WindozeXP test station: why must it be so hard??

[Estomagado]

There is this monstrosity in Windows called EventViewer. It logs all the events, errors and warnings of all your programs and processes. It's a PITA to understand how it works and what the event cards mean, but if you dig deep enough you may find what's causing you trouble.

And, as @flashlamp said, you can always install Linux there, then VirtualBox (which is a Virtual PC host), then install XP on a virtual machine there.

 

[P.O.]

I did try the EventViewer, and Dependency Walker. It is somewhat difficult to make out pertinent information from the noise. I did some corrections based on what I saw, but that only opened another can of worms which I don't have the competence/patience to tackle for now. The whole operation is on standby until I find new installation disks for XP and/or 7. I suspect the XP disk I use to be not exactly kosher. I have looked into VirtualBox, and that requires 64-bit. I have no 64-bit machines.

 

[P.O.]

If you are hoping for a magical reply, don't hold your breath.
If you are looking for one package, preferably free, good luck.
WinXP......it is time to move on. And forget the TScreen crap.
I replaced my DellXP testing laptop with a Dell Win7 laptop (one step at at time, please), and Audiotester and TrueRTA both work fine, but I did pay for them.
For bench testing, Audtester seems to do the job, but not in real time. I never got Rightmark to work, except possibly once, so I wasn't going to shell out for a paid version that might not work either.
For console commissioning, I use TrueRTA (Frequency response and level very quickly).
Does your interface run at line level? If not, how do you get to the outside world without too many calibration headaches? You have to think about all of this. Plus, does your interface and possible buffer become part of the very measurements you are trying to take?
I seem to have been my nornal helpful self!

I'm sorry if I offended you. You just make those two statements "WinXP......it is time to move on. And forget the TScreen crap." without any argumentation. I expect some justification from such statements. I certainly resist blatant consumerist approach to "buy new stuff and ditch the old" just because it is outdated. I'm trying to do my little part of saving the planet by using what I have.
And about the part about the interface beign part of the measurement, you know darn well what I mean...
sans rancune

 

[Estomagado]

"WinXP......it is time to move on. And forget the TScreen crap." without any argumentation. I expect some justification from such statements. I certainly resist blatant consumerist approach to "buy new stuff and ditch the old" just because it is outdated. I'm trying to do my little part of saving the planet by using what I have.

I'm sorry if I'm out of line, I'm a newbie in the forum and wouldn't want to cause stir.

I also try to reuse things as much as I can, and use them until they die. Our tiny wet rock floating in space needs this, so in some aspects my house looks like a museum (my blender is from the 1980s ).

BUT ... I think @porkyc has a point. Things break as time passes. Be it a car engine, a vintage vari-mu compressor or a piece of software, they all need maintenance.

But you don't replace spark plugs or tubes in software. They are maintained by software updates. And when they stop being supported, the updates cease. You are stuck with a piece of code frozen in time, forever.

When you try to run old software on new hardware, lots of things could go wrong - compatibility is an issue. And you can't get help from the developers because they do not maintain that software anymore.

The only reason to keep using old unmaintained insecure software is if you have a very old (isolated) machine that depends on it to run. It's not uncommon, but If I understood correctly, that is not your case.

 

[FIX]

Windows 7 has a nice compatibility mode that runs XP stuff real well.

 

[Brian Roth]

Windows 7 has a nice compatibility mode that runs XP stuff real well

Not if you have the "home" version. I went through that mess years ago.

Bri

 

[amplexus]

I'm sorry if I'm out of line, I'm a newbie in the forum and wouldn't want to cause stir.

I also try to reuse things as much as I can, and use them until they die. Our tiny wet rock floating in space needs this, so in some aspects my house looks like a museum (my blender is from the 1980s ).

BUT ... I think @porkyc has a point. Things break as time passes. Be it a car engine, a vintage vari-mu compressor or a piece of software, they all need maintenance.

But you don't replace spark plugs or tubes in software. They are maintained by software updates. And when they stop being supported, the updates cease. You are stuck with a piece of code frozen in time, forever.

When you try to run old software on new hardware, lots of things could go wrong - compatibility is an issue. And you can't get help from the developers because they do not maintain that software anymore.

The only reason to keep using old unmaintained insecure software is if you have a very old (isolated) machine that depends on it to run. It's not uncommon, but If I understood correctly, that is not your case.

This mirrors my thoughts on this entire thread.

A first gen Mbox on windows xp as an audio test machine doesn’t seem like the best use of time and or money imo. There does come a point where despite the best efforts to keep something going- you just need to take it to your local e-waste depot and move on.

 

[abbey road d enfer]

I certainly resist blatant consumerist approach to "buy new stuff and ditch the old" just because it is outdated. I'm trying to do my little part of saving the planet by using what I have.

It's very commendable, and I try as much as I can to avoid waste, but there are cases and cases. There are those where one can expect reasonable service for a decent amount of work, and cases that are simply not worth the effort.
I find rather strange your willing to stick to XP because it's "the only Windoze OS I am familiar with".
I'm far from being an IT guru, but I had no issue transitioning from XP to 7and 10 (carefully avoiding Vista).
I use several software packages on W7 and W10 machines and I don't see any significant difference between them.

 

[P.O.]

Hope you had good holidays, me I'm back from a few days offline with friends.

