Cant update software with new computer

[harshness]

So cant go wrong with getting 4 6 foot gold audio/s-video cable for 97 cents each

Just like shopping at monoprice.com without the postage (actually, monoprice.com is $1.67).

 

[Mr Tony]

well happened to swing by a place called Unique today...think Goodwill but upscale

found a computer for 9.95 for the tower. Not much of a unit but powered it on and it works. Went through and removed most of the crap on there and will now use that for ChannelMaster and uploading software

I said it wasnt much...well here are the "sexy specs" on it (its on the front of the unit)

733mhz
10GB HD (with sticker that says "upgraded to 20GB")
64MB RAM
designed for Windows ME

But it has XP on it and I think who owned it before put some more RAM in it...like I say I cleaned most of the stuff off of it like Money 2000, Works 2000, some camera programs etc

so now I can help with thelist more

 

[Pismire]

Hooray! :up
Sounds like an old Emachine with a Celeron chip in it. Little slow for everday life but just fine and dandy for your purpose. I've been in a few of those upscale Goodwills. Most of the time they jack the prices but you did well on this purchase. Looking forward to some The List updates.

 

[Mr Tony]

yep an emachine

 

[Pismire]

I like it when I'm right.

 

[Mr Tony]

they had like 10 towers there and they all were 14.95 to 29.95 except for this one. I figured "10 bucks....what the worst thing that can happen? It doesnt work and I waste 10 bucks because no returns?"

Heck, I've wasted 10 bucks on a bad meal

 

[turbosat]

If its got a serial port , you got your serious fta-reprogramming puter now!

 

[Deaver]

Ice - what are you going to use this for? How will it be setup? I'm a computer geek by trade, but still new to FTA so if you don't mind, fill me in. Maybe I can set something up for myself!

Edited) how do you set it up to handle the Channel master/updates? I've got plenty of computers lying around the house I'm sure I can get one setup.

 

[Mr Tony]

If its got a serial port , you got your serious fta-reprogramming puter now!

that was the reason I got it...it has a serial port

 

[Mr Tony]

Ice - what are you going to use this for? How will it be setup? I'm a computer geek by trade, but still new to FTA so if you don't mind, fill me in. Maybe I can set something up for myself!

It will be used for 2 reasons
1. when the Coolsat 8000 has a new factory file, I can download it to the receiver. Most of the other receivers I have dont have a factory update and the Visonsat uses a USB port
2. Channelmaster allows me to edit my satellite channel list and do things that the remote will do but is tedious (move channels around, add/delete satellites).

Also since I help with thelist (especially the C-Band side) I needed a computer with a serial port to communicate between Channelmaster and the receiver. My newer computer has 8 USB ports but no serial port so I cant use the rs-232 cable to the computer to upload the channel list updates

RVD420 noted it above too that he has a crap laptop for just that reason.

 

[Deaver]

I'm ignorant on this... is a Channelmaster a seperate piece of Hardware? I know about editing channels with the remote and it is tedious.

 

[Pismire]

Channel Master is software for editing channel lists and satellite names, postions etc. in various FTA boxes. Do a google search for Channel Master by C# (C Sharp).

 

[Mr Tony]

now just waiting patiently for 2 things
-the keyboard & mouse a relative has and doesnt need
-the dang rain to stop so I can start "ghetto moving" and scanning C-Band to help update thelist

 

[Mr Tony]

woo hoo!

computer working now and just updated my satellite list on the Pansat. Have channelmaster on that computer and can download it to there, then move it to the "good computer" to edit

 

[Anole]

Here is a little program which'll reveal your processor and memory configuration: CPU-Z.

A 733mhz sounds like a 10 year old P3 or Celeron (same, but half the cache).
Well more than adequate for the tasks at hand.
The only real concern, is that the electrolytic capacitors on the motherboard haven't dried out or leaked, since 733's are pretty old.
And maybe that the power supply is still working. (but that could be a $5 fix)

Some years ago, I got a throw-away micro-tower from my lawyer, after it died and he got a new one.
Was a Celeron 433mhz I believe.
After reinstalling Windows, it ran fine.
I used it several years for its two serial ports, then gave it to a buddy who shipped it to his Dad.
That little toad is still running, last I heard.
Dad has an email & web-browsing machine, and we saved the computer from the recycle pile!

