Although
the programmer and software have been designed to work with all PCs with
an SPP or ECP parallel port, there are occasions when the programmer will
not work straight away. Should you encounter any problems, just follow
the steps below and hopefully these will resolve any issues you encounter.
- Firstly,
ensure that you are running the very latest software. If you have purchased
the programmer through one of our distributors, it is quite possible
that the programmer has been held in stock for a period of time. The
software version number is printed on the CD-envelope label, and is
also displayed on the splash screen when initializing the programmer
after double-clicking on the ChipWin icon. To see if this has been superceeded,
please check our web site on the Internet, at www.dataio.com.
This will show the latest software version number and release date,
plus a full list of associated updates, changes and amendments.
- The
power to the ChipWriter programmers is controlled by the software. This
means that the Power LED will not necessarily light when the programmer
is first powered up. This ensures that power is not wasted if the programmer
is being run off batteries. The programmer will also power down automatically
during periods of inactivity. Try running the Selftest, in DOS, or running
ChipWin. The light should come on as the programmer is initialised.
- Although
the programmer has been fully tested on a range of different PCs, you still may encounter some communication problems. If that is the case, firstly check that the parallel port is set to ECP or SPP mode from within the PC BIOS. Also, some printer drivers capture the parallel port, and interfere with the programmer signals. It may well be worth disabling the printer if you encounter any intermittent communications problems.
- If
the PC hangs at the splash screen when running WinLV, there are a number
of possible causes, and solutions. Try adding C:\ChipWin to the PATH
statement in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file, this occasionally resolves this
problem, and also ensure that C:\WINDOWS; C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM and C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND
are also in the PATH statement. Also check that there are no unnecessary
semi-colons (;) within the PATH statement - it can make all the difference.
- The
WINLV.INI file in the CHIPWIN directory may also have become corrupt.
Delete this file and run ChipWin again.
- For
NT users, ensure that the software was installed while logged on in Administrator mode.
- Also
for NT users, check that the very latest NT4 Service Pack has been installed. Currently, NT software is checked on NT4, Service Pack 6
- Some
PCs and Notebooks require separate software utilities which may solve any port connection problems. These are required as certain branded machines do not use standard Chipsets for their parallel ports, and may also include power saving and low voltage features on the I/O ports. Here are a selection of sites that we have found to be useful :
Currently
there is no support for UNIX or LINUX Operating systems. However, LINUX drivers are under development, and should be available at a later date. Other OS platforms are also being considered. Details of these will be available on our web site. If
you do have any problems at all, either with installing the programmer or software, or with general usage, just contact our Technical Support team, who will be happy to help:
email:
techhelp@dataio.com
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