GPS Problems with Windows 7

[nostramo.moody]

Hi,
I have 2 Laptops, one lod using XP and a new ASUS with Windows 7 Premium.
I have Open cpn loaded on both, I have a Globalstar 353 GPS aerial. It all works perfectly on xp. On windows 7 after a period of time (anything from 5 minutes to several hours) the ship icon turns grey and stops giving info. I then cannot close the programme i have to re boot the computer and the gps is working again.
Has anyone shared or solved this problem.
Many thanks.. John.

[gchabs]

I have the Capn on an xp machine and an old Garmin 48 xl gps hooked up by wire. No problems, ever. I also have a samsung netbook with WIndows 7 and use OpenCPM with the same Garmin. It never seems to work for very long. It will get a position, show me on the chart, but if I start moving, within 5 minutes, it locks up. I then have to close OpenCPM and start over. You are not alone. I am not a techie, but I think it might have something to do with Windows 7's interface with the program. Good luck. I'll be monitoring this thread. George - Papagayo

[John A]

In laymens terms.
Some systems developed on a computer using Windows XP use routines that are incompatible with Windows Vista and/or Windows 7.
Even the Mircosoft Office 2003 has a struggle to operate on Windows 7.
The Mircosoft helpdesk can be a resource for help in identifying packages that will need to be upgraded to run on Windows 7.
Mircosoft nolonger supports Windows XP.

[sailson]

Within the last month I just read on a tech support site that MS was going to extend support for XP, and actually was allowing Vista users to scrub Vista and replace it with a MS certified XP program.

sailson

[John A]

Originally Posted by sailson

Within the last month I just read on a tech support site that MS was going to extend support for XP, and actually was allowing Vista users to scrub Vista and replace it with a MS certified XP program.

sailson

Thanks for the update!
XP is in the process of dying, one of the ways Microsoft generates revenue is to make older systems obsolete. Vista always has had its problems.
A full blown Windows 7 system will fit on a laptop but should be tailored to fit on smaller notebooks.
I wouldn't recommend putting Windows 7 on older computers.
I upgraded from Windows Vista to Windows 7 on a 64bit machine no problem.

[CarCode]

Windows 7 and Vista are available for 32-bit and also for 64-bit. Might be that is the reason when using a 64-bit machine. 32-bit code applications runs on 64-bit machines but it sounds for me there is a driver problem when it freezes. For further help please check if you have 32-bit or 64-bit.

[tager]

The problem is your operating system. Choose a different one.

[s/vPainkiller]

So does this mean that Open CPN is not recommended to run on Win 7?

[dacust]

Originally Posted by s/vPainkiller

So does this mean that Open CPN is not recommended to run on Win 7?

It is absolutely intended to run on Win7.

But being new development, and not many in here on Win7, there are occasional glitches.

If you keep posting your issues in here, they will get fixed. And it will help everyone who comes after you using Win 7.

I have it running on my 7 machine here at home, but don't have a GPS hooked up to it, so I can't test many scenarios.

-dan

[bdbcat]

Hi...

Is the Garmin48 a pure USB or standard serial device?. By pure, I mean that there is no USB-Serial converter cable required.

If it is a pure USB interface, then the problem could be with the Garmin provided GPS device driver. OpenCPN uses whatever Garmin driver is found on the host system.

Anybody tried any of the compatibility modes for OpenCPN on Win7 with Garmin48?

Dave

[CarCode]

Once again, is it not possible to mention if it is a 32-bit or a 64-bit Windows 7?
There are severe differences for that especially with drivers.

[John A]

Originally Posted by CarCode

Once again, is it not possible to mention if it is a 32-bit or a 64-bit Windows 7?
There are severe differences for that especially with drivers.

I bought my desktop HP at a bargin price because it was running Windows Vista (8G 64bit quad processer). When I updated to Windows 7, I also had to apply upgrades to HP-DOS. Shortly after that HP sent me a download of 15 updates for INTEL Ram drivers.
Apple and Microsoft went ballistic at the proformance of Adobe Flash Player with their new operating systems, amongst other things Google Earth would not work until Adobe got their act together and sent out a free upgrade to their Flash Player.

Everything works now. But be aware that all of the help-desk were located in India.
There is considerable processing that goes on to support end-user applications.

[CarCode]

So you might have the 64-bit version of Windows 7.
As you have seen already there is still not so much support for 64-bit systems and a lot of drivers are still missing for 64-bit. In my opinion it is not a good decision to buy a 64-bit system right now. Better wait for such systems some years when the support becomes better for 64-bit.

For many older hardware you will not get 64-bit drivers anymore because the older hardware like GPS devices is outdated and replaced with newer versions by their manufacturers. So switching to a 64-bit system makes a lot of trouble for the owner.

[dacust]

Originally Posted by CarCode

So you might have the 64-bit version of Windows 7.
As you have seen already there is still not so much support for 64-bit systems and a lot of drivers are still missing for 64-bit. In my opinion it is not a good decision to buy a 64-bit system right now. Better wait for such systems some years when the support becomes better for 64-bit.

For many older hardware you will not get 64-bit drivers anymore because the older hardware like GPS devices is outdated and replaced with newer versions by their manufacturers. So switching to a 64-bit system makes a lot of trouble for the owner.

I have had no issues with my 64bit Win 7 machine at all (HP AMD quad-core). And no issues with OpenCPN that I did not also have on my 32 bit XP machine.

Once again, I don't have a GPS hooked to my Win 7 machine. So, I might well have issues there...

-dan

[John A]

The difference between 32bit and 64bit has to do with the number of bits (8 bits per byte) that can be transfered within memory during one cycle.
This is so far into the internal processing of memory that applications running on a windows platform are not aware of the process.
What happens with programs developed to run on older versions of an operating system, XP vs 7 for example, is that the funcionality of a sub-program (how to display on a screen or how to read/write to a disc) has been renamed or the method has been altered to take advantage of the new operation system, making it unusable by an older program.
I would suggest that before considering an upgrade that you go to the MSN website and run a program that will do an inventory of everything you have on your computer and identify those applications that won't run with Windows 7.