The Launchpad comes with a built-in application that displays
a single character every second or so once S2 is pressed to
start it in that direction. Pressing S2 again should display
two characters and then one every second.

While it works on EVERY SINGLE OTHER system in my house,
there is one which does not seem to work over the serial
port. It's a brand new machine, an Intel 2600K based system,
running Windows 7 Ultimate, 64-bit. I did all the installs
and hardware build and everything is up to date with
Microsoft.

I've tried using a variety of COM port monitoring software --
all of which works with Launchpad just fine on other
computers. But on this new system, it displays "X0" every
time I press S2 (which is wrong, anyway) and displays nothing
else, otherwise. I've tried all this on another Windows 7,
64-bit machine, which is running the Professional version and
not Ultimate, and it works just fine. Same device, same
cables, nearly the same operating system. And the serial
port driver is the same version on these two, 1.3.0.0, from
TI, dated in 2007.

I've tried even using the CCS compiler IDE's "Terminal" pane
with the same results. Works great on every other machine.
Fails on the new one, in the sense that I see the same "X0"
when pressing S2 and nothing otherwise.

I've also tried downloading code into devices on this new
machine. It works, intermittently. I'll get an error from
downloading without debugging, then try downloading WITH
debugging and it works great. Then another time it will fail
that way, and succeed the opposite way. Sometimes, nothing
works until I unplug and then replug things in.

I've disabled User Access Controls, and enabled them. Makes
no difference at all. I've tried running as administrator,
or not. Same results. I've tried many different serial port
monitoring programs. Except for some oddities in the
Terminal on CCS which probably have their own explanation,
everything works/fails in the same ways.

I've no idea what else to check. The IAR installation I used
for downloading is 5.20.4 and installed on May 9th, if I
recall. But even a variety of independent serial port
monitoring programs fail out on the new machine.

I've also tried different bit rate settings, though I am
supposed to use 2400. Odd thing is, on the failing machine,
the response is the same regardless of how I set up the bit
rate: "X0". Which seems odd and a clue to me, but I'm not
sure what kind of clue.

Anyway, open to any thoughts to try. It's bugging me.

Jon
Start a New Thread

Hi Jon

I've got a 64-bit Windows 7 Ultimate machine at home that I've not tried the launchpad with yet. I'll take a look tonight, or over the weekend, to see if I can replicate your experience.

Bob

--- In m..., Jon Kirwan wrote:
>
> The Launchpad comes with a built-in application that displays
> a single character every second or so once S2 is pressed to
> start it in that direction. Pressing S2 again should display
> two characters and then one every second.
>
> While it works on EVERY SINGLE OTHER system in my house,
> there is one which does not seem to work over the serial
> port. It's a brand new machine, an Intel 2600K based system,
> running Windows 7 Ultimate, 64-bit. I did all the installs
> and hardware build and everything is up to date with
> Microsoft.
>
> I've tried using a variety of COM port monitoring software --
> all of which works with Launchpad just fine on other
> computers. But on this new system, it displays "X0" every
> time I press S2 (which is wrong, anyway) and displays nothing
> else, otherwise. I've tried all this on another Windows 7,
> 64-bit machine, which is running the Professional version and
> not Ultimate, and it works just fine. Same device, same
> cables, nearly the same operating system. And the serial
> port driver is the same version on these two, 1.3.0.0, from
> TI, dated in 2007.
>
> I've tried even using the CCS compiler IDE's "Terminal" pane
> with the same results. Works great on every other machine.
> Fails on the new one, in the sense that I see the same "X0"
> when pressing S2 and nothing otherwise.
>
> I've also tried downloading code into devices on this new
> machine. It works, intermittently. I'll get an error from
> downloading without debugging, then try downloading WITH
> debugging and it works great. Then another time it will fail
> that way, and succeed the opposite way. Sometimes, nothing
> works until I unplug and then replug things in.
>
> I've disabled User Access Controls, and enabled them. Makes
> no difference at all. I've tried running as administrator,
> or not. Same results. I've tried many different serial port
> monitoring programs. Except for some oddities in the
> Terminal on CCS which probably have their own explanation,
> everything works/fails in the same ways.
>
> I've no idea what else to check. The IAR installation I used
> for downloading is 5.20.4 and installed on May 9th, if I
> recall. But even a variety of independent serial port
> monitoring programs fail out on the new machine.
>
> I've also tried different bit rate settings, though I am
> supposed to use 2400. Odd thing is, on the failing machine,
> the response is the same regardless of how I set up the bit
> rate: "X0". Which seems odd and a clue to me, but I'm not
> sure what kind of clue.
>
> Anyway, open to any thoughts to try. It's bugging me.
>
> Jon
>

