An interesting insight, Peter. The advise that I take from that is that I should stick to running MPLAB under XP in Virtual Box. I have no problem doing that other than being puzzled at why I have to do so. And you have given me the simple two word answer : carp software. I suppose another option would be to try MPLAB-X though I am reluctant to start climbing another learning curve. Or to try ICD3 though that is substantial investment for a hobbyist, especially when there is no certainty that it would work. And it would be interesting to try it out on my W7 desktop when I have the time and energy.. Like you I prefer XP but I had to move on when Dropbox stopped working on it. __________________________________________ David C Brown 43 Bings Road Whaley Bridge High Peak Phone: 01663 733236 Derbyshire eMail: dcb.home@gmail.com SK23 7ND web: www.bings-knowle.co.uk/dcb *Sent from my etch-a-sketch* On 1 January 2018 at 03:20, Peter wrote: > Hi David, > > I have seen drivers part work / part fail before, on various hardware's. > 7 OS does do some strange things, reasons unknown. The only fix for many > of these cases has been to contact the software vendor and try to get > them to twiddle with the driver, to fix the software/hardware > conflict/failure. However this has not always been possible or successful= .. > > A driver installed in 7 may say all is good, and does go through it's > actions, where OS thinks all is okay, but driver part fails somewhere. > > You mentioned your replacement laptop hardware is a Thinkpad. The vendor > to this brand, does run various pieces of big brother applications, > (depending on the build of the OS and if it has OEM modifications > installed), which could cause some conflicts. This is also a possibility. > > However in your case, it could also be MS big brother intercepting the > driver possibly. 7 onwards are very different OS beasts to XP. > > The VM-XP build, is just that a version, which makes the driver think it > is connected to an XP hardware machine. The driver does not know the > real situation. > > The hook links between the VM-XP and 7 real hardware, do function. This > is all software manipulation stuff. VM has been a common work around to > the MS silliness to these OS variations which do dumb things. > > So without reasonable digging, my points above are just guesses. > > Lastly, when you start the VM-XP any software/hardware drivers inside > the VM-XP, (even though you know different, and this includes your real > connected hardware devices), thinks you have an OS-XP and hardware in > the real world! > > Tricks with software. Sometimes frustrating! > > > Peter > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > On 1/01/2018 7:12 AM, David C Brown wrote: > > Just rechecked and it is windows 7 not 8 that I am running. > > > > As you say: if it was a driver issue I would expect the ICD2 to fail > > completely. As it is it connects OK; it will program Ok; it jus= t > > can't connect to the debugger in the PIC. > > > > But that is the only difference. The cables are identical and I have > > made new cables from the ICD2 to the chip. Baffled. > > > > -----------------------------------------------------------------------= - > > On 31 December 2017 at 19:25, Harold Hallikainen > > >> wrote: > >> I wonder if it has to do with USB drivers. We had to go through some > >> monkey motion to get USB drivers installed. It's documented at > >> http://ftp.uslinc.com/ftp/Products/JSD-100/Documents/ > >> Technical/Windows%208%20USB%20Driver%20Installation.pdf > >> . > >> > >> If it were a driver issue, though, I'd expect MPLAB to not see the ICD= 2 > at > >> all. > >> > >> I'm still running MPLAB 8.92 under Winows 7. It continues to work well= .. > >> I've tried migrating projects to MPLAB X without success. > >> > >> Harold > >> > -- > http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > --=20 http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .