First post, by oldCADguy
I recently lost my venerable 486DX66 computer to a failed graphics card. I had kept the machine simply to run ProCAD version 8.0, a 1990s 2D CAD program that I particularly like.
On discovering DOSbox and installing it, I find I can get to the welcome screen but no further on account of a licence check (I think). The software validates itself with a dongle that was plugged in to the parallel port on the old PC. I have the dongle and have plugged it in to the parallel port of the (again rather old) WinXP machine on which I am running DOSbox.
Would I be right in thinking that the architecture and the workarounds involved in getting DOSbox to work mean that it is likely that the batch files that run to test the licence before starting the program just can't find the dongle? If so what should I be looking for (to circumvent) in the batch file that starts the program, listed as follows:-
Note: I have mounted c:\procad as my c: drive within DOSbox
and "tshell.exe" is definitely running when called upon to do so. I know this because when I run the batch file below, it always returns me to tshell - being the welcome page from which the CAD program is launched.
cls
echo off
cls
cd \procad\cad
gmouse 2
copy perr.sys curerr
mode co80
procad.exe >>curerr
echo on
echo off
if not exist errflag goto done
mode co80
type curerr
pause
copy curerr lasterr
:done
mode co80
cls
cd \procad
tshell
Thanks in advance
Ed