Start a New Thread

Hi,

> I had horrendous problems with Windows 7 Ultimate and Pro. The only
> programs I was trying to install were IAR and the jtag and dongle
> drivers (CP2102). First try I was asked to reboot. On reboot Win 7 had
> lost all its own internal programs, even simple things like the calc
> app. Try to run anythinginstalled prior to its brain fart and it would
> claim that rundll32.exe had been removed and could not be installed.
> same for just about any app. Of course they were all still there. Took
> it back to the people I got it from, same issues. Stepped down from
> ultimate to pro. same deal. Oddly if I removed IAR after it had stuffed
> up IAR would install and run fine. Of course the shop blamed IAR, but
> I'd had a similar issue previously when my son had tried installing
> windows 7 on his machine. on reboot it basically ate itself. Yet the
> only app he had was a win 7 app.
>
> As far as I'm concerned Win 7 is a bug. Its lack of backward
> compatibility makes it effectively useless to me. I will stay with XP
> until it becomes no longer viable then probably switch to linux. I
> don't need most of the memory hogging garbage in XP, and definitely
> don't want all the extra baggage that win 7 brings with it.

Win 7 works perfectly for me on all my machines.

Most of the problems Microsoft is blamed for don't happen to be of MS's
making. Bad 3P drivers and applications are to blame, especially graphics
card drivers.

Move to OS X. It's great.

--
Paul Curtis, Rowley Associates Ltd http://www.rowley.co.uk
SolderCore arriving Summer 2011! http://www.soldercore.com

Start a New Thread

Never been a MAC fan, sorry, never been an Apple fan. I tried OS X
several times on my daughter in laws machine. I didn't like it
particularly, more the machine and the 'feel' of things, and, although I
can supposedly run widnows apps on it I find it isn't keen on legacy
stuff. MACs are also considerably more expensive than PC's, and I can't
afford to change my hardware unnecessarily. Unfortunately I need to keep
running legacy stuff to support existing designs. XP is stable enough
for me, and more trusted than Win 7. I made sure to download all of the
latest drivers at the time. The applications might be bad for WIN 7, but
that's part of my point. With WIN 7 MS decided to abandon their backward
compatibility, which, to me at least, was one of the better things
they'd done over the years.

Then I'm a bit of a Luddite, I would still rather be using a modern
version of the Model B than almost anything else.

Al
On 4/06/2011 1:36 AM, Paul Curtis wrote:
> Hi,
>
>> I had horrendous problems with Windows 7 Ultimate and Pro. The only
>> programs I was trying to install were IAR and the jtag and dongle
>> drivers (CP2102). First try I was asked to reboot. On reboot Win 7 had
>> lost all its own internal programs, even simple things like the calc
>> app. Try to run anythinginstalled prior to its brain fart and it would
>> claim that rundll32.exe had been removed and could not be installed.
>> same for just about any app. Of course they were all still there. Took
>> it back to the people I got it from, same issues. Stepped down from
>> ultimate to pro. same deal. Oddly if I removed IAR after it had stuffed
>> up IAR would install and run fine. Of course the shop blamed IAR, but
>> I'd had a similar issue previously when my son had tried installing
>> windows 7 on his machine. on reboot it basically ate itself. Yet the
>> only app he had was a win 7 app.
>>
>> As far as I'm concerned Win 7 is a bug. Its lack of backward
>> compatibility makes it effectively useless to me. I will stay with XP
>> until it becomes no longer viable then probably switch to linux. I
>> don't need most of the memory hogging garbage in XP, and definitely
>> don't want all the extra baggage that win 7 brings with it.
> Win 7 works perfectly for me on all my machines.
>
> Most of the problems Microsoft is blamed for don't happen to be of MS's
> making. Bad 3P drivers and applications are to blame, especially graphics
> card drivers.
>
> Move to OS X. It's great.
>
> --
> Paul Curtis, Rowley Associates Ltd http://www.rowley.co.uk
> SolderCore arriving Summer 2011! http://www.soldercore.com
> Start a New Thread

I had horrendous problems with Windows 7 Ultimate and Pro. The only
programs I was trying to install were IAR and the jtag and dongle
drivers (CP2102). First try I was asked to reboot. On reboot Win 7 had
lost all its own internal programs, even simple things like the calc
app. Try to run anythinginstalled prior to its brain fart and it would
claim that rundll32.exe had been removed and could not be installed.
same for just about any app. Of course they were all still there. Took
it back to the people I got it from, same issues. Stepped down from
ultimate to pro. same deal. Oddly if I removed IAR after it had stuffed
up IAR would install and run fine. Of course the shop blamed IAR, but
I'd had a similar issue previously when my son had tried installing
windows 7 on his machine. on reboot it basically ate itself. Yet the
only app he had was a win 7 app.

