Issues getting windows 98 serial port hardware to work on a windows 7 machine using dosbox \ VOGONS

Issues getting windows 98 serial port hardware to work on a windows 7 machine using dosbox

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First post, by joeycampbell

Posted on 2016-05-23, 15:32

joeycampbell Offline

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Hi I'm trying to run a piece of hardware (which currently works on a windows 98 machine) to work on a windows 7 enterprise 32 bit machine. The hardware is a KingCycle bike trainer that measures wattage output and connects via the serial port. I've got the hardware plugged into the COM1 serial port on the windows 7 machine. The software has been configured for compatibility mode in windows 98. I've checked on the device manager to ensure that the serial COM1 port is working ok and that drivers are up-to-date. I've installed DosBox to run the Kingcycle application and I've restarted the pc several times.

The issue I'm having is that when the software tries to communicate with COM1 it stalls and gives the error 'No Interface Fitted, Error Return Code = (HEX) 8000'. Is there anything in particular in the COM/Port settings that needs to be changed so as to sync up with the hardware correctly ? I'm not sure if this setting needs to be changed but currently the Baud Rate is set to 9600.
Any info would be great.

Reply 1 of 4, by Jorpho

Posted on 2016-05-23, 16:41

Jorpho Offline

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Are you using a USB-to-serial adapter? Those tend to be very unreliable. If you are using a USB-to-serial adapter, then since you already have a Windows 98 machine handy, you can probably try using your USB-to-serial adapter on your Windows 98 machine and verify whether it works there. A PCI serial card may work better.

Also, to be clear, are you running Windows 98 within DOSBox, or is this a DOS application that you were running under Windows 98? (Running Windows 98 in DOSBox is probably a bad idea.)

Reply 2 of 4, by joeycampbell

Posted on 2016-05-24, 09:41

joeycampbell Offline

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Hi I had tried the usb to serial cable but then realised that there was a serial port in the back of the windows 7 pc so I decided to use a regular serial-serial cable instead to rule out any issues with the serial-usb cable.

"Are you running Windows 98 within DOSBox"

No - I hadn't configured DosBox to run any particular OS (I didn't know this was possible).
The DosBox was not used at all on the windows '98 machine.
The KingCycle App and its associated .exe's is configured to run in compatibility mode for Windows '98.
Not sure if this helps....

Reply 3 of 4, by Jorpho

Posted on 2016-05-24, 12:48

Jorpho Offline

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joeycampbell wrote:
No - I hadn't configured DosBox to run any particular OS (I didn't know this was possible).

It doesn't work very well and causes all kinds of problems, so it is generally advised against.

The KingCycle App and its associated .exe's is configured to run in compatibility mode for Windows '98.

This is not at all clear. Is this a DOS program or not? How exactly have you "installed DOSBox to run the Kingcycle application" ? Have you seen the 60 Seconds Guide ?

Reply 4 of 4, by joeycampbell

Posted on 2016-05-26, 10:08

joeycampbell Offline

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Hi Jorpho - I wasn't mounting using a cd rom with dos box or using the my documents folder - I was mounting directly to the folder where the .exe was located.
I'll try again using the 60 seconds guide and see if that works.
Thanks
Joey

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