pci parallel_serial port in windows 7 vs xp

[Stuart Quirk]

Hello all and thanks in advance for any feedback.

I've recently upgraded my primary lab computer and installed a pcie combo parallel port/serial port (I had used both motherboard serial port for the SRBOX and parallel port send a ttl signal to trigger my eye tracker).

I got a manufacturer indicated by pstnet as one people have had some luck with: 

http://www.siig.com/it-products/serial-parallel/combo/pcie/cyber-1s1p-pcie.html

It installed fine but eprime crashes when I attempt to run the utilities program for the SRBOX and pstnet's tester program fails to find the box. And my simple parallel port monitor program (parmon) doesn't find the port either.

In xp (on my last computer) I was able to use inpout32.dll and then just insert very simple inline scripts to set the address high/low within my experiment. From what I could learn (and understand as a nonprogrammer) inpout64x.dll is much less successful with pci cards under windows 7 64

So I'm trying to figure out is my problem the OS (as in would I have better luck moving the OS to xp?) or is my problem a PCI card? It will take me a good chunk of more time to wipe everything and install xp so I thought someone here might help me save some time if that would be a pointless exercise. 

Thanks again

Stuart 

[David McFarlane]

Stuart,

What version of E-Prime?

-----
David McFarlane
E-Prime training
online: http://psychology.msu.edu/Workshops_Courses/eprime.aspx
Twitter: @EPrimeMaster (https://twitter.com/EPrimeMaster)

/----
Stock reminder: 1) I do not work for PST. 2) PST's trained staff
take any and all questions at
http://support.pstnet.com/e%2Dprime/support/login.asp , and they
strive to respond to all requests in 24-48 hours, so make full use of
it. 3) In addition, PST takes questions at their Facebook page
(http://www.facebook.com/pages/Psychology-Software-Tools-Inc/241802160683
), and offers several instructional videos there and on their YouTube
channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/PSTNET ) (no Twitter feed yet,
though). 4) If you do get an answer from PST staff, please extend
the courtesy of posting their reply back here for the sake of others.
\----

At 1/12/2013 10:44 AM Saturday, Stuart Quirk wrote:
>Hello all and thanks in advance for any feedback.
>
>I've recently upgraded my primary lab computer and installed a pcie
>combo parallel port/serial port (I had used both motherboard serial
>port for the SRBOX and parallel port send a ttl signal to trigger my
>eye tracker).
>I got a manufacturer indicated by pstnet as one people have had some
>luck with:

><http://www.siig.com/it-products/serial-parallel/combo/pcie/cyber-1s1p-pcie.html>http://www.siig.com/it-products/serial-parallel/combo/pcie/cyber-1s1p-pcie.html

[Stuart Quirk]

The latest version. I'm not at my computer at this moment (and heading to a conference for the weekend) but it was a fresh install of windows 7 64  (because I swapped out the hard drive for a solid state).

So all up to date drivers and downloaded the latest eprime 2 (professional).

It runs the sample eprime programs fine but anything that attempts to access the serial or parallel ports crashes eprime. 

I'd read both that windows 7 is more restrictive in allowing access to that level of data I/O than xp so was wondering if swapping to xp would solve the problem or if it's a non-mother board pci card issue.

Sadly, I don't have a handy xp computer without mother board ports that I can pop the pci card in and play with (they all seem to be either windows 7 or xp with mother board ports..but I thought that might help isolate the problem. Still waiting to hear back from pstnet support). I will post when I hear from them in case others face similar problems. 

[David McFarlane]

Stuart,

Hmm -- I just wanted to make sure that you were not trying to use EP1
drivers with Win7, that will not work. But if you installed EP2,
then you have the updated PST Port & SRBox drivers, so much for that.

I also assume that in your EP program you match the SRBox port number
to that of your installed serial port (just to be sure -- what COM
port # does Windows report for your serial port, and what port # does
your EP program specify? For that matter, exactly what error message
do you get?). So I do not have much more to offer you, let's hope
that PST Support takes it the rest of the way. FWIW, I use the SRBox
using an add-on PCI (or PCI-X) serial port card under Windows Vista
(32 bit) and EP2.0.8.22 Pro.

