As I understand, some (many?) laptops and maybe desktops do not provide 
the RS-232 voltage levels of +/- 12 VDC, but maybe TTL levels, and/or no 
negative voltages. Also there may be an issue of providing enough power. 
I assume the laptop has USB ports available. You might look at an 
USB/RS-232 adapter, noting that some of those adapters may not provide 
the necessary voltage/amperage. Might look at
http://www.scantool.net/accessories/usb-to-rs232-converter.html
I don't know if that will do the job, but seems like it might, and at 
$13, that's hard to beat. I recently got a Nettop, with no RS-232, but 
has 3 USB. Am considering getting one to talk to PIC embedded systems 
and a PLC.

On 7/21/2010 11:04 AM, Roger Weichert wrote:
> Hi guys,
>
> I have a factory programing adaptor used for updating some small boards I
> repair (Boumatic). It will allow altering settings in the eprom of
> PIC16F84's or reprograming the entire chip. It's old and runs on DOS.
>
> I recently installed XP on the old laptop that I normally use to run it, and
> now it wont work the adaptor properly.
>
> Perhaps one time in ten, it will read the old settings in the pic, but when
> I edit them and attempt to send them to the pic, it comes up with "Hardware
> Fault ... check connections, power etc".
>
> I didn't know whether it was my prog adaptor, cables, software or settings,
> so tried my desktop with XP. Same problem.
>
> After a lot of stuffing about I eventually resurrected a 15 year old machine
> out of the shed (running Win95) and it works fine. Phew!!!
>
> So the adaptor is ok, and the drive software  ... it must be in the settings
> of the serial port I'm trying to use  ...  although I compared the settings
> for both and made sure they were the same. Or some subtle difference in the
> way XP handles the serial port compared to Win95 ???
>
> Does anyone have any ideas what may be the problem. I'd like to revert to
> the laptop for my workshop jobs rather than have a dinasaur desktop taking
> up space.
>
> Regards,  Roger
>
>    
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