I've come to the conclusion that it's going to cost way too much for me to get my current laptop to run with WinALDL. I need a PCMCIA serial I/O, $150.

I remember reading somewhere in another post that sometimes burning chips with high powered machines causes some problems, incomplete .bin transfers or something? I have a 1ghz PIII, and I'm sure I'd need all kinds of new hardware to get any of the pocket-programmer type deals to work with this machine.

What kind of laptop should I look into? I've seen plenty of auctions on e-Bay close for under $150 on older Pentium class laptops, that have a real serial port. Since they all have IR ports as well, I could just transfer files from one laptop to the other if I needed to. What do ya'll recommend? Thanks.

Anthony


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previous ride: 87 Camaro LT
350, A4.Comp Cams 268H, Edelbrock Preformer intake, Hedman Headers and y-pipe, gutted cat, No AIR/smog pump. 14x3" Open element K&N, Q-jet w/ D hanger and DA rods, adjusted AV spring tension and quick can.

Current ride: 1992 Camaro RS, K&N, Flowmaster, 305, T5, Black, T-tops, 84k miles.

 

why doesn't your current laptop have a serial port? does it have it, just not working? I had that problem and it turned out that I had to disable the built in modem and/or the IR port. I disabled both since I never used them and now it works great.

 

I just use 486/25s
The ones I used were happy running GMEPRO, PP, and Diacom. Best ones I have, one was $20 and the other free.

 

my current laptop doesn't have a standard interface serial port. I have two USB's, one Firewire, one IrDA, one parallel, on S-video, one VGA, one integrated NIC and a Type II PCMCIA slot. The comptuer recongnized two standard Serial ports, on COM 1 and COM 4, COM 1 is the modem, and COM 4 is the IR port. So there's no real serial port I can use anyway I've been trying to overcome this hurdle for quite some time now, and all the options that I can see are up there in the e-Bay laptop range.

Anthony

 

You can disable the modem and IR ports to free up the IRQs! That's what I did and it worked. I think somebody is going to try using an USB to serial adaptor cord. I don't see why they would have any problems with it since the USB would just be emulating a serial port. What else would the cord be good for, right?

 

I was the one that was going to try the USB to RS-232 cable, only it's a gamble, the manufacture can't garuntee it will appear as a COM port. I have a bunch of free IRQ's at the moment, if I plut in my dad's USB modem, I get a modem on COM 2 or COM 3 depending which USB port I plug into. Only if I plug in another USB device, it won't appear as a COM, just an external device. If I use an external CD-RW, it just shows up as an external drive. So I don't know.

is my concern about bad burns from using a faster machine correct, or is that a non-issue? I just think it would be easier to get another laptop, IR transfer the software and files from this computer to it, and use it solely for car stuff.

Anthony

 

I just bought another Nec p90 notebook on ebay for 90.00. They're on there all the time. I already use a Nec p90 for all of my burning and programming. I use Craigs software also through a window in Windows 98 and have no problems. My hard drive is kind of small and another puter was cheaper than another drive.


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87 GTA 355/700r4
ported&polished 083 heads
xe268h comp cam
1 5/8 blackjack alumicote
homebuilt y pipe,pasesetter 3in mandrel cat back.
ported/manifold,upper plentum, tpis maf.
airfoil, 24# svo injectors, home programed chip, underdrive pulleys, erson roller rockers, chromemolley pushrods,2100 stall, shiftkit, 373 10 bolt.

 

This is basically what I'm using to run WinALDL by itself;

http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI...tem=1305909201

All you need is a P150 or so, doesn't matter who it's made by as long as it has a serial port, really. You can easily pick one up on Ebay for around $100.

Ken

 

Even if you can convert the ports to work don't do it. Why run the chance of messing up a nice new expensive as hell unit when you can get something that works great for less than $100 on ebay. I bought a 486/75mhz for $60+20 shipping. A couple of bucks for a bios battery and a DC adaptor (the batteries are always no good) for the car at RS and I couldn't be happier. It also works the PP and the bin editor. I could've splurged and bought something in the $250 range that had a cdrom and all but why get stuff you don't need.

 

yeah, that's what I'm thinkin I'll do.

i'm totally broke right now, I hate college, just when you think they can't take anymore money from you.. they do. grrrr.


Anthony