serial ports going the way of the floppy
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Good grief. The latest laptop I bought a few months ago, a Toshiba, doesn't have serial ports! And I need serial ports for an app that I'm converting from DOS to Windows for a client! Well, time to google for USB-serial port or a PCMCIA card, I guess. Just what I always wanted for Christmas--a serial port device for my laptop. NOT! (and no, the laptop doesn't have a floppy either. Has built in WiFi though.) Marc Latest AAL Article My blog Join my forum!
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Good grief. The latest laptop I bought a few months ago, a Toshiba, doesn't have serial ports! And I need serial ports for an app that I'm converting from DOS to Windows for a client! Well, time to google for USB-serial port or a PCMCIA card, I guess. Just what I always wanted for Christmas--a serial port device for my laptop. NOT! (and no, the laptop doesn't have a floppy either. Has built in WiFi though.) Marc Latest AAL Article My blog Join my forum!
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Good grief. The latest laptop I bought a few months ago, a Toshiba, doesn't have serial ports! And I need serial ports for an app that I'm converting from DOS to Windows for a client! Well, time to google for USB-serial port or a PCMCIA card, I guess. Just what I always wanted for Christmas--a serial port device for my laptop. NOT! (and no, the laptop doesn't have a floppy either. Has built in WiFi though.) Marc Latest AAL Article My blog Join my forum!
Marc Clifton wrote: The latest laptop I bought a few months ago, a Toshiba, doesn't have serial ports! Same here. And the USB<->serial converter i bought works like shit (kernel crashes if the computer goes into sleep mode) :( Fortunately, i rarely need serial. :) Marc Clifton wrote: and no, the laptop doesn't have a floppy either. Has built in WiFi though ack! Never use floppy, but got one anyway... shoulda gone for the wifi instead :sigh:
Shog9 ---
You'd better turn back, before the frost sets in. These desert nights are for weathered men, The ones who've already given in...
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Good grief. The latest laptop I bought a few months ago, a Toshiba, doesn't have serial ports! And I need serial ports for an app that I'm converting from DOS to Windows for a client! Well, time to google for USB-serial port or a PCMCIA card, I guess. Just what I always wanted for Christmas--a serial port device for my laptop. NOT! (and no, the laptop doesn't have a floppy either. Has built in WiFi though.) Marc Latest AAL Article My blog Join my forum!
Marc Clifton wrote: Well, time to google for USB-serial port or a PCMCIA card, I guess. We've tried a number of these with less than spectacular results. A couple just didn't work, others crashed the laptop. Whatever you buy, make sure they have a good return policy. :sigh: "I'm Saddam Hussein, I'm the president of Iraq and I'm willing to negotiate."
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Marc Clifton wrote: Well, time to google for USB-serial port or a PCMCIA card, I guess. We've tried a number of these with less than spectacular results. A couple just didn't work, others crashed the laptop. Whatever you buy, make sure they have a good return policy. :sigh: "I'm Saddam Hussein, I'm the president of Iraq and I'm willing to negotiate."
Mike Mullikin wrote: We've tried a number of these with less than spectacular results Yeah, I started to get a queazy feeling when I kept on reading things like "XP Home Edition Certified!!!" in big red screaming letters. I ended up buying a 2 port PCMCIA card from Quatech from $150. I used to buy serial stuff from that company years ago. SeaLevel makes some too, but I remember having problems with their stuff. How hard is it to design an ISA card with a couple 16550's on it? Well, they couldn't get it right, and Quatech did. Marc Latest AAL Article My blog Join my forum!
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Good grief. The latest laptop I bought a few months ago, a Toshiba, doesn't have serial ports! And I need serial ports for an app that I'm converting from DOS to Windows for a client! Well, time to google for USB-serial port or a PCMCIA card, I guess. Just what I always wanted for Christmas--a serial port device for my laptop. NOT! (and no, the laptop doesn't have a floppy either. Has built in WiFi though.) Marc Latest AAL Article My blog Join my forum!
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There's still a lot of industry based hardware that communicates via serial ports, I can envisage serial ports dying out just yet!
I am that is
You guy's need an EasiDock 200 from www.mobilityelectronics.com It's the business - It's got parallel/serials/lan/extra usb's - everything I got it for £38 in the UK from Comet (Don't know where you are) and I can hot plug it in and out without ever crashing on my Sony PCG-Z1MP Regards Steve
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Good grief. The latest laptop I bought a few months ago, a Toshiba, doesn't have serial ports! And I need serial ports for an app that I'm converting from DOS to Windows for a client! Well, time to google for USB-serial port or a PCMCIA card, I guess. Just what I always wanted for Christmas--a serial port device for my laptop. NOT! (and no, the laptop doesn't have a floppy either. Has built in WiFi though.) Marc Latest AAL Article My blog Join my forum!
