Favorite macro no longer working since going to X7

[Scott Challoner]

My computer crashed a couple of months ago and I had to buy a new laptop running Windows 8.1. There were issues running CD X5 with 8.1 so I upgraded to X7 and now my macros don't work (another rant all together, but I'm not at all happy with 8.1 and X7. Super slow, but I digress). I finally got my eCut macros to work again but I have been using a macro written by a creeker called SerialNamer that I used for print merges and it no longer works. It just comes up with "System Error-Unspecified Error" when I try to run it. I tried reaching out to the creator, but I don't think he's very active anymore. It worked with X5 and Windows 7, but no more. Any ideas?

[Kev Williams]

At this moment I'm on my one and only 8.1 computer, an HP Pavillion w/8 gigs ram and four 2.8gig processors, and this POC is slower than my 12 or so year old single 3.2 processor E-machine with 1 gig of ram. This thing always acts like it has to move 1/2 gig of data across my network before it'll do anything else.

My fastest computer is some old used Dell I bought from a computer 'flipper', running 64 bit Win7 Enterprise, with 2 processors and 4 gigs of ram. Nearly (<<) everything I ask it to do is instantaneous.

Win8 should NEVER have been installed in 'regular' compters.

My advice, go backwards. I have 9 computers on all day, 2 are running Win98, 1 is 7, 1 is 8.1, all the others are running XP, out of necessity because 7 and 8 wont run the majority of my machines, OR my Quickbooks software. Got tired of fighting the problem 2 years ago. And yes, all my computers are online, and no hacks. I run Avast free antivirus software, and it's never failed me yet. knock on my head... ;)

[andrew zen]

Het Scott,

Andy here. All these legacy things can be fixed using virtual machines. VMWare is the leader, and there are a few out there. For things like this, I use VirtualBox from Oracle. Its free and pretty fast. But I'll get flamed for that choice. I like it becasue it is the only that runs on Mac, Windows, Linux, Solaris and free and allows USB pass through.
https://www.virtualbox.org/

What a virtual machine is, is a PC within a PC. Basically, an entire computer become a program with its own window.

You get an ISO image of the last Windows OS that everything worked on, like XP. There are some "Tiny" ones out there you can download, that are bare bones. You create a new virtual machine from the VirtualBox UI, by creating a file the size of a hard drive, maybe 20 or 30 GByte. You "insert" the Windows CD into the CD Drive fo the virtual machine, You do this from the UI by selecting the ISO image for the XP OS. Because Virtual machines don't have any specific hardware, it's all emulated. You can assign the VM your CDROM, but who has those anymore. Be sure to setup the network interface using a card Windows XP knows like "md PCNet". There are a few choices that work but you have to have the driver. "E1000" and "RTL8139" and other. Maybe adjust your display and give it 64 MByte or more. And alos give the virtual machine 1GB or more of RAM. This is borrowed from youR host computer, and it looks like you have a few Gig to spare.

With the Hard Disk file created and the CDROM mounted, "Start" the machine. A Window pops up looking like the Windows Installer we all and love if you ever built your machine. Go through the process of installing. And you have a "Virtual Computer" and you will never have to worry about it crashing.

With Virtual MAchines VMs you can create snapshots which basically saves the state of the VM at that point in time. and you can export a machine to an external USB drive for loading on another computer if need be, or as a backup.

Next thing is to create an image of the coral draw to an ISO file.

I use IgmBurn (http://imgburn.com/) but it adds AdAware, just uninstall it. There are other ISO creators and maybe Windows 8.1 does it.

Mount the CoralDraw ISO file to the VM's CDROM and install CoralDraw.

Install the Laser drivers and you are off to the races. And this setup is guaranteed not to crash if you backup the VM.


Slightly advanced is to mount and boot off a gparted ISO (http://gparted.sourceforge.net/download.php) into the CDROM and partition your VM C: Drive and create a D: Drive. (Shrink the C Drive 10 GB) and add a new primary partition. If you took a snapshot before doing this, you can always go back if you screwed up the partitioning. I like to put all my design files on a D: drive.

The process of sharing files is all over the network now. So on your virtual machine you should share a folder so that others can network map it even if they are running on the same computer. VirtualBox does allow you to mount a local directory from the host machine, nut that will take some experience and little googling.

Good Luck,

[Kev Williams]

Het Scott,

Andy here. All these legacy things can be fixed using virtual machines.
With all due respect, no, they can't...

You can't put a VM on a 64 bit machine and have the VM work like a 32 bit machine. Things work fine for awhile, then....

