Tony's Windows XP experience

[mobythevan]

moved from the sticky, if you are going to use windows XP read this

 

I am MS-n-S on my setup. I have changed to another box someone else purchased off e-bay with the

 

same results in Megatune.

 

All three of my boxes do the same thing. Box1 seems to have toasted something now, and I

 

substituted Box2 to same effect. Swapped CPU chips between fried Box1 to Box 2 and CPU function

 

was good, so I took something out in front of the CPU as it apears fine.

 

I am looking at two avenues right now:

1) Power and Ground

 

2)Software interpratation of what the MS is telling it. I remember testing with the old B&G

 

PCC when I built the boxes, and everything was fine... Took me this long to realize that fact! I

 

had tried the PCC later and there was some conflict that would not allow it to functinon with the

 

MSS setup.

 

When I originally tested with PCC, all boards checked good. Now while using the Stimulator there

 

is the tach interference (even though the RPM CALC portion of the MSS is reading stead and

 

correct---Magnus says that is the PC's interpratation of the hi-res ignition signal from the MS,

 

so the PC is reading it correctly, the software for Megatune or MTSS is not.... I see some fixes

 

are coming with changing of a counter to a prime number to stop erratic tach issues with some

 

installations, so maybe that gives me some hope.

 

It only came to me within the last week the PCC/Megatune discrepancy possibility. If this has

 

been a software issue from day one I will shoot something. Many times.

I doubt strongly this car will be running for the National Convention June 14-19th...

 

 

DO NOT RUN MTSS OR MT ON A WINDOWS XP COMPUTER!

 

If you are having "tach interference" problems and you are running a Windows XP computer, TRY

 

ANOTHER COMPUTER BEFORE WASTING SIX MONTHS OF YOUR LIFE!

 

The tach is totally stable on the box when hooked up to Jeff Priddy's Dell running Win98SE.

 

I have updated my laptop to the latest software configuration like Jeff has on his computer

 

(downloaded all the stuff this morning) and tried again, and my WIN-XP computer shows the MTSS

 

and MT tachs all over the place. The pulsewidth is jumping all over, the O2 voltage, etc etc etc.

 

But on Jeff's Win98SE computer, rock steady and copasetic.

 

I actually was able to change parameters within the ignition table and NOT have five other random

 

bins change to some other number...

 

So, all the experimentation, filtering, clamping, resistor adding was for NOTHING! I am currently

 

running a B&G V2.0 Chip on a V2.2 Build board, and V3.0 software for MSS. No Dave cap, no Ed

 

cap boosting, no R10 amping above 390 ohms. Just like Mobys' setup said: straight out of the box,

 

and it's working.

 

Now, with three weeks till the national conventions' track day, and me being on the road for the

 

next two of them I strongly doubt this box will see the light of day until after the convention.

 

Looks like I'm off to Staples to buy "System Commander" and set up a bootable sector for Win98SE

 

and then transfer the files (mss and msq) over to there to continue.

 

I wonder what it is with WinXP???

 

 

I don't understand it either, Forrest!

All I know, is that the tach display in MT and MTSS when hooked up via a WIN98SE laptop was ROCK

 

STEADY, allowing me to actually start programming the fuel and spark map. No longer were the bin

 

values in the Spark Table randomly changing, and no longer did an entry in one bin cause three

 

others to be rewritten in gibberish...

If I let MTSS run long enough, eventually most the the lower RPM bins would be rewritten

 

automatically to values near the upper end of a rev range (10000+) and occasionally, all my VE

 

points would be skewed al the way to the right of the MT screen!

 

I is not doing that on the Win98SE laptop.

 

From feedback I am getting, only three people were using this setup with XP, You, me, and another

 

who stated something abit vague, but was now wondering if the chipsets used in XP differ, as some

 

of his installations wre fine, other times they are not, and the only link he has found is using

 

a different laptop (all his computers are XP).

 

I went back and double checked I had identical software, and that the "run in XP" mode box was

 

checked, and same problem: tach all over the place and MTSS rewriting the bins as time

 

progressed!

 

Like many other times in the field I stop over-thinking and say"I don't care if it doesn't make

 

sense, It's what the thing is doing, and I KNOW this stops it, so there is the solution!"

 

I have spent MONTHS putting filter circuits into the box, clamping diodes here and there to the

 

point I could see absolutely NO interference on IRQ1---yet it still did it. It was at that point,

 

and that point ONLY that I allowed another laptop to be used.

 

I should have done that MONTHS ago! I have wasted my time chasing a problem that DOES NOT EXIST!

