Might have to 'downgrade' the Sherline shop PC

Rich M. was kind enough to donate a PC for the Sherline CNC lathe preloaded with Windows 10. I tried to download the necessary software today. Mach 4 would otherwise work fine on Windows 10. HOWEVER because we need to use the legacy parallel port plug in - it turns out that the plug in does NOT work on anything beyond Windows 7 or 8 and in 32 bit mode ONLY (ONLY!!!).
I have a clean purchased version of windows 7 which I can donate which means we may have to downgrade the PC to W7. I really hate to do that, but if we want it to work it’s what we have to do. Cost for Mach 4 is $200 and the plug-in will be $25. Of course, if we have to downgrade to W7 we might as well go with Mach 3 at a total of $175.

Cheers!

Can’t 10 be run virtuall at 32 bit?

I hope so. I just don’t know what is necessary to do so. It simply crapped out because it wasn’t 32 bit mode while trying to install the plug-in. any and all help is appreciated.

In Windows 10, you should be able to set the Windows compatibility mode in the properties for any software, and run it in 32 bit Windows 7 mode. It doesn’t work for every bit of software out there, but it does for most in my experience.

Is the parallel port plugin something that is a hardware parallel port dongle? Or is it a software plugin?

I have a mini-tower Dell Optiplex I’m willing to donate if the shop would like, and it has a parallel port on it.

It is a software plug-in. it craps out on installation because we are not 32 bit mode. any help is appreciated,

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thank you kindly. If we can get this to work, we’re ok. the worse case is we have to rebuild it under windows 7. Keep in mind this is a computer dedicated to the machine shop. thanks!

Might be able to reinstall 32 bit Windows 10 and give that a spin

unfortunately I don’t have the windows 10 install disk. but I’ll see what I can find. thanks.

Gotcha. Is the installer an executable file? If so, you can try running the installer itself in 32 bit mode, if you select that in the file properties before running it.

that’s a good idea. I didn’t consider that. I’ll be in tomorrow to try.

Im not what sure our licensing agreement is with Microsoft but the software can be obtained… Team Infrastructure should be able to tell us.? can someone tag them

also with these old drivers and programs if they were built for 32 bit only and they’re calling certain interrupts (likely in this case) the software will install in Program Files (x86) but at launch it will prompt you that the software was designed for 32 bit operating system etc. You cant set compatibility mode for 16bit programs in the 64 bit O/S that i’m aware of, but you can with the 32 bit.

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Not a problem, and I understood it was dedicated to the machine shop. This would be a donation and not a loan because, most importantly to my wife, this is a machine leaving our house and not coming back. :smiley:

I’ll be up there at around 1645 for the weld process safety class. If someone wants to advise by around 1500, I can have it with me if needed.

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Just a reminder, arduino board running GRBL software connected to the existing drivers and all of these software hassles would go away. Any computer with a web browser would work. A $10 solution.

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Don’t go buy Windows 7… we have unused licenses…

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Your wife is a benefactor!

thank you

I have a Windows 10 install USB ready to go if you want to try that. I don’t recall being given an option to select 32 or 64 bit thought and I just finished installing it a week or two ago. Maybe my installer is in 64 bit, so there’s no choice at that point. I’ll look into it.

I saw this in my email summary and I came on here to suggest compatibility mode as well. It actually usually works. Not always. I think you get at it by right clicking the installer and something in some menu. Google it I suppose. You could also maybe use a virtual machine to simulate windows 7.

The thing is- if it worked on 7 it should work on 10 in almost all cases. If this was a Win 95/98/Me program, then that’s a different story. We used to have to downgrade our computers to run some of the HPLC lab equipment.

I know it was donated to the machine shop, but the 3D printing lab really needs new computers, and I’d be happy to find an old computer to trade :stuck_out_tongue:.

OS installs need to be done by Infrastructure (@StanSimmons). We have licenses already purchased and we need to use them instead of random ones provided by members (no offense!). In the past we had an issue with cracked keys being used.

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