As far as I'm concerned Win 7 is a bug. Its lack of backward
compatibility makes it effectively useless to me. I will stay with XP
until it becomes no longer viable then probably switch to linux. I don't
need most of the memory hogging garbage in XP, and definitely don't want
all the extra baggage that win 7 brings with it.

Al

On 3/06/2011 1:30 PM, Jon Kirwan wrote:
> The Launchpad comes with a built-in application that displays
> a single character every second or so once S2 is pressed to
> start it in that direction. Pressing S2 again should display
> two characters and then one every second.
>
> While it works on EVERY SINGLE OTHER system in my house,
> there is one which does not seem to work over the serial
> port. It's a brand new machine, an Intel 2600K based system,
> running Windows 7 Ultimate, 64-bit. I did all the installs
> and hardware build and everything is up to date with
> Microsoft.
>
> I've tried using a variety of COM port monitoring software --
> all of which works with Launchpad just fine on other
> computers. But on this new system, it displays "X0" every
> time I press S2 (which is wrong, anyway) and displays nothing
> else, otherwise. I've tried all this on another Windows 7,
> 64-bit machine, which is running the Professional version and
> not Ultimate, and it works just fine. Same device, same
> cables, nearly the same operating system. And the serial
> port driver is the same version on these two, 1.3.0.0, from
> TI, dated in 2007.
>
> I've tried even using the CCS compiler IDE's "Terminal" pane
> with the same results. Works great on every other machine.
> Fails on the new one, in the sense that I see the same "X0"
> when pressing S2 and nothing otherwise.
>
> I've also tried downloading code into devices on this new
> machine. It works, intermittently. I'll get an error from
> downloading without debugging, then try downloading WITH
> debugging and it works great. Then another time it will fail
> that way, and succeed the opposite way. Sometimes, nothing
> works until I unplug and then replug things in.
>
> I've disabled User Access Controls, and enabled them. Makes
> no difference at all. I've tried running as administrator,
> or not. Same results. I've tried many different serial port
> monitoring programs. Except for some oddities in the
> Terminal on CCS which probably have their own explanation,
> everything works/fails in the same ways.
>
> I've no idea what else to check. The IAR installation I used
> for downloading is 5.20.4 and installed on May 9th, if I
> recall. But even a variety of independent serial port
> monitoring programs fail out on the new machine.
>
> I've also tried different bit rate settings, though I am
> supposed to use 2400. Odd thing is, on the failing machine,
> the response is the same regardless of how I set up the bit
> rate: "X0". Which seems odd and a clue to me, but I'm not
> sure what kind of clue.
>
> Anyway, open to any thoughts to try. It's bugging me.
>
> Jon
> Start a New Thread

On Fri, 03 Jun 2011 15:31:54 -0000, Bob wrote:

> I've got a 64-bit Windows 7 Ultimate machine at home that
> I've not tried the launchpad with yet. I'll take a look
> tonight, or over the weekend, to see if I can replicate your
> experience.

Thanks. The odd thing for me is that I have two Lenovo
laptops, both T510's, running 64-bit Windows 7 Professional
and they work beautifully with IAR download and debug. Not a
problem, ever. They also work just fine with the standard
application that comes downloaded into the Lauchpad before it
is sent out, out of the box, with most any serial port
monitoring program. The virtual COM port just works (if I've
installed IAR on the machine beforehand, of course, to get
the TI driver in there.) I bought the laptops about 1 year
ago.

I did the fresh installation of the Windows 7 Ultimate
system, myself, using my MSDN subscription (US$1200) disks.
It hasn't had much done to it, as it is new and I'm pretty
cautious about adding software to my development machine.

One thing is that the USB ports on the new machine are USB
3.0 style, I think. So that makes me wonder if it is related
to this. I also now think that the serial port monitoring
programs' problems (including the CCS Terminal) is somehow
related to the difficulties I have with IAR's IDE doing the
downloads to the target. Likely, they both are related to an
underlying problem. Perhaps due to USB 3.0 hardware and
drivers.

