Help Needed - Ancient Cutter

[kilerb]

A long time ago, April of '06, I purchased a discontinued Designtech 60... Which was very similar to the Graphtech 3000. It came with a win xp driver. I still have that. Today that computer crashed. I need to get this to work on Vista if possible. I've tried installing the graphtech 3000 driver and it doesn't see the cutter as that. It won't even see the xp driver as compatible. I've read about success stories in using a different driver, but I can't get it to work. I've tried plugging in the graphtech and then manually browsing to the graphtech driver... It doesn't see it as compatible. Does anyone have any tips or suggestions on how to maybe get this to work? This Designtech is long extinct and there is zero support for it. Thanks for any help or direction you can point me in.

B

 

[heyskull]

Vista was and still is a problem.
I have just sorted something similair for an old friend but we had to get a machine running XP before it would work!
My advice and maybe it's the sensible option is switch back to XP unless you want to start writing your own driver for it?!!
I wouldn't be to attached to Vista as its rubbish.

SC

 

[kilerb]

Yeah, but the XP computer is dead. I don't have an XP disk and my Vista computer is my main computer and I won't be able to change it.

 

[tbaker]

Do you happen to remember WindowsME?

Vista seems to fall into the same category. Unfortunately, I don't think there is a work around besides either upgrading to W7(pro or above to run in compatibility mode) or to purchase XP again and reinstall on the system.

If all you are doing is running your plotter from that computer, you can pick a trash computer, invest the $99 for xp Pro and run it like that ( which honestly sounds like the easiest solution)

 

[kilerb]

Windows 7 has the ability to run in XP mode (compatibility mode?) I never heard of this... So if I run win 7, I can click something and the computer will act like it's a 100% XP computer?

Thanks...

 

[royster13]

Only top version of win 7.0

 

[round man]

If you want to spring for the cost a single license of VM(virtual Machine) Ware workstation runs about $150,(compared to windows 7 pro {$200} which is what mickey soft requires to run virtual xp)..this is basically the same program windows seven uses for virtual xp and works on just about any windows OS if you get the right version. We use it at the computer school I go to on xp machines and I have it on this machine here I am typing this reply on. You can run any number of operating systems on it the same way windows 7 ultimate run virtual xp and it even looks the same once you go to full screen,....I have two versions of linux running and another version of xp in order to do my homework on this machine which has windows 7 home premium on it. the program really works well but you'll need a copy of xp to load on it .

edited to add,..I would just go to my local pc tech and ask about a used xp machine for about $100-$150 that has xp installed and use that machine to drive your plotter and do your design work on the vista machine. People and businesses are tossing the old xp machines in favor of the newer windows 7 machines.I have two here that clients dumped in order to upgrade to win 7 boxes.

 

[jiarby]

xp boxes on Craigslist go between $75-125.
I bought a Dell GX280 3.2ghz, 2gb Ram, 80gb HDD for $50 a couple months ago.
They come with a licensed copy of OEM XP

 

[kilerb]

I'm posting this in case anyone else does a search on the web and tries to figure this out. I got it to work! A great guy that used to work at Designtech helped me. I went (in Vista) to printers... Then hit add printer. Then hit generic printer. At that point you have to tell it which USB port your cutter is on. I had to use process of elimination and finally got it. I had installed the graphtech 3000/5000 driver for Vista earlier and it was there. I selected that under the generic choices and it works perfectly! Really glad about this. Thanks guys!

 

[S'N'S]

I was just about to suggest installing as a printer, that's how I had my Roland installed when I was running vistacrap, works great.

 

[CS-SignSupply]

Glad to hear the generic driver worked for you. Call again if you need anything else.

 

[kilerb]

Glad to hear the generic driver worked for you. Call again if you need anything else.

Thank YOU... You really helped me out!

 

[CS-SignSupply]

Merry Christmas