Unfortunately, I still don't agree with arguments brought here.
It is my belief that a computer should be able to do now what it used to do when it was new. The key here is keep off the internet, and don't apply "updates". Updates exist mostly to cope with the internet. The internet is this formidable obsolescence machine against which you CANNOT win. You also must stick with a vintage of software compatible with the OS.
It works. I've been using for years WinXP machines running VSTis and other musicmaking software. I use an old laptop to communicate with my Volvo's OBD. I program microcontrollers and do electronic design with old PC laptops.
And I've been doing the same with my herd of PPC Macintoshes. The software choice is vast, the machines cost next to nothing. All these computers are considered standalone special-purpose, no-internet machines.

As I stated before, I'm an old fart, and I stick with familiar stuff. If you can adapt, fine. Me, Win 7 or after drive me nuts: I feel everything is hidden from view, it's too directive, and I can't find what I'm looking for or can't do what I want. I despise OSes that take things in charge too much.

 

[Estomagado]

I still don't agree with arguments brought here.
It is my belief that a computer should be able to do now what it used to do when it was new.

Well, I *DO AGREE* with you.

Things should work forever if nothing is changed.

Unfortunately, what we believe is the right thing to do is not what software companies do. Microsoft and Apple were famously caught on various occasions setting up time bombs to force malfunction and consequently force you to update. Things change inside the software even if you isolate it from the internet.

 

[abbey road d enfer]

Win 7 or after drive me nuts: I feel everything is hidden from view, it's too directive, and I can't find what I'm looking for or can't do what I want. I despise OSes that take things in charge too much.

Still, you use Mac's...

 

[P.O.]

I use very old OSX 10.4, and older still OS9, with which I am extremely familiar. I wouldn't be caught dead using a more recent Mac OS.

 

[flashlamp]

Hope you had good holidays, me I'm back from a few days offline with friends.

Unfortunately, I still don't agree with arguments brought here.
It is my belief that a computer should be able to do now what it used to do when it was new. The key here is keep off the internet, and don't apply "updates". Updates exist mostly to cope with the internet. The internet is this formidable obsolescence machine against which you CANNOT win. You also must stick with a vintage of software compatible with the OS.
It works. I've been using for years WinXP machines running VSTis and other musicmaking software. I use an old laptop to communicate with my Volvo's OBD. I program microcontrollers and do electronic design with old PC laptops.
And I've been doing the same with my herd of PPC Macintoshes. The software choice is vast, the machines cost next to nothing. All these computers are considered standalone special-purpose, no-internet machines.

As I stated before, I'm an old fart, and I stick with familiar stuff. If you can adapt, fine. Me, Win 7 or after drive me nuts: I feel everything is hidden from view, it's too directive, and I can't find what I'm looking for or can't do what I want. I despise OSes that take things in charge too much.

my grandfather had a win 3.1 laptop he used to bring on flights , win 3.1 had no tcp stack.

 

[flashlamp]

my grandfather had a win 3.1 laptop he used to bring on flights , win 3.1 had no tcp stack.

have you tried rocky linux it's the same as centos was enterprise class distro,

 

[P.O.]

I also use Ubuntu on a HP laptop for "modern" web chores. Otherwise I have lightweight Toutou Linux (french Puppy linux) on various laptops that can access internet. If there was a Linux equivalent of AudioTester I'd use that. But then I would certainly have trouble getting collaboration from the MBOX...

 

[flashlamp]

have you tried it with wine.

 

[P.O.]

Everything is better with wine...

 

[Monte McGuire]

my grandfather had a win 3.1 laptop he used to bring on flights , win 3.1 had no tcp stack.

Win 3.1 also had the bug where an internal counter that counted milliseconds since boot was represented as a 32 bit signed integer, so when it rolls over to negative after about 25 days of being booted up, the machine goes haywire. This bug was not found or fixed until Win 95 because nobody had ever kept a Windows machine up that long due to the memory leaks and related nonsense. Not quality software!!

 

[P.O.]

Well, I *DO AGREE* with you.

Things should work forever if nothing is changed.

Unfortunately, what we believe is the right thing to do is not what software companies do. Microsoft and Apple were famously caught on various occasions setting up time bombs to force malfunction and consequently force you to update. Things change inside the software even if you isolate it from the internet.

Is this the domain of conspirationism or is there proof of it?
I was not aware of this, although it is quite plausible. I would not be surprised the least bit...

 

[amplexus]

Is this the domain of conspirationism or is there proof of it?
I was not aware of this, although it is quite plausible. I would not be surprised the least bit...

It falls into the category of “sort of true but not the way it’s generally told”

High level overview: With apple specifically there were tweaks in software that slowed down certain functions of the mobile devices (i have never heard that it was desktop products) to preserve battery life and maximize efficiency on older devices. It was more a case of “if you install today’s OS on a 3 year old phone, your battery life will be garbage and your overall performance will be slow. So we’re basically throttling certain things to preserve the user experience without having to write a completely separate OS for older, slower devices, and still allow the user to use the most current OS and it’s features if desired.”

It’s often presented as planned obsolescence but in reality it was a way to allow users to continue using older devices with newer OS’s without having to upgrade.

There was also the grumbling about how the batteries would die like clockwork just as your applecare expired for example- but that was mostly the general public having no idea how most battery technology worked, combined with less great LiPoly battery tech that only had ~300 cycles of life which often equated to 2-3 years for most people. Now that cycle counts are more like 1000 for a properly treated battery that’s much less of an issue.