DOSBox IS NOT SUITED TO RUN YOUR NON-GAMING DOS APPLICATION

Thank you for your reply, I totally understand. Do you happen to know of another way of running an old DOS program on Windows 8 64 bit? Thank you for your help!

VirtualBox or another commercial Virtual Machine

Perhaps WD's post can be updated with a couple of suggested VMs.

Thank you guys for the reply, I really appreciate it. It is too bad that we get this command.com / low memory error, because other than this, DOSBOX works perfectly with it, we even got the parallel port to work. And we only get this error every once in awhile, so if we can fix this error, we are good to go. I will try VirtualBox, but I have not found a way to print to a parallel port.

Perhaps with a USB to parallel adapter.

Booting MS-DOS within DOSBox will probably go a long way to fixing the problem, though it limits what you can do with mounted folders. There are details in the Guides subforum.

collector wrote:

Perhaps with a USB to parallel adapter.

Those tend to not work particularly well.

Thanks again for the ideas! I might try a usb to parallel adapter, but I think the DOS program only understands parallel ports, and not USB, but I will look into it. I didn't know about booting MS-DOS within DOSBox, that sounds like what we need to do, we appreciate your suggestion! They really do not have to do anything too special with mounted folders, so I think it might work! Thank you!!!

Jorpho wrote:

collector wrote:

Perhaps with a USB to parallel adapter.

Those tend to not work particularly well.

I did not use them very long, only to bridge the time when I first got my first board without a parallel port and before I replaced my printer with a USB printer. Perhaps I lucked out with the one I got, but it worked perfectly for my printer.

BTW, will Booting MS-DOS within DOSBox give me access to the parallel port? It is a PCI parallel port, or does it need to be on the motherboard?

If the parallel port worked in DOSBox without booting MS-DOS, then booting MS-DOS will make no difference in that regard.

I'm not familiar with any problems resulting from using a parallel port on a PCI card as opposed to a port on the motherboard. It's only the USB parallel port adapters that I've heard don't work very well.

Sounds great, thank you guys for all of your help. Yes, right now we have a dual parallel PCI card, and dosbox is working great with both ports (after I edited the dosbox config file). I think we are going to leave it for now, since it only gives the command.com / low memory error once in awhile, but at some point I will install dos on top of dosbox and see if it works even better. Thanks again!

As I said, I had no issues with the USB to parallel adapters. Since we are talking about a VM instead of DOSBox, most VMs allow for attaching USB devices, but not necessarily legacy devices. It is an avenue to explore if the VM does not recognize his PCI card adapter.

collector wrote:

As I said, I had no issues with the USB to parallel adapters.

Most recently, someone told me that Windows actually sees them as a printer (even when no printer is connected) and not an actual port. Does your experience reflect this?

Jorpho wrote:

collector wrote:

As I said, I had no issues with the USB to parallel adapters.

Most recently, someone told me that Windows actually sees them as a printer (even when no printer is connected) and not an actual port. Does your experience reflect this?

Absolutely right. Here's a write-up I did for XKCD forums in 2008 (http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?p=944602 … d202546#p944602):

You have a miscalculation there in your logic. Commercial USB-to-Parallel adapters that are true parallel ports, that I have see […]
Show full quote

You have a miscalculation there in your logic. Commercial USB-to-Parallel adapters that are true parallel ports, that I have seen or heard about, typically go for $100 or more.

USB is designed in such a way that there are generic "classes" of devices, and any OS with a USB implementation has generic built-in drivers for these classes. Bluetooth is much the same way. Of course, that means that USB-to-Parallel adapter manufacturer can just create a single-function device for a USB Printer class, and then implement a microcontroller-based solution that only implements that class. (Prolific is a common manufacturer)

mosc - unfortunately, generic USB docking stations are implemented much the same way. Dedicated converters for each input/output that are generally single-function. Unless you can reprogram the microcontroller too, it's not simply a driver issue.