Jon
Start a New Thread

I just built my new machine a few weeks ago, and if I remember correctly, the Intel MB I put in has one USB 3.0 port, so I'll take a look at that. FWIW, the Intel docs noted that there could be problems if the USB 3.0 port were used for mouse or keyboard...
I have noticed that with IAR the downloads and debugging have NOT been completely stable. At times IAR can't find the device, or locks-up. However, I've had a couple of FETs plugged in simultaneously and had assumed (always dangerous) that the extra VCOM port might be "confusing." I have found it to be safer to specify the COM port rather than using automatic mode for connecting the device...

--- In m..., Jon Kirwan wrote:
>
> On Fri, 03 Jun 2011 15:31:54 -0000, Bob wrote:
>
> > I've got a 64-bit Windows 7 Ultimate machine at home that
> > I've not tried the launchpad with yet. I'll take a look
> > tonight, or over the weekend, to see if I can replicate your
> > experience.
>
> Thanks. The odd thing for me is that I have two Lenovo
> laptops, both T510's, running 64-bit Windows 7 Professional
> and they work beautifully with IAR download and debug. Not a
> problem, ever. They also work just fine with the standard
> application that comes downloaded into the Lauchpad before it
> is sent out, out of the box, with most any serial port
> monitoring program. The virtual COM port just works (if I've
> installed IAR on the machine beforehand, of course, to get
> the TI driver in there.) I bought the laptops about 1 year
> ago.
>
> I did the fresh installation of the Windows 7 Ultimate
> system, myself, using my MSDN subscription (US$1200) disks.
> It hasn't had much done to it, as it is new and I'm pretty
> cautious about adding software to my development machine.
>
> One thing is that the USB ports on the new machine are USB
> 3.0 style, I think. So that makes me wonder if it is related
> to this. I also now think that the serial port monitoring
> programs' problems (including the CCS Terminal) is somehow
> related to the difficulties I have with IAR's IDE doing the
> downloads to the target. Likely, they both are related to an
> underlying problem. Perhaps due to USB 3.0 hardware and
> drivers.
>
> Jon
>

Start a New Thread

On Sat, Jun 4, 2011 at 6:00 AM, Jon Kirwan wrote:
> One thing is that the USB ports on the new machine are USB
> 3.0 style, I think. So that makes me wonder if it is related
> to this. I also now think that the serial port monitoring
> programs' problems (including the CCS Terminal) is somehow
> related to the difficulties I have with IAR's IDE doing the
> downloads to the target. Likely, they both are related to an
> underlying problem. Perhaps due to USB 3.0 hardware and
> drivers.

Quite possible. There are lots of problem with the USB 3.0
host controller drivers since Microsoft does not support
USB 3.0 as yet so the drivers come from vendors who
do not really have the capability of writing compatible
drivers as Microsoft.

The situation for USB 3.0 is unfortunate, I do not really
blame Microsoft here but rather Intel. By delaying the
chipset support for USB 3.0 to gain time for ThunderBolt
(Light Peak), Intel has successfully delayed USB 3.0.
However, Thunderbolt will remain niche and USB 3.0
will be for the mass market no matter what Intel does.

--
Xiaofan
Start a New Thread

On Sat, 4 Jun 2011 10:23:46 +0800, you wrote:

>On Sat, Jun 4, 2011 at 6:00 AM, Jon Kirwan wrote:
>> One thing is that the USB ports on the new machine are USB
>> 3.0 style, I think. So that makes me wonder if it is related
>> to this. I also now think that the serial port monitoring
>> programs' problems (including the CCS Terminal) is somehow
>> related to the difficulties I have with IAR's IDE doing the
>> downloads to the target. Likely, they both are related to an
>> underlying problem. Perhaps due to USB 3.0 hardware and
>> drivers.
>
>Quite possible. There are lots of problem with the USB 3.0
>host controller drivers since Microsoft does not support
>USB 3.0 as yet so the drivers come from vendors who
>do not really have the capability of writing compatible
>drivers as Microsoft.
>
>The situation for USB 3.0 is unfortunate, I do not really
>blame Microsoft here but rather Intel. By delaying the
>chipset support for USB 3.0 to gain time for ThunderBolt
>(Light Peak), Intel has successfully delayed USB 3.0.
>However, Thunderbolt will remain niche and USB 3.0
>will be for the mass market no matter what Intel does.

