Protel 99SE - a good choice

Why don't you give the 30-day trial of 99SE (with SP6) a try and see how you like it?

Personally, I think 2 boards a year is going to be inefficient whatever you do-- the programs are just too complex to stay quick on them unless you are using them fairly regularly. Maybe it's cheaper to use a second computer with Win-whatever OS loaded to use your old software so you can avoid the learning curve.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

--
"it\'s the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com

Well worth it. I like Protel99SE better than most $1M packages that some companies I've worked for bought.....

Bo

How about a FAT32 partition and a Boot Manager? http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:e0R7iiJZWwQJ:

...or as Speff said, a separate, specialized, retro box for CAD.

http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:e0R7iiJZWwQJ:

Yeah, I reckon that would work. It would sure be less-expensive than

99SE. I could avoid the 99SE learning curve, too. I don't think that 99SE offers anything that I desperately need anyway. So I'll ask my local computer shop weenies how much they'll charge to slap together a nifty little machine with 98SE on it.

Thanks for the help, everyone!

-- m.e.

Hard to advise without a handle on what problems the old protel is having.

You could also look at VMWare to create a virtual machine setup for and running whatever OS seems to work best.

There appears to be a 30 day evaluation available and at $189 it is cheaper than another machine.

Protel 3.x under XP appears to be having a host of problems. The only reproducible one is when I hit the scroll wheel on my mouse -- that's guaranteed to cause Protel AdvPCB to crash instantly with a General Protection error. It generally takes two or three attempts after that to relaunch Protel, the first one or two attempts crash immediately, too. Often Protel will have forgotten the files I was working on, and will often forget my workspace settings, too. This error can be caused on both of my machines, one of which has a scroll area on the touchpad.

Often, the crashes result in Protel corrupting or weirdly messing up its own config files (.ini, .rcs, etc.) so re-launches are always an adventure.

Even if I tossed the mouse for a two-button type, and figured out how to disable the touchpad's scroll area, Protel still has its own set of exciting and unpredictable crashes that occur "just because," near as I can tell, which occur at random times, and don't seem to be associated with any particular operation.

In addition, just to mix it up, there are subtle errors that occur, in which case Protel will helpfully provide a "Protel has lunched -- Continue? Save and Quit?" dialog. Saving and quitting often results in corrupted files, while continuing seems to work just fine...until an hour later I may discover that the board I have been working wasn't really being saved anywhere on the HD, despite repeated File > Saves.

So what's the scoop on VMWare? Looks pretty geeky. But, as you say, at $189, it might be the low-cost solution to an otherwise messy and embarrassing problem. Thank you!

-- m.e.

Probably some windows message it is getting which it doesn't understand and handles ungracefully.

On the other stuff I've used Protel for years, and it often had trouble recovering from crashes.

It creates virtual machines, emulated real machines complete with BIOS and peripherals. Hard drives are emulated with files on the host machine. The host machine floppy drives, CD drives, LPT, serial ports, and USB devices can be attached to the virtual machines. It also supports networking so the virtual machine can be attached to the hosts network.

The emulation is fast, if you install VMware drivers for video mouse etc for the target OS (check win95 is still supported) you will hardly notice you are running a virtual machine. You can also take and manage multiple 'snapshots' of the complete virtual machine state so if something goes wrong you can just set the machine back to how it was yesterday or whenever.

Install VM ware, stick a win95 boot CD in the drive and you could be running win95 in 10 minutes.

If it can solve your protel problems I think it will be a better solution than another machine and its only going to cost you some time to try it.

There's Qemu (free)

VmWare (already mentioned)

Or put a seperate machine in the cellar with TightVNC, and remote control it from your ordinary computer.

A laptop with Win98 + Protel maybe is the less fuss solution. Just don't forget the backups.. ;)

I think you are right. It sounds good. I've downloaded and installed VMware. Anyone got a Win95 or 98SE boot CD they can sell me, or can tell me how to make a 98SE boot CD out of this 98SE install CD I'm holding here?

-- m.e.

Isn't Protel 3.x a 16-bit application from Win3.x ? If so, you might be able to get it running using DosBOX, which is a DOS Emulator (for windows and *nix), if you have some old Win3.x install disks.

Thanks, but no got Win 3.x install disks. I recall that Protel 3.x ran pretty stable under 95/98 -- I have a 98SE install disk, I would like to create a bootable CD from that. Can anyone point me to simple step-by-step "how to"? Many TIA's.

-- m.e.

Belay that. My local computer retailer geeks tell me that my Win2000 and Win98SE install disks are already bootable. I misunderstood the "bootable" bit, thinking it meant that one could boot the OS from the CD's, not that they could be booted from for installation. Even as I speak Win2K is installing and, fingers crossed, phase of the moon correct, luck be a lady tonight, Protel 3.x will install and think it is on a Win2k box, and I recall that Protel 3.x seemed to be happy under that OS. Thanks, everyone. I will, just for the archives, report how well this crafty idea works.

-- m.e.

Your version of bottom-posting (without trimming ANYTHING) it a bit much.

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:ELi1nLLHdXgJ:

http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:qrpQzYlRGpUJ:*-*-on-*-NT4/2000/XP+use-this-boot-disk-on-*-bootable-CD+Mike-Elliott+zzz+Manually-create-*-*-*

Thanks for the links, and my apologies. Over on the Mozilla newsgroups a fellow gets reamed if he doesn't do anything OTHER than bottom-post without snipping. Every group has its own version of polite behavior.

-- m.e.

That would be a neat trick considering that there's no such thing as a win95 boot CD. The first microsoft OS on a bootable CD was windowsME. (Maybe 98, but certainly not 95)

Doesn't crash for me under XP Pro.......... did you set the program to W98/95 compatibility mode???

You might like a virtual PC using VMWare better. You'll avoid the old PC sitting in a corner taking up space. VMWare allows you to install Win98 in a virtual PC on your machine.

Markus

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  Markus Baertschi             Phone: ++41 (21) 807 1677
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Yes, I mentioned that in another response in this thread. I've tried all the compatibility modes. It's interesting that you're not having trouble . . . you're running Client (Protel 3.5/7)? I'm having this problem on both of my XP notebooks.

-- m.e.

Thank you, Markus. I have installed VWware WS and was ready to try this experiment when I discovered that I lost the activation key for my Win2000 install disk. I have ordered another copy of Win2000 and will continue this experiment when it arrives.

-- m.e.