New computers have no LPT or COM ports. I have 13 machines run by computer, and 10 of them require a serial or parallel port.
I recently bought a USB-to-serial adapter. Worked great for about 2 days, then it started sending garbage data to
the machine. My customers love to hear that their parts are screwed up because of some cable I have to use on a newer computer...
And you'll need these adapters, VM or not, on a computer with no ports.
And speaking of ports, I spent a whole weekend puting VirtualBox on my Win8 here, and the XP works great! Except VirtualBox
refused to let the USB ports do anything. Like they weren't there.
I put an XP VM on 2 used computers with Win7pro 64. Neither Win7 nor the XP VM would run my 2005 Quickbooks or my
HP 3050 laserjet printer.

I fixed all my problems by dumping Win7 and installing XP on every computer that runs a machine around here.
That was about 18 months ago and I've had zero issues whatsoever. For me at least, VM's just don't work...

[John Noell]

While VMs cannot do everything, I've been using a 32 bit XP on a 64 bit Win7 box or years with almost no problems (and no new ones for along time). But Kev is right about ports. I worked on a lot of yachtie computers where the nav equipment uses RS-232 serial ports. Almost all of the USB-RS-232 adapters you can buy use cheap Chinese knock-off chips and flaky drivers. BUT, Texas Instruments makes a fantastic chipset that worked for me on every single set of equipment. If you HAVE to have RS-232, it's worth the hassle to find the TI solution.

[andrew zen]

The OP was about getting CorelDraw to work. I use QuickBook 2011 with no issues, With it on a VM I can get to it anywhere as I have a pinhole through my Firewall and remote Desktop into it. This helps with off site quotes and billing. But I will upgrade to QB2015 eventually. or 2016. Another Story.

There is USB passthrough in VirtualBox. There is pretty much one main chipset (other than TI) out there and it is the Prolific USB to Serial. Can't remember the name. I live near a Fry's so there are several brands of USB to serial converters. Apparently, there are counterfeit vendors of the chip inside the converters. I know, I bought two of them in a single day. They didn't work, and the prolific drivers were flaky. and the drivers on the CD worked XP only and I had 64 bit Windows 7. Of course the Prolific drivers from the Prolific website didn't work. But the PC identified the chip as Prolific. So back to Fry's I went. Instead of spending $8 on the cheap counterfeit ones, I spent $30 for the real one, and it worked.


LPT ports?? I havnt; seen one of those on a computer for a long time. But I have used an ethernet to LPT with success.

Here is one, If you have a device with LPT port, I think you should assume you will have to get one of these to open up your computer choices.
http://www.amazon.com/TL-PS110P-parallel-ethernet-Internet-Printing/dp/B003CFATR4/ref=sr_1_1/179-0953366-7346166?ie=UTF8&qid=1430850790&sr=8-1&keywords=parallel+to+ethernet


Of course it all depends on the host machine. But I use VMs for clients so that I don't have to rebuild their machines if they get viruses and it works. But everything is networked.

Also upgrade your VirtualBox, they are alsways fixing something.


VMs aren't a solution, they are a tool as part of a solution. Maybe get an ethernet to serial adapter, or ethernet to USB. Then any computer can get access to the device and the distance can increase.

My laser is ethernet based. I use a USB barcode reader and do the USB pass through with no issue. At least on my system. That's where I learned how to setup. I use VMs because I don't want to rebuild ever....

[Scott Challoner]

Thanks everyone. I definitely need to do something as the macro situation as well as multiple crashes of X7 are becoming intolerable.
Andy, next time you find yourself in WI...

[andrew zen]

To allow USB devices to be accessed by the Virtual Machine, you need to tell the host OS to ignore them as a USB is a point-to-point protocol, and pass them through to one of the virtual machines running.

You create filters within Virtual Box.
https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch03.html#idp96329040

Once VirtualBox is installed and the bin directory of VirtualBox is in your Windows PATH.

VBoxManage list usbhost

You will be looking for "Manufacturer" and "Product" by name or SERIAL NUMBER if you have more than one of the same device. Create a USB filter and tell which VM will use the filter and you are golden.

Little bit of a hassle, but a great feature.

[John Noell]

I should have also mentioned the Prolific 2303 chipset that Andrew notes. Very widespread and very good. BUT - the TI and Prolific chips are the ONLY ones I have had consistent success with. IMO, if you need a USB to RS-232 adapter, buying an adapter with any other chipset is most likely going to lead to annoyance at best.