Thanks. The TI USB driver that got installed by IAR (and, I
suppose, also by CCS) is four years old, now. It probably
could NOT have been written for USB 3.0, back then. And so
far as I am now aware, there is no newer version, either. So
it may be the case that we are not only talking about the
situation you mention above, where Microsoft hasn't yet done
the 3.0 drivers itself, but also about a TI driver that
yields the virtual com port itself also being written when
USB 3.0 wasn't yet something to worry about.

I think TI should probably grapple with this problem and get
their drivers updated so that they work with whatever is out
there right now for USB 3.0, even if the situation is hard
and confusing. It _has_ been four years, after all.

Jon
Start a New Thread

On 03/06/11 18:06, Paul Curtis wrote:
> Hi,
>
> > I had horrendous problems with Windows 7 Ultimate and Pro. The only
> > programs I was trying to install were IAR and the jtag and dongle
> > drivers (CP2102). First try I was asked to reboot. On reboot Win 7 had
> > lost all its own internal programs, even simple things like the calc
> > app. Try to run anythinginstalled prior to its brain fart and it would
> > claim that rundll32.exe had been removed and could not be installed.
> > same for just about any app. Of course they were all still there. Took
> > it back to the people I got it from, same issues. Stepped down from
> > ultimate to pro. same deal. Oddly if I removed IAR after it had stuffed
> > up IAR would install and run fine. Of course the shop blamed IAR, but
> > I'd had a similar issue previously when my son had tried installing
> > windows 7 on his machine. on reboot it basically ate itself. Yet the
> > only app he had was a win 7 app.
> >
> > As far as I'm concerned Win 7 is a bug. Its lack of backward
> > compatibility makes it effectively useless to me. I will stay with XP
> > until it becomes no longer viable then probably switch to linux. I
> > don't need most of the memory hogging garbage in XP, and definitely
> > don't want all the extra baggage that win 7 brings with it.
>
> Win 7 works perfectly for me on all my machines.
>
> Most of the problems Microsoft is blamed for don't happen to be of MS's
> making. Bad 3P drivers and applications are to blame, especially graphics
> card drivers.
>

That's MS's favourite excuse. It had some justification 10 years ago -
but not now. The fact is that both MacOS and Linux come with drivers
for just about all hardware, and it is written by the MacOS and Linux
developers - not third parties - on a fraction of the budget MS has. MS
charges a lot of money for their OS, and basic hardware drivers for
common hardware is something people can reasonably expect to get for
their money. And for rarer hardware whose drivers are written by
third-parties, MS charges a great deal of money for their
"certification" programs. If that certification doesn't come with a
guarantee of a solid level of testing and reliability, then it is worthless.

There will always be third-party software, and there will always be
upper layers of the drivers that are badly written and cause problems.
But if their failure influences anything else - such as crashing the
machine - then the fault lies with the OS, not the drivers.

It is particularly popular to blame graphics drivers for windows
problems - but it is many years since they were a big cause of crashes.
Even on Linux (where graphics drivers are one of the few third-party
drivers commonly used), they are usually very solid.
My experience with Win 7 is that it mostly works - it's better than XP
for some things (in particular, you can use more memory), and worse for
other things (such as compatibility problems). But mostly it's just a
waste of time - it doesn't add anything of significant interest to me,
and changes a lot of details for no particular reason. Networking is
particularly difficult for anything remotely complicated.
All machines I set up these days are Linux (typically either Fedora or
Linux Mint Debian). When I have to have Windows compatibility, I use a
Virtual Box virtual machine. This lets me have a fast, efficient and
reliable system that can take advantage of the PC's hardware, and have
an easily controlled and compartmentalised Windows machine inside as needed.
These things are mostly a matter of taste, and individual needs and
experiences. But don't think "Windows 7 works fine for me" has any
bearing on whether it works or not for other people. It was a sad day
for professional users the world over when MS decided to cut XP and
force people over to Vista and Win7. It will be even sadder when they
decide that since no one will buy Windows Phone for phones, we will all
have to buy it for our PC's instead.
> Move to OS X. It's great.
>

Mac's are great if you can live with their simplicity and limitations,
and don't mind bowing to the whims of a control-freak megalomaniac
company whose greed makes MS look like a Good Samaritan. Sometimes a
pretty toy is all you need, and then Macs make a good choice compared to
the extra complexity, frustrations and unreliabilities of the PC world.
Start a New Thread