I believe microsoft PC99 (yes 1999) spec said that windows machines should not have serial ports, parallel ports, ps2 ports or AT slots. Manufacturers are finally starting to implement that... John
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Good grief. The latest laptop I bought a few months ago, a Toshiba, doesn't have serial ports! And I need serial ports for an app that I'm converting from DOS to Windows for a client! Well, time to google for USB-serial port or a PCMCIA card, I guess. Just what I always wanted for Christmas--a serial port device for my laptop. NOT! (and no, the laptop doesn't have a floppy either. Has built in WiFi though.) Marc Latest AAL Article My blog Join my forum!
My floppy drive is staying right where it is. Last night it saved me - no other way to run the Maxtor diagnostic :mad:
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Good grief. The latest laptop I bought a few months ago, a Toshiba, doesn't have serial ports! And I need serial ports for an app that I'm converting from DOS to Windows for a client! Well, time to google for USB-serial port or a PCMCIA card, I guess. Just what I always wanted for Christmas--a serial port device for my laptop. NOT! (and no, the laptop doesn't have a floppy either. Has built in WiFi though.) Marc Latest AAL Article My blog Join my forum!
Was in my favorite coin shop this weekend, and as I walked in heard the unmistakeable brrrrrrap of a dot matrix coming from the back room. "Ah Tim - you know about computers - any idea why my printer is hanging?" Hmmm - "What OS do you have?" "Dos 3 and Windows 5", came the response. Hmmm - "Um... can I see?" Well, there she was. Maybe a 286, 30 meg seagate MFM, 5 1/4 floppy, and a nice old Epson brrrrrap matrix. (Dos 3.3 running WP 5.0). "You know, I am kind of thinking of upgrading..." "There's a thought", says I. "Do you suppose there's a way of transferring the data on my hard drive to the new machine?" I'm figuring a null modem would be easiest - might still have a copy of Telix on 5 1/4. Do you think I should tell him to be sure and get the serial option? :doh:
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Was in my favorite coin shop this weekend, and as I walked in heard the unmistakeable brrrrrrap of a dot matrix coming from the back room. "Ah Tim - you know about computers - any idea why my printer is hanging?" Hmmm - "What OS do you have?" "Dos 3 and Windows 5", came the response. Hmmm - "Um... can I see?" Well, there she was. Maybe a 286, 30 meg seagate MFM, 5 1/4 floppy, and a nice old Epson brrrrrap matrix. (Dos 3.3 running WP 5.0). "You know, I am kind of thinking of upgrading..." "There's a thought", says I. "Do you suppose there's a way of transferring the data on my hard drive to the new machine?" I'm figuring a null modem would be easiest - might still have a copy of Telix on 5 1/4. Do you think I should tell him to be sure and get the serial option? :doh:
LOL. I still have my null modem cable from that company (can't remember the name of it now!) that let you transfer files using serial or parallel ports. You know what's really annoying about upgrading though--all those dot matrix printers, especially old receipt printers, don't have drivers for Windows, or if they do, they're pieces of crap. I had to tailor a report for a new Star SP500 receipt printer a couple months ago. The Windows printer drivers resulted in garbage characters and bitmaps appearing randomly on the paper. I had to write the report out to a text file as straight ASCII and copy it to LPT1: to get the thing to work right. Thank God I'm using my own report generator, so it was actually pretty easy to do. I couldn't imagine doing something like that in Crystal Reports. Marc Latest AAL Article My blog Join my forum!
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Marc Clifton wrote: The latest laptop I bought a few months ago, a Toshiba, doesn't have serial ports! Same here. And the USB<->serial converter i bought works like shit (kernel crashes if the computer goes into sleep mode) :( Fortunately, i rarely need serial. :) Marc Clifton wrote: and no, the laptop doesn't have a floppy either. Has built in WiFi though ack! Never use floppy, but got one anyway... shoulda gone for the wifi instead :sigh:
Shog9 ---
You'd better turn back, before the frost sets in. These desert nights are for weathered men, The ones who've already given in...
Shog9 wrote: And the USB<->serial converter i bought works like sh*t Mmm. I was worried about that. I ended up buying a 2 port PCMCIA card. Marc Latest AAL Article My blog Join my forum!
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I believe microsoft PC99 (yes 1999) spec said that windows machines should not have serial ports, parallel ports, ps2 ports or AT slots. Manufacturers are finally starting to implement that... John
John M. Drescher wrote: I believe microsoft PC99 (yes 1999) spec said that windows machines should not have serial ports, parallel ports, ps2 ports or AT slots. Manufacturers are finally starting to implement that... :omg: So, what--everything is supposed to be USB or Ethernet? Marc Latest AAL Article My blog Join my forum!
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John M. Drescher wrote: I believe microsoft PC99 (yes 1999) spec said that windows machines should not have serial ports, parallel ports, ps2 ports or AT slots. Manufacturers are finally starting to implement that... :omg: So, what--everything is supposed to be USB or Ethernet? Marc Latest AAL Article My blog Join my forum!
