Forum menu
One of you guys will be able to answer this, i'm trying to load some driver sofware for a photoplotter onto my laptop and am having a mare!. basically it wont run because i have the 64bit version of 7 and it wont load the exe file to run the setup. i know it works because on an old vista machine it works ok but my cad output software is on the 7 machine (and is locked to it). any ideas on how i could get round this? BTW im no IT expert. cheers
You should be able to get the latest drivers from the manufacturers website.
Silly question but have you checked to see if the plotter manufacturer has a 64 bit driver to download?
You could try running the .exe as administrator or in compatability mode, right click it, select 'properties' then the 'compatability' tab and set it to run as admin and in xp mode.
Other than that I would look for a 64 bit version of the drivers on the interweb.
Cougar will probably be along shortly to offer you better advice.
Thanks guys, its an old plotter and they dont have a website with file downloads. the driver is very specific to the plotter as it has custom correction factors etc.
Make, model of plotter?
Do you still have the Vista machine?
run in 32bit compatibility mode, right click the exe for options
ah well theres the rub its a custom machine made by a company called cadware.cz and as you can imagine are not uk. as i say i've got the files i need but cant load them (i could even give you the link if it helps!).
Cougar, the vista machine is my old one and yeah i've still got it.
Connect it to the Vista machine, share it on the network, connect to it remotely from the W7 machine?
(i could even give you the link if it helps
Shoot.
these are the files: files.uloziste.com/32989b5d0d925786/FP-8000.zip
Right.
The short answer here, as I'm sure you know, is you're going to struggle.
Assuming you can get the installers to run and the files extracted (feasible using compatibility modes as above, or with a bit of jiggery pokery using the Vista machine), the bottom line is that you've only got 32-bit drivers for it, which is a show-stopper.
In the absence of a 64-bit driver (and assuming W7 doesn't pick it up natively as above), the only real option available is a 32-bit OS or a different plotter. There's a few workarounds here; keep the Vista machine around, dual-boot, use a virtual machine running a 32-bit OS (I think that'll work, anyway), and so on. How much of that is viable for you, I don't know. If you're not getting rid of the Vista box, I'd try using that as a print server.
We have a similar vintage plotter at work, we just use an xp machine to print the files. Although now we've just gone to using a monitor with a bespoke highlighting system from the drawings (it's our company's speciality anyways)
Might be worth pinging this lot an email.
http://www.pentalogix.com/contact-us.php
They seem to still do the ViewMate software for it, maybe they might be able to help you out?
Try installing XP mode in 7 and installing it in that.
Thanks guys, as ever its like a hardcore wikipedia on here, i'll make a start on this stuff this morning. cheers
Try installing XP mode in 7 and installing it in that.
I did that with a similar issue... it [i]almost[/i] worked
I've a new pc coming in today which will be loaded with XP (most stable for the CAM software we use). so i'll try running on that.....
To be clear; it's not Windows 7 that's the issue here, it's the fact that it's a 64-bit edition. A 64-bit installation of XP will have the same problem.
Cougar, yeah i kind of realised that when i tried to use other versions on my laptop, as you say i need a 32 bit version of what ever i use.... cheers.