Possible solutions:
1. Purchase a parallel interface card for your computer if it is lacking one. PCI, PCI-Express, 16-bit PCMCIA, 32-bit PCMCIA/Cardbus, and ExpressCard all exist at this point. Typically pricing is $30-to-$80 USD.
2. Purchase a new scanner. Assuming you have limited requirements, you can pick up a Canon CanoScan LiDE 25 or LiDE 100 for around $60 USD.
3. If you're a notebook user, and your notebook has a dedicated, proprietary docking station connector, try that. Depending on the implementation, it may be a true parallel port.
4. Purchase or build one of the true USB-to-parallel converters.
USB2LPT is commonly referred to in forums - http://www-user.tu-chemnitz.de/~heha/bastelec … T/index.html.en
A funny part is that most of his microcontrollers used in these need to be programmed, he recommends a programmer with a parallel interface. 😀
I'm not sure if any company is selling any based on his designs and drivers.
5. Opportunities if you're a hacker:
- Keyspan made a USB-to-parallel device specifically for file transfer, PN UFT125. It was USB 1.1 only, and designed for transferring files from a old Windows 95 computer over parallel to USB on an Windows XP computer. Reprogramming the microcontroller and drivers could get you a full parallel port implementation.
- DataAction RICE3000 USB2PIO "USB to parallel port module" - "The USB2PIO was designed for special USB to Parallel port interface, it will not work with generic USB driver provided by the Microsoft Windows system. The software driver files (FTD2XX.DLL; FTD2XX.INF; FTD2XX.SYS) have to be installed before connecting USB2PIO module to USB port (through USB cable).". Might also provide a full parallel-port implementation if the right driver was programmed for it. Uses a FTDI FT245 chip, basically a 384-byte FIFO buffer for transmit, and a 128 byte FIFO buffer on receive. The FT245 works in the full USB speed mode and can transfer data at around 1 Megabyte per second.
- Lucent USS720 or USS725 chip offers full parallel port functionality in "manual mode". Unfortunately, drivers for USB-to-parallel adapters based on this chip are often only single-function devices since they use the chip's "automatic mode" which only implements USB printing. Still, Linux drivers exist for bitbanging through this device as a parallel port. Possibly someone could port this over to Windows.
Small list that may use the chip: Aten UC-1284 Printer Port, Amitm USB Parallel Port, Belkin Components F5U002 Parallel Port, Lucent USS720 Parallel Port, Edgeport/(4)21 Parallel port, Lucent USS-720 evaluation kit
- Moschip MSC7715-based adapters also could in theory provide access to individual parallel port pins. The SYBA SY-USB-P originally used this chip. Linux drivers exist for this too: http://wl500g.info/showthread.php?t=2286&page=2
- GSM Smart-Clip-to-USB Adapter - http://www.gsmserver.com/cables/Smart_Adaptor … _Smart-Clip.php
The Smart-Clip adapters originally used the parallel port to program it. This adapter now uses USB. Perhaps it could be converted to full parallel with new drivers.

Anyhow, getting off topic...

collector wrote:

As I said, I had no issues with the USB to parallel adapters. Since we are talking about a VM instead of DOSBox, most VMs allow for attaching USB devices, but not necessarily legacy devices. It is an avenue to explore if the VM does not recognize his PCI card adapter.

Yeah, I think it would work, but the software has no idea what a USB interface is, that is the rub. Otherwise I would think it would work great.

Jorpho wrote:

collector wrote:

As I said, I had no issues with the USB to parallel adapters.

Most recently, someone told me that Windows actually sees them as a printer (even when no printer is connected) and not an actual port. Does your experience reflect this?

Hmmm, it might work then 😉. I have not tried it so I would not know.

Stiletto wrote:

Absolutely right. Here's a write-up I did for XKCD forums in 2008 (http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?p=944602 … d202546#p9446 […]
Show full quote

Jorpho wrote:

collector wrote:

As I said, I had no issues with the USB to parallel adapters.

Most recently, someone told me that Windows actually sees them as a printer (even when no printer is connected) and not an actual port. Does your experience reflect this?

