DOS program in XP

theshadow

Hi there,
Have a DOS program that works fine in windows 9x but won't in XP. Basically it's a program for reading a clocking-in system via the serial port(rs232). Copied the program to an 9x machine and it worked striaght up. I've tried checking "Run in Windows 95 mode" but it still doesn't work. The program starts ok but it can't find the clocking-in machine via com1. Any ideas? Is there an emulation program?

melekalikimaka

9x was based on dos, xp isnt, thats the prob.
try one of these they might do it
http://users.netwit.net.au/~pursang/dosbox.html

Zapho

The problem isn't that its a dos program, sounds like your serial port isn't configured properly under Winxp. Go to Devices and check to see if you even have a com1 installed (or any other com port) and make sure that com1 actually refers to your xp box serial port 1. It may be com2 or com3 (or anything!), seen as your modem is also taking up a com port.
If there was a compatability issue, like 16 bit hardware issues, winXp would warn you about it when you tried to run the program.
Hope this helps!

theshadow

Cheers, checked the device manager and bios settings, it has one serial port which uses com1(3f8 irq4). I think it's still a compatibity issue as it won't work on the two XP machines I tried while the two 98 machines worked fine.
Re DOSBOX does it talk directly to the hardware or via XP? Not in the shop at moment but it's worth a try. BTW, could you setup a script to run in DOSBOX i.e. mount drives, setup printers and start a program?

theshadow

I came accross the following site:
http://www.rc-soar.com/multiplex/4000/p4000dosbox/
Seems similar to my problem.

theshadow

DOSBOX worked a treat. Can't print but can output data to file and then print in XP.
Thanks again.