 

The box I am currently reading is Straight out of the buil instructions, no Dave Cap, no Ed Cap

 

upgrade, no R10 other than the 390 ohm unit that was called out and supplied in the GB last go

 

around! NO mods whatsoever.

 

ON my XP laptop, the tach is all over the place, and the bins get rewritten. and the MTSS "Engine

 

Status" bar lights up like a christmas tree!

 

On JeffP's Win98SE laptop, all indicates "status normal". On MTSS the only light illuminated when

 

running on the engine status bar is "engine running"

 

It may not make any logical sense, but that is what it is doing!

 

I am in the process of picking up "System Commander" and will load a bootable sector on my laptop

 

to see if WIN98SE booted on this laptop will show similar results.

This will allow me to point a finger at the OS or the Computer definatively as the cause of the

 

problems. If it does not work on WIn98SE on this laptop, then it's a laptop issue, and I can be

 

very upset that my Viao is usless to me in this endeavour.

 

If, on the other hand, it WORKS....that will only give me another reason to hate Microsoft and

 

theri damnable buggy bloatware and incompatibility issues---making me harken back to my Amiga

 

where I coulddrag and drop from program to program in 1989, a full DECADE before MS tried the

 

emulation....

I digress...

 

 

The emulation box comes up in advanced properties when selected. You are supposed to check and

 

make sure after installation that it has defaulted to the proper setting.

I believe you can right click on the program icon or name from the programs menu (or start menu

 

in my case for MTSS), select properties, compatibility, and then "run this program in

 

compatibility mode for" will become evident. The only chioce available for MTSS and Megatune was

 

"Windows 2000" on my software---even the updated stuff.

 

So it was in "Windows 2000" and most people who have responded to the XP/2000 question seem to be

 

in agreement that on some XP machines 2K software is a drop-in, and in others it simply is not,

 

and requires rewriting for a patch to work properly in XP.

 

God, I love Bill Gates an Microsoft. My old Amiga run Unix.... Maybe I could run it on that....

 

Strap an inverter into the car and have my old Unix based Amiga 1000 running a Unix based MT and

 

MTSS. As soon as someone wrotethe code!

 

So there you have it.

 

 

Well, had some time finally, and got back to the 260ZT project. I picked up a USB to Serial

 

Adapter while I was in Taiwan, along with a 512Mb Thumb Drive, so I moved the appropriate files

 

from the Sony Vaio to my Work Dell, and went at it.

The Dell, running Windows Pro is not showing any of the funny spark scatter irregularities that I

 

saw on the Sony.

Same as with JeffP's Win2K setup on the Toshiba.

 

So now, I got another hour of idle time, and some repairs to do to get stuff up to snuff after

 

sitting all these months, but hopefully now it's just a matter of cleaning out some sticky

 

injectors and doing some final tuning.

 

For the first time since starting the project, I am not getting funky tach readings. Though right

 

now, the thing doesn't want to do much more than idle...even when fully warmed. But I will handle

 

that as it comes.

 

Just updating everyone on the progress. If you have persistent tach scatter, change your computer

 

and make sure it's not something inside the laptop giving you false readings!

[Xander]

hmmm... i have been running XP on my older pentium II laptop for a couple of months now. No problems whatsoever.

 

I guess newer laptops are not that good at handling the rs232 port.

[Tony D]

I recently took that laptop into the dealer for servicing.

When I got it back, I had a new motherboard, hard drive, touchpad membrane, keyboard, and whatever else they deemed necessary.

 

It would connect to my network at home via the PC Slot wireless card, but would not show up via the ethernet port on the back of the machine. It would SHOW a connection, it would SHOW that it was connected, but you just couldn't GO anywhere! At first, when at the service counter, they thought it was "my settings" but after a quick checkout, off it went for the above mentioned repairs.

 

Have not tried that laptop since. The USB to Serial adapter on the Dell is working fine, using a Pentium 4 Chipset, and HP Pro.

 

It's just something that on the board nobody would even ACKNOWLEDGE as an issue. It was rewriting the tables randomly, and ACTING like a dirty tach signal. Remember the KEY thing in diagnosing it was to put the "RPM CALC" gauge on the screen, that is the High Resolution signal FROM the MS that the COMPUTER is reading to determine the RPM to show on ALL the other "Tachs" in all the other programs!

 

My RPM Calc was steady as a rock, but EVERYTHING ELSE was jittering around like crazy!

[randy 77zt]

so its best to work on megasquirt with windows 98 or me but not xp-so much for getting a new computor.my old(vintage 1998) gateway has windows me on it .it has a file corrupted by a virus-i think i might just reload the windows me again.or put this old thing on a cart to work on my car with and get the new computor anyway.