Absolutely right. Here's a write-up I did for XKCD forums in 2008 (http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?p=944602 … d202546#p944602):

You have a miscalculation there in your logic. Commercial USB-to-Parallel adapters that are true parallel ports, that I have see […]
Show full quote

You have a miscalculation there in your logic. Commercial USB-to-Parallel adapters that are true parallel ports, that I have seen or heard about, typically go for $100 or more.

USB is designed in such a way that there are generic "classes" of devices, and any OS with a USB implementation has generic built-in drivers for these classes. Bluetooth is much the same way. Of course, that means that USB-to-Parallel adapter manufacturer can just create a single-function device for a USB Printer class, and then implement a microcontroller-based solution that only implements that class. (Prolific is a common manufacturer)

mosc - unfortunately, generic USB docking stations are implemented much the same way. Dedicated converters for each input/output that are generally single-function. Unless you can reprogram the microcontroller too, it's not simply a driver issue.

Possible solutions:
1. Purchase a parallel interface card for your computer if it is lacking one. PCI, PCI-Express, 16-bit PCMCIA, 32-bit PCMCIA/Cardbus, and ExpressCard all exist at this point. Typically pricing is $30-to-$80 USD.
2. Purchase a new scanner. Assuming you have limited requirements, you can pick up a Canon CanoScan LiDE 25 or LiDE 100 for around $60 USD.
3. If you're a notebook user, and your notebook has a dedicated, proprietary docking station connector, try that. Depending on the implementation, it may be a true parallel port.
4. Purchase or build one of the true USB-to-parallel converters.
USB2LPT is commonly referred to in forums - http://www-user.tu-chemnitz.de/~heha/bastelec … T/index.html.en
A funny part is that most of his microcontrollers used in these need to be programmed, he recommends a programmer with a parallel interface. 😀
I'm not sure if any company is selling any based on his designs and drivers.
5. Opportunities if you're a hacker:
- Keyspan made a USB-to-parallel device specifically for file transfer, PN UFT125. It was USB 1.1 only, and designed for transferring files from a old Windows 95 computer over parallel to USB on an Windows XP computer. Reprogramming the microcontroller and drivers could get you a full parallel port implementation.
- DataAction RICE3000 USB2PIO "USB to parallel port module" - "The USB2PIO was designed for special USB to Parallel port interface, it will not work with generic USB driver provided by the Microsoft Windows system. The software driver files (FTD2XX.DLL; FTD2XX.INF; FTD2XX.SYS) have to be installed before connecting USB2PIO module to USB port (through USB cable).". Might also provide a full parallel-port implementation if the right driver was programmed for it. Uses a FTDI FT245 chip, basically a 384-byte FIFO buffer for transmit, and a 128 byte FIFO buffer on receive. The FT245 works in the full USB speed mode and can transfer data at around 1 Megabyte per second.
- Lucent USS720 or USS725 chip offers full parallel port functionality in "manual mode". Unfortunately, drivers for USB-to-parallel adapters based on this chip are often only single-function devices since they use the chip's "automatic mode" which only implements USB printing. Still, Linux drivers exist for bitbanging through this device as a parallel port. Possibly someone could port this over to Windows.
Small list that may use the chip: Aten UC-1284 Printer Port, Amitm USB Parallel Port, Belkin Components F5U002 Parallel Port, Lucent USS720 Parallel Port, Edgeport/(4)21 Parallel port, Lucent USS-720 evaluation kit
- Moschip MSC7715-based adapters also could in theory provide access to individual parallel port pins. The SYBA SY-USB-P originally used this chip. Linux drivers exist for this too: http://wl500g.info/showthread.php?t=2286&page=2
- GSM Smart-Clip-to-USB Adapter - http://www.gsmserver.com/cables/Smart_Adaptor … _Smart-Clip.php
The Smart-Clip adapters originally used the parallel port to program it. This adapter now uses USB. Perhaps it could be converted to full parallel with new drivers.

Anyhow, getting off topic...

Thank you for the info!!!

heywannalaugh wrote:

Hmmm, it might work then 😉. I have not tried it so I would not know.

Really, if you just want to print from your DOS program, there are much easier ways than trying to persuade the program to use the printer directly – assuming you're not using some kind of specialized printer. There are many threads in this forum that discuss printing from DOSBox.