LCD remains dark under Windows Vista...

Nevertheless · Post by **Nevertheless** » July 20th, 2006, 6:34 am

Hi,

I tried to use LCD Smartie with my parallel port LCD - but the display remains dark, although the LCD Smartie app displays all data on the virtual onscreen display

Has anyone got this successful up and running - and a hint for me?

Thanks a lot!

Post by **limbo** » July 20th, 2006, 2:03 pm

Many people has up and running LCD's!
One of them it's me

The too dark screen means that something is going wrong with the contrast potensiometer.... Please check the value and try to readjust

Nevertheless · Post by **Nevertheless** » July 20th, 2006, 2:20 pm

It is a dual-boot PC: Under WinXP, LCD Smartie is up and running fine, so I could see the output clear and brigfht on my parallel port LCD.

Under Windows Vista however (with the same LCD Smartie configuration, which I just copied over to my Vista partition), the parallel port LCD remains dark.

Hence, I wouldn't think of being a potentiometer problem...

Any other ideas - maybe for the new DLPortIO DLL (I use the 32-bit version for my 32 Bit Windows Vista beta) ?

I just don't like to abstain from LCD Smartie when running Windows Vista

Thanks for your help!

Post by **limbo** » July 20th, 2006, 7:35 pm

Sorry i din't noticed about "vista" section....
For sure is something to do with the parallel port driver.

Similar problems have experienced in 64 bit OS.
http://forums.lcdsmartie.org/viewtopic.php?t=474
http://www.highrez.co.uk/Downloads/InpOut32/default.htm

The Vista are not officially supported (yet).

Durfman · Post by **Durfman** » August 11th, 2006, 4:56 am

You have to start Smarter as an Administrator in order for it to work properly. Right-click and Run As Administrator, or right-click and go to Properties, Compatibility tab and check the Run As Admin option.

(Hopefully this will be addressed in a future revision of Smartie if possible.)

Rob

Nevertheless · Post by **Nevertheless** » September 19th, 2006, 7:41 pm

Yes, now LCD Smartie works under Vista RC1 - thanks a lot for this hint!

Whitewolfke · Post by **Whitewolfke** » September 20th, 2006, 8:01 pm

How did you do it? It doesn't work for me.

If i install the parallel port driver, i get the messege that it's not compatible with windows 64 bit (downloaded it from Ahanix website).

Can pls someone help me?

Nevertheless · Post by **Nevertheless** » September 20th, 2006, 8:13 pm

I used the most recent beta 5.4B3 - together with the inpout.dll instead of the parallel port driver (there's no need to install the NT port driver).

BTW: I'm running the 32 bit x86 version of Windows Vista RC1, not the 64 bit x64 version...

Whitewolfke · Post by **Whitewolfke** » September 20th, 2006, 8:43 pm

I used the new beta version. Downloaded "InpOutBinaries.zip" en extracted it to the lcd smartie folder. Renamed the .ddl to "DLPortIO.dll
" tried both 32 and 64bit versions. Nothing works. When i try to change the settings in lcd smartie, it just crashes

Nevertheless · Post by **Nevertheless** » September 20th, 2006, 8:50 pm

I guess you extracted the ZIP file under Vista RC1 - which marks all extracted files as read-only. In this case when you try to change something and apply the new settings in the ini file, LCD smartie just crashes... Had the same problem, and removing the RO attribute from the extracted files solved this problem for me.

Good luck

Whitewolfke · Post by **Whitewolfke** » September 20th, 2006, 9:16 pm

Thx for the help, it doesn't crash anymore. But my lcd doesn't work either (not with 5.3.2 and not with the latest beta)

Are u sure i don't need that parallelportdriver thingie?

Nevertheless · Post by **Nevertheless** » September 20th, 2006, 9:32 pm

[quote]Are u sure i don't need that parallelportdriver thingie[/quote]
Yes, 100% sure - works for me under 32 bit Vista RC1.

Whitewolfke · Post by **Whitewolfke** » September 20th, 2006, 9:43 pm

Ok, it works now. I used the Input Output Binaries from the win32 folder instead of the x64 folder. A bit strange strange that the x64 doesn't work, but i don't care.

Thx for all the help

PS the only thing i need to do now is try to get mbm5 up and running (always get driverd did not load msg

)

Whitewolfke · Post by **Whitewolfke** » September 22nd, 2006, 8:38 am

I found the reason why MBM5 didn't work on Vista. You have to press F8 and turn off the digital driver signing thingie every time you boot. It seems that you can't turn it off anymore (with command line) as you could do that in Vista beta builds.

Philg · Post by **Philg** » August 1st, 2007, 1:58 am

Whitewolfke wrote:A bit strange strange that the x64 doesn't work, but i don't care.

Ahh, not really strange, let me explain..

First off, just incase its not clear, Im the person who made the x64 port of InpOut32.

LCDSmartie is a 32bit application, therefore it needs the 32bit version of inpout32.dll. A 32bit process can not call a 64bit DLL and visa-versa.

However, the 32bit DLL looks at what windows version is running, and calls either the 32bit driver (on x86) or the 64bit driver on x64. Therefore its one DLL suits all

Thanks,
Phil