off
“A service installation section of the INF-file is invalid” error occurs while installing the drivers on Windows XP. How to overcome this problem?
installing the drivers on Windows XP. How to overcome this problem?
Generally, this problem occurs when one tries to update the driver or select the wrong path while installing the driver. We recommend following the steps given below to overcome this issue:
(1). Uninstall the drivers using uninstall.exe utility available in the drivers.
(2). Reboot the PC.
(3). Install the latest driver after restarting the PC.
off
Does this card support Serial mouse under DOS?
In DOS OS, serial mouse driver expects the standard IRQ to be present for serial port. IRQ for serial ports, which is different from that of standard serial ports, is assigned by system BIOS and cannot be altered.
Therefore, serial mouse supports is not possible under DOS.
off
Why Software Keys / Security keys can’t be used in Win Vista/XP/2K OS?
Most (if not all) Software Keys (Dongles) require the Parallel Port to use Legacy resources. They expect the I/O Addresses and IRQ to match the “traditional” values used by Legacy ISA based Ports. For those reasons, such device cannot be used with PCI based ports. Our chips and Driver can “Re-Map” the I/O Addresses to match the Legacy values in some versions of Windows, but the IRQ will always be the one assigned by the PCI system at Start-Up.
off
Can the parallel port fully support SPP/PS2/EPP/ECP mode?
We can support SPP and PS/2 Modes without any problems. EPP & ECP Mode support varies from machine to machine, and depends on the Operating System being used. Both Modes require two banks of registers to control the chip. The IEEE-1284 specification requires these be separated by an offset of +400h Bytes.
The PCI specification does not make any guarantees that two resource requests will have any specific relationship to each other. We request the two banks with the desired offset, but the system does not always honor those requests, and often returns the extended register bank at some entirely different address than what we requested. When this occurs, neither EPP nor ECP Mode will be usable.
An additional problem exists with EPP Mode. We have identified a timing problem in the chip that affects reading data back from the device (scanner etc.) in EPP Mode. The symptoms result in the same Byte of data being returned for every read request. This problem does not affect ECP Mode. For this reason we recommend PS/2 or ECP Modes for applications that require bi-directional data transfers.
off
Is there a utility by which I can switch between the modes such as EPP to ECP?
“Only our DOS and Windows-NT Drivers have a mechanism to manually select the desired Mode for the Port. The other versions of Windows are supposed to be able switching does not work very well with PCI base Ports. The way the PCI system allocates resources often interferes with the automatic switching mechanism. EPP and ECP Modes require a second bank of registers to control the enhanced functionality. These registers must be located at on offset of +400h Bytes above the Standard registers to meet the IEEE-1284 requirements. Our Drivers make two resource allocation requests.
“· The first one for the Standard registers used by all Modes
“· The second request is for the Extended registers
“The PCI system does not guarantee that any two requests will have any fixed relationship to each other. While we request the second bank with the desired offset, it is not always honored. Sometimes the PCI system allocates resources where ever it wants to. The PCI system was designed around “Plug & Play”, so assumes any address is as good as any other. Most (virtually all) software was written with the assumption that Parallel Ports are ISA devices, and the Extended registers will always have the expected offset. For this reason, a lot of software (including Device Drivers for Printers etc.) will not work with our PCI based Parallel Ports.
off
Is it possible to remap the I/O Addresses to desired value or change the IRQ value?
“In order to be compatible with most software, our PCI Products and Drivers will attempt to “Re-Map” the I/O Addresses used back to Legacy (ISA type) values. Re-Map feature is supported in DOS, Windows-95, Windows-98 and Windows-ME operating systems. In the DOS operating system, we can remap Serial ports and Parallel ports I/O Address. However, in case of 95/98/ME operating systems, we can remap only Serial ports.
At the same Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista operating systems do not support Re-Map function. As these versions of Windows maintain a much tighter control over the I/O devices and prevent any Re-Mapping at Driver level. When the Re-Mapping is not permitted, the device must use the Addresses assigned by the PCI System at Boot-Up. The Re-Mapping only affects the I/O Addresses.
The IRQ used by the device is assigned by the PCI System and can NOT be changed. Usually the only way to change the IRQ for a PCI devices is to move it to a different PCI slot. Each slot is usually assigned a different IRQ, although this is not always true. Each system may handle the assignment of IRQs differently. If the software application (or Driver) expects the Port to use Legacy resources, it will not be possible to make it work with a PCI based Port when using Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista Operating Systems.
off
Why do I observe the Red mark at IO address / IRQ on Vista OS? Also the OS reports Conflict in “Conflicting device list”? Is there any problem with the Ports?
The I/O ranges of all the ports are visible in both Multi Function Adapters and COM Ports. On Vista OS, the operating system will be checking the I/O addresses/IRQ in both MF category as well as COM & LPT Port category. Since the I/O range/IRQ is common in both the places, the Vista OS reports a conflict of I/O address/IRQ. This is more related to Vista OS behavior. There should be no functional related problem with the ports in this scenario.
off
Does Vista Drivers have Microsoft Certification?
Yes, Vista 32 bit and 64 bit drivers are Microsoft Certified.