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I just finished setting up Psiwin on Vista, and can verify that it works. However it ain't easy, so I thought I'd share my experience.
The new computers do not have a serial port, so I bought a Belkin Serial to USB adapter. I could not get it to work on Vista, so I returned it, and bought a Dynex USB PDA/ Serial adapter at Best Buy, and that installed with no problem.
I first tried to simply put Psiwin in, but I got error messages. When I tried to uninstall Psiwin I could not get rid of enough of the residual bits and the Psiwin program gave me a message that it would not reinstall until I deleted the parts of the program that were remaining.
I know that there is a program available to uninstall Psiwin, but for reasons not necessary to this discussion I had to reinstall Vista. This time I asked the "search" to find info on loading Psiwin using an earlier version of Windows. This is the compatibility mode, where the computer doesn't try to load the program, but checks if it can be installed on earlier versions of Windows. I asked it to try compatibility with Windows 95 and 98. I still got error messages, but the program said it would search for fixes. I am not sure if it found a fix, but it did say the program could be compatible. The most prominent error message was related to the 32 bit architecture of Vista, and I am pretty sure that Psiwin is based on 16 bit architecture. I called the Vista tech support line to try to deal with the 16/32 bit issue, and got a tech that was very helpful. He tried various approaches, and then suggested that we try to install the program in a "clean boot". which is where the other programs in the computer are disabled, so as not to interfere with the installation.
To do this, go to the start menu, click on the search bar and type msconfig, go to services, then click the box to hide all Microsoft services. Then click the startup tab and disable all these as well. This will disable all third party software after you press apply and ok, and the computer asks you to restart. After the restart put in the Psiwin disk and follow the normal install. When the page turned to the blue screen and the Installation bars came up everything stopped and I got an error message related about the "string being too long". I thought this was it, but after we tried to figure what that was about, and the tech being unable to help, I clicked ok and to my surprise Psiwin loaded and worked fine. At this point it is necessary to go back to msconfig and follow the same steps listed above, but this time enable the functions that were disabled, click apply, ok and restart.
I hope this helps some of you to continue to enjoy your Psions as much as I enjoy mine.
Yes, I'm much obliged to you for taking the time to write up a lot of hard work.
It certainly doesn't make me want to go Vista, however. Synching with PsiWin 2.3.3 and XP Pro SP2 has been far less painless than any previous versions/OS's--too bad Vista doesn't promise the same
I put all of the steps I tried as a background to assist anyone who wants to do this. If I knew then what I know now, I would get the Dynex serial to U SB adapter (pay attenton to which port the computer assigns the adapter to) and try to install Psiwin in the clean boot mode, and not panic when the error message appears. However, since I have not done this directly, I described the extra steps I took in case they actually did pave the way for the clean boot step to work. I also suspect the clean boot approach may work for some of the people having trouble installing Psiwin in earlier versions of Windows.
Just wanted to share my experience in case it's of use. I hadn't used my Psion for a while and couldn't really remember how you were supposed to install PsiWin so I might not have done it in the correct order.
I run Vista with UAC enabled and logon as a standard user. I downloaded and installed PsiWin 2.3.3 using my standard user account. It installed and attempted to connect to my Psion. I cancelled this since I hadn't bought a USB-serial adapter in case I couldn't install it.
When it arrived, I plugged it straight into the laptop (i.e. didn't attempt to install any drivers of the CD because it made no mention of Vista) and allowed Vista to search the internet for drivers.
It's installed as "Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port". The details are:
Driver Provider: Prolific
Driver Date: 04/11/2005
Driver Version: 2.0.2.1
Driver Signer: microsoft windows hardware compatibility publisher
and the files are: ser2pl.sys and serenum.sys from Prolific Technology Inc.
The USB-Serial adapter installed as COM4 - I left the settings as the default, plugged in my Psion, changed My Psion to use COM4 only, hit connect and it worked. Couldn't have asked for anything easier. I haven't tested all of the features but I have successfully copied and converted a Word document to my laptop.
Yes, Vista works just great, and I'm really please that you found a USB to serial converter that works.
The only difference I noticed when moving from my old Windows 98 2nd Ed to Vista has been the speed that mail synchronises; it take no more than half the time on Vista that it did on Win98. I always thought synchronisation was I/O bound, trapped by the limitation of the serial connection, but I guess there's more to it than that.
Having followed your thread & purchased the Videk USB connection, I have successfully installed PsiWin 2.3.3 & have enabled Com 4 but still cannot connect. I use a laptop with a laser mouse. Could there be com port conflicts. Any ideas how I might establish the connection?
It's identified as Com Port 4 which I've checked in Psion Properties.
I thought I'd installed the USB converter drivers from the disk before installing PsiWin but maybe I need to do it again; maybe I didn't do it correctly in the first place? I've tried to uninstall PsiWin before uninstalling the converter drivers & trying again but a dialog pops up saying words to the effect taht PsiWin\psconv.exe. is in use & that any application using this file should be closed. I can't see that there is any file open that's using this file so I'm stumped.
Don't know if this helps but I didn't install the drivers from the CD - I let Vista find its own because there was no mention of Vista on the box or the driver CD.
Do you have the same driver details that I had (see above).
I can't be of much more help because a week or two after I posted that my daughter trod on the Psion's power lead and when it hit the deck it didn't bounce!
I'm new to this forum but I can see others have had the same problem as me. I've done all the right things including installing the USB to serial driver and cable, installing and reinstalling Psiwin 2.3.3 and identifying the ports correctly on my Psion 3c as identified on the device driver.
While trying to connect I get the little moving wavy line on the Psion but the PC (Toshiba Equium A200 running Vista Home Premium) consistently fails to connect and the 'connection' line on the PC stays flat.
I am at my wits end. Can anyone suggest a solution?
Dave
I have just installed WINPSI 2.3.3 on my laptop with Vista O.S. and used a USB to DB9 serial adaptor from Maplin (Prolific Serial to USB adaptor). It works for synchronisation and copying and converting sheet files but I can't convert my wrd files because the program thinks they are sheet files. Any suggestions?
PSIWin and Vista
PsiWin & Vista
Linear Mode