Marc Clifton wrote: everything is supposed to be USB Yes. USB, Firewire, ethernet, IDE and PCI. John
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LOL. I still have my null modem cable from that company (can't remember the name of it now!) that let you transfer files using serial or parallel ports. You know what's really annoying about upgrading though--all those dot matrix printers, especially old receipt printers, don't have drivers for Windows, or if they do, they're pieces of crap. I had to tailor a report for a new Star SP500 receipt printer a couple months ago. The Windows printer drivers resulted in garbage characters and bitmaps appearing randomly on the paper. I had to write the report out to a text file as straight ASCII and copy it to LPT1: to get the thing to work right. Thank God I'm using my own report generator, so it was actually pretty easy to do. I couldn't imagine doing something like that in Crystal Reports. Marc Latest AAL Article My blog Join my forum!
Marc Clifton wrote: --all those dot matrix printers, especially old receipt printers, don't have drivers for Windows, or if they do, they're pieces of crap... Hmmm - well gee golly - you'd think Epson would have something kicking around. In any case, he's not printing receipts and such and will probably go for an upgrade there too. Saaaaaay - maybe there's a market for Windows brrrrap matrix printer drivers! Kah'ching!:cool:
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Good grief. The latest laptop I bought a few months ago, a Toshiba, doesn't have serial ports! And I need serial ports for an app that I'm converting from DOS to Windows for a client! Well, time to google for USB-serial port or a PCMCIA card, I guess. Just what I always wanted for Christmas--a serial port device for my laptop. NOT! (and no, the laptop doesn't have a floppy either. Has built in WiFi though.) Marc Latest AAL Article My blog Join my forum!
Can't really blame 'em, I haven't used a serial port in years. I think the last time I had to use a serial port was for an old computer that needed a mouse, but didn't have a dedicated mouse port. I have a feeling parallel will eventually follow suit, although printers (especially expensive ones) tend to outlast computers, so there will be a lot of parallel printers out there for some time. No single raindrop believes that it is responsible for the flood.
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Good grief. The latest laptop I bought a few months ago, a Toshiba, doesn't have serial ports! And I need serial ports for an app that I'm converting from DOS to Windows for a client! Well, time to google for USB-serial port or a PCMCIA card, I guess. Just what I always wanted for Christmas--a serial port device for my laptop. NOT! (and no, the laptop doesn't have a floppy either. Has built in WiFi though.) Marc Latest AAL Article My blog Join my forum!
Yeah, the IBM T40 that I just got does not have any either. If you need serial you have to get a docking station.
Paul Watson wrote: "At the end of the day it is what you produce that counts, not how many doctorates you have on the wall." George Carlin wrote: "Don't sweat the petty things, and don't pet the sweaty things." Jörgen Sigvardsson wrote: If the physicists find a universal theory describing the laws of universe, I'm sure the asshole constant will be an integral part of that theory.
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Marc Clifton wrote: The latest laptop I bought a few months ago, a Toshiba, doesn't have serial ports! Same here. And the USB<->serial converter i bought works like shit (kernel crashes if the computer goes into sleep mode) :( Fortunately, i rarely need serial. :) Marc Clifton wrote: and no, the laptop doesn't have a floppy either. Has built in WiFi though ack! Never use floppy, but got one anyway... shoulda gone for the wifi instead :sigh:
Shog9 ---
You'd better turn back, before the frost sets in. These desert nights are for weathered men, The ones who've already given in...
Shog9 wrote: Same here. And the USB<->serial converter i bought works like sh*t (kernel crashes if the computer goes into sleep mode) I've yet to see a USB<->Serial converter that actually works as claimed. :( -- In the land of the blind, be king![^]
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Can't really blame 'em, I haven't used a serial port in years. I think the last time I had to use a serial port was for an old computer that needed a mouse, but didn't have a dedicated mouse port. I have a feeling parallel will eventually follow suit, although printers (especially expensive ones) tend to outlast computers, so there will be a lot of parallel printers out there for some time. No single raindrop believes that it is responsible for the flood.
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LOL. I still have my null modem cable from that company (can't remember the name of it now!) that let you transfer files using serial or parallel ports. You know what's really annoying about upgrading though--all those dot matrix printers, especially old receipt printers, don't have drivers for Windows, or if they do, they're pieces of crap. I had to tailor a report for a new Star SP500 receipt printer a couple months ago. The Windows printer drivers resulted in garbage characters and bitmaps appearing randomly on the paper. I had to write the report out to a text file as straight ASCII and copy it to LPT1: to get the thing to work right. Thank God I'm using my own report generator, so it was actually pretty easy to do. I couldn't imagine doing something like that in Crystal Reports. Marc Latest AAL Article My blog Join my forum!
Marc Clifton wrote: I couldn't imagine doing something like that in Crystal Reports Note to self: go talk to Print Engine team to determine if we can write to a Star SP500 receipt printer. :-D The kindest thing you can do for a stupid person, and for the gene pool, is to let him expire of his own dumb choices. [Roger Wright on stupid people] We're like private member functions [John Theal on R&D] We're figuring out the parent thing as we go though. Kinda like setting up Linux for the first time ya' know... [Nitron]