-----
David McFarlane
E-Prime training
online: http://psychology.msu.edu/Workshops_Courses/eprime.aspx
Twitter: @EPrimeMaster (https://twitter.com/EPrimeMaster)

At 1/15/2013 11:06 PM Tuesday, Stuart Quirk wrote:
>The latest version. I'm not at my computer at this moment (and
>heading to a conference for the weekend) but it was a fresh install
>of windows 7 64 (because I swapped out the hard drive for a solid state).
>So all up to date drivers and downloaded the latest eprime 2 (professional).
>It runs the sample eprime programs fine but anything that attempts
>to access the serial or parallel ports crashes eprime.
>
>I'd read both that windows 7 is more restrictive in allowing access
>to that level of data I/O than xp so was wondering if swapping to xp
>would solve the problem or if it's a non-mother board pci card issue.
>Sadly, I don't have a handy xp computer without mother board ports
>that I can pop the pci card in and play with (they all seem to be
>either windows 7 or xp with mother board ports..but I thought that
>might help isolate the problem. Still waiting to hear back from
>pstnet support). I will post when I hear from them in case others
>face similar problems.
>
>
>
>On Monday, January 14, 2013 2:20:24 PM UTC-5, McFarlane, David wrote:
>Stuart,
>
>What version of E-Prime?
>
>-----
>David McFarlane
>E-Prime training
>online:

><http://psychology.msu.edu/Workshops_Courses/eprime.aspx>http://psychology.msu.edu/Workshops_Courses/eprime.aspx
>
>Twitter: @EPrimeMaster
>(<https://twitter.com/EPrimeMaster>https://twitter.com/EPrimeMaster)

>
>/----
>Stock reminder: 1) I do not work for PST. 2) PST's trained staff
>take any and all questions at

><http://support.pstnet.com/e%2Dprime/support/login.asp>http://support.pstnet.com/e%2Dprime/support/login.asp

>, and they
>strive to respond to all requests in 24-48 hours, so make full use of
>it. 3) In addition, PST takes questions at their Facebook page

>(<http://www.facebook.com/pages/Psychology-Software-Tools-Inc/241802160683>http://www.facebook.com/pages/Psychology-Software-Tools-Inc/241802160683

>
>), and offers several instructional videos there and on their YouTube
>channel

>(<http://www.youtube.com/user/PSTNET>http://www.youtube.com/user/PSTNET

>) (no Twitter feed yet,
>though). 4) If you do get an answer from PST staff, please extend
>the courtesy of posting their reply back here for the sake of others.
>\----
>
>
>
>At 1/12/2013 10:44 AM Saturday, Stuart Quirk wrote:
> >Hello all and thanks in advance for any feedback.
> >
> >I've recently upgraded my primary lab computer and installed a pcie
> >combo parallel port/serial port (I had used both motherboard serial
> >port for the SRBOX and parallel port send a ttl signal to trigger my
> >eye tracker).
> >I got a manufacturer indicated by pstnet as one people have had some
> >luck with:
> ><<http://www.siig.com/it-products/serial-parallel/combo/pcie/cyber-

> 1s1p-pcie.html>http://www.siig.com/it-products/serial-parallel/combo/pcie/cyber-1s1p-pcie.html>http://www.siig.com/it-products/serial-parallel/combo/pcie/cyber-1s1p-pcie.html

[Stuart Quirk]

Well as an update to anyone who may face similar issues, I ended up swapping out the mother board for one with a native parallel port (one of the few which are built for 3rd generation intel chips). It was an easy build as I could transfer all of my current components. The new board has a ps/2 serial port but I was still having issues with the SRbox failing to communicate through that port so I bought the usb--serial port adapter recommended by pstnet and finally am able to get back on track.

I went with xp and so far have had success with the I/O communications (still finishing the program to make sure video displays work smoothly). 

the additional hardware I purchased:

StarTech.com USB to RS232 DB9/DB25 Serial Adapter Cable ICUSB232DB25 (amazon.com)

MB GIGABYTE|GA-B75M-D3V B75 LGA1155 (carried by newegg.com)

Stuart