I still keep around a very old Toshiba laptop for its serial port.
And it's only a 100 mhz Pentium 1 ! - - with somewhere around 48 mb of ram.
Anything that'll run Windows 2000 is fine (I try to stay away of Windows 98se, but it does use less ram!)

 

[Mr Tony]

that computer isnt hooked to the net...I guuess because I dont see a high speed connection
(the label on the front did give you 3 months of aol for free)

After removing much fo the programs it starts up right away and works great with Channelmaster...the only other thing I noticed is it wont shut off. YOu say "shut down" and it just looks at ya

hitting the power button turns it into "hibernate" mode which works the same way

 

[Anole]

Exactly how the power button works, is often configurable in the BIOS settings.
I think you can set 'em to hibernate at the tap of the button... never tried that.
I have mine set so you must hold down the power button for 4 seconds, then it turns "off"
You still better pull the power cord if you want to change cards, ram, etc.
Lots of 'em still have the ability to "wake on LAN" traffic, or "wake on Keyboard", or wake on other situations, and so they're never totally down.

But, the bottom line is, ya got a cheap solution for editing!
And it doesn't tie up your other new computer. Can't touch that! -

 

[Mr Tony]

exactly. I used Channelmaster to update the Pansat satellite list then export that to a Coolsat file for the 2nd Coolsat 5000. Also helped qwert1515 get thelist updated on the C_Band side and just loaded the new software for the 8000 into it

yep I just tap the button and it goes into "hibernate" which is like shutting it off as the monitor goes into standby and moving the mouse/keyboard doesnt do anything

 

[AcWxRadar]

I don't know how anyone can play with FTA without Channel Master Program! My USB adapter crapped out on me recently and I honestly just feel "naked" not being able to use Channel Master! It is so much more convenient to edit channels and satellites and reorder things. Although it is not perfectly compatible with the Coolsat 5K, I relied upon it heavily. I really need to use it now to clean up my channel list as I have been scanning quite a bit with my new 1.2 M dish.

Iceberg, I see that you already bought something new, including a PC with a true RS232 port. That is the best route, I believe. But, I would like to mention this adapter... Belkin FSU409. It was under $20 when I bought it and that was four or five years ago. It has now failed on me, but they offer a lifetime warranty, so not much to worry about there and I got a lot of use out of this one over the years.

It comes with the driver software disc and really works well. I had tried several other brands of USB to SERIAL adapters which did not communicate with my receivers until I tried this one.

I thought you and others might appreciate this information. I think the newer receivers are all leaning towards a built-in USB port and even Ethernet.

RADAR

 

[B.J.]

I think I have 3 of those USB-serial converters ( I think I may have posted model info before). The one that works the best for me is the oldest one. I originally started using it on an old Win98 computer I think. It works on that, and it also works with WinXP, but it doesn't work with Win2000 for some reason. I have one that works OK but has the annoying feature that it insists on only using high port numbers, like 6 7, 8, etc, and each time you use it in a different USB port, it assigns a new higher port number, and yes, I went into the control panel and switched it to lower port numbers, and it was still refusing to work down there. Some programs don't let you use high port numbers, so I've had problems using that converter at times. Only use it on programs that accept high port numbers.
But with anything up through Win-XP, these converters should work fine. I suspect that you'd have to fight with Vista though. I helped a couple friends try to set up their Vista systems, and until I can't find hardware that is backward compatable, I'm not going near Vista. I actually had to go back to DOS, to get VISTA to allow us to load some programs onto his hard disk via network. Took us all afternoon to do what would have taken a half hour with any other version of Windows.

OH, and BTW, I use the OLD converter with my Fortec Lifetime, Ultra, Mercury, Diamond9000, and Coolsat 8100, along with a dozen other serial devices. I use serial so much that I wouldn't own a computer if it didn't do serial via some route. I've even re-wired serial devices so that I could send from one device and receive from another device all through the same port. May serial live forever.