Coolsat loader run on Vista

[badpistacio]

Has anyone been able to run Loader v. 2.4 successfully on Windows Vista? I'm using a laptop with the serial cable adapted to USB and the loader keeps saying "connect your receiver and turn it on" (which I've done several times - doing the connection steps in a variety of orders). I'm using com 3 as it's the only one that doesn't tell me "port not available".

BTW, I'm a Mac person so I could easily be missing a simple step using the Win machine.

 

[Lak7]

Do you know if your USB / Serial adapter is Vista compatible?

Make sure you have the correct Com Port selected in the loader program.

 

[Anole]

. . . or, is this one of those crossover vs straight-through cable problems?
I think that would cause the problem you're seeing.

 

[Mr Tony]

I gave up on those adapters and bought a crappy xp machine from a goodwill type store

best 10 bucks I spent

 

[Anole]

- -

I keep some old Pentium 1 laptops around for that purpose.
One is a 100mhz Toshiba, the other is an NEC at 233mhz.
Both have real serial ports, real parallel printer ports, decent LCD screens, and adequate versions of Windows (Win2k, I think).

I just used one to upgrade a router to new 3rd party firmware.

One has a USB 1 port, and I'm thinking I may dedicate that laptop to become my printer server for the LAN.
It's a fairly low power device and even has a built in UPS.
USB 1 throughput is probably adequate for printing.
That'll keep it where I can find it next time I need serial.

Oh, and if you do a search for an older thread (possibly started by Iceberg), many of us came up with solutions for serial ports (maybe two years ago?).
All sorts of plug-in cards, adapters, etc.
Might still be worth a read.

Happy Holidays from SantAnole. -

 

[badpistacio]

Ok, so I dug out my wife's old Toshiba laptop, running Windows 98. It has an actual serial connection. I got rid of the USB adapter. It worked like a charm. Coolsat 5k has it's firmware update.

 

[AcWxRadar]

Badpistacio,

That is good that you had the laptop to fall back upon to service your Coolsat.

I have a Gateway MC PC with Vista. I don't use it for my Coolsat or other receivers, but I thought I would try it after reading your post to see what I could come up with.

It didn't work.

I use a Belkin F5U409 USB to serial adapter and I have the driver on CD. When I inserted the driver CD, it began to install the driver, but got to a certain point and gave me an error and basically locked up.

The error read that this driver was not compatible with VISTA. I think it would have been more accurate if the error displayed was: "WIndows VISTA is not compatible with most software or hardware and this is one of them".

I tried plugging in the adapter and allowing VISTA to search for a compatible driver. After a lot of searching, I found none and the best recommendation I could find was to purchase a different device. Nice recommendation! I think I will buy a new PC with a Linux OS! Way to go Microsoft!

RADAR

 

[Lak7]

Nice recommendation! I think I will buy a new PC with a Linux OS! Way to go Microsoft!

A little Off Topic but....
My brother calls yesterday, can't get their new Windows 7 Laptop connected to the wireless router.
When the Auto Setup failed, a Pop-Up asking to Trouble Shoot is there. I said sure, press it. After about 3 minutes it says something like: I can not find a solution, ask someone more knowledgeable
Way to go Microsoft!

 

[bobsav2001]

Iceberg's solution is the best.
Go fot it and your problems are over.

 

[walrus1957]

I had the exact same problem getting a serial to usb adaptor to work with my acer extensa laptop with vista operating system. However I found that the cheap adaptors did not work, even those that state they work with Vista.

I finally ran across an adaptor that does work with my laptop and the Vista operating system. I purchased the adaptor from Radio Shack for $28 dollars, it is a "Gigaware" serial to usb adaptor.

I use it all the time with proloader 2.4 to upload and download my channel lists from the Coolsat 5000 to my acer laptop with the vista operating system. So you might consider purchasing the Gigaware adaptor from Radio Shack to use with your laptop.

 

[Anole]

old thread:

Okay, it was only six months ago.
Here is that previous thread, discussing the same thing:
Cant update software with new computer

 

[badpistacio]

I think I will buy a new PC with a Linux OS! Way to go Microsoft!
RADAR

:up
As I mentioned, I'm a Mac person. But I've got an old iMac running a Linux OS and love it!

 

[Mr Tony]

I finally ran across an adaptor that does work with my laptop and the Vista operating system. I purchased the adaptor from Radio Shack for $28 dollars, it is a "Gigaware" serial to usb adaptor.

I use it all the time with proloader 2.4 to upload and download my channel lists from the Coolsat 5000 to my acer laptop with the vista operating system. So you might consider purchasing the Gigaware adaptor from Radio Shack to use with your laptop.

I tried one of those originally and I couldn't get it to work with my vista machine