles and spent the money).

I just upgraded my 4 year old burner software so it would work with XP.

I thought it was a bit steep...but I didn't want to doink with another one as I am pretty comfortable with what I have.

Didn't know Moates had a cheap one.

 

That $50 dollars that you have to pay to update the softare is just BS. Even the latest edition of the softare I got with my PPII didnt even work. I DLd an older version and luckily, that worked and continues to work on my computers. If they need money to cover software updates, they should sell the software seperate to the burner to provide the extra revenue to cover the costs of future updates, or maybe an initial fee. At least I wouldnt have to run the risk of having to pay $50 every time Bill Gates cracks a fart or something and the burner software stops working.

 

Ditto. I've been lucky that all of my eprom burning software converted nicely to XP. But I keep an old W95 & W98 notebooks for my Diacom and backup for PP.

 

Same.

I won't be doing buisness with Xtronics in the near future. They have great hardware but their support is poor if you aren't buddy buddy with an employee. I've gotten screwed a couple times and it's enough for me to look at alternatives. Some people haven't had troubles, I have, just giving my opinion. I also don't agree on their software policy. Hardware should come with software and upgrades shouldn't cost anything if they are nothing more than bug fixes. Features MAYBE, but fixing compatibility issues is and charging for that work is pure .
As of right now I see no reason to use anybody but Craig Moate's for hardware. He's got great products geared towards newer hardware... evolution if you would. Example; USB products are the cat's meow.

 

Next time I have to upgrade...I'll buy one of moates burners...for now though, I plan to ask for the latest software at exactly a year...

 

I'm praying I dont run into any issues, but I do use Win 98 on my laptops :-)

I would b rather PO'ed if I had to drop $$$ on 'new' software since I have payed for a PPII and a Romulator.

Oh well
Jeremy

 

I've been using 1.96 on both my XPpro(SP1) fully up to date desktop (SP2 was a failure on my machine so I can't say if that changes anything with the PPII software) and my up to date ancient IBM notebook running Windows 2K (300MHz PII) with no problems.

A little of toppic but, I have even used the PPII just recently to rewrite the EEPROM on one of my pc's motherboards after a brown-out while flashing the bios.

I have never had the chance to deal with them on getting an update so I can't help there.

 

Xtronics are notorious Microsoft haters. For them, MS will likely always be the first to blame. It's a shame, really. Oh well.

Regarding the $50 charge, it serves a purpose (I've actually talked to Xtronics directly about this, and what they tell me makes sense).

They aren't necessarily against "offline" transmission of the updated software for purposes such as fixing issues like the one posted here. They're trying to avoid mass transmission, since their PP2 design has been stolen.

 

So let me get this straight. They are punishing their customers for something another company did? Why not take it to claims court and dish out a nice case of whoop *** instead of loosing their own customer base... just an observation.

 

Wait a minute, so the DIY-WB project has to suffer because of something some other company did?

 

That's not apples to apples... the DIY-WB project was a non-profit project where as Xtronics is. Not to mention Xtronics should have the credit and organizational skills to hire a lawyer to fight for them. I'm familiar enough with the judicial system to know that Xtronics could have won their case against the other company. I'd like to hear the reasons why they didn't.

 

That company is in China. So, really, its like comparing to limes to lemons. Pretty close. The only difference is that profits are involved.

In any case, you get my point. If you owned a business and your IP was stolen, you'd change your practices.

 

Understandably but they also have to understand the conciquences. Here I am saying buy Craig's stuff because his hardware is just as capable (not 2732's though but they're hardly used) and his software updates are excellent. I wish I could say the same for Xtronics ... but again, excellent products and it sucks that they got screwed over by that company. Me thinks they could still have gotten an international patent attorney involved and shut down that pirating company. People forget from all the lawyer jokes that they DO work for people, not just themselves... So give them a job and they'll look into it and see if there is a case. I hope xtronics did that and if that China company is "damaging" Xtronics market share then there's money to be had. Does that make any sense or am I confusing myself.

 

Just another PPII software tip, copy the setup file to a CD and to your hard drive incase the disc goes bad, you'll have to pay for a new one. Mine wouldnt install from the disc but luckily I was able to copy the exe over to the hard drive and it worked.

On a side note, my $75 Windows 98 laptop recently kicked the bucket. I was devistated.