HP 5890/7970 + modern computers

[osp001]

I have an HP 5890, coupled with the HP 7970 MSD. It came with a computer that has the appropriate (reads: 9-pin serial) connectors, and it was sold to me as working. It comes with Chemstation A.09, from 2002.

I read somewhere (here?) that I may as well forget running this unit on anything more modern than W95. Now, I have another HP 5890, and have connected it using a crossover cable, and a serial-to-USB connector. Using UniChrom, I acquire the data. UniChrom won't work with the 7970.

Is there any way to run the 5890/7970 with a computer running anything later than W95? Is it just a connectivity thing, or is there something intrinsic to the operating system?

TIA.

[chemstation]

you don't mean a 5970 MSD, do you?
as there are of threads describing how to get a 5890/5970 MSD to work on a Win95 PC.

As you must use a HPIB 82335 Card, not a 9pin RS232 connector, to begin with.
and Chemstation A.09 cannot run a MSD, it is only for GC.

Check with the person who sold you system if it was a working unit, or they may have sold you the wrong
parts, eg wrong PC.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1859&start=0&hilit=5970
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=18925&start=0&hilit=5970
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=15627&start=0&hilit=5970
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=15818&start=0&hilit=5970
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=12548&start=0&hilit=5970
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4029&start=0&hilit=5970

[Bigbear]

It was a while ago but we ran a 5890/5970 system using BA software on an NT system. A secondary vendor made the conversion for us. It worked but we did not have full functionality of the software.

[osp001]

you don't mean a 5970 MSD, do you?

Whoops- sorry, yes. It's the 5970 MSD, of course.

The system was sold to me as recently retired, in working condition, complete- autosampler, a pile of cables (the big heavy HPIB cables- I need to work out which ones go where), vacuum pump, an A/D converter box, and the original computer- an eMachines antique.

I've yet to start it all up. It was from the next-to-last link you provide that I got that it can only run on W95. I've been trying to puzzle out why I can't use another OS. I have a couple of XP boxes I could use instead of the aging eMachines.

[chemstation]

My first suggestion is to get your IT department to make a Hard Drive image of the old PC,
as numerous times, HDD fails and people can't find their original disks and serial numbers to re-install ($$$)
as you mentioned what Hardware you got, but did not mention any software.

When I got my old 5980/5970 running, I ran a network cable to a PC with a later version of Chemstation to
process the data, please learn from my experience and set the data files to save on the local PC, and then copy the data across later,
as windows liked to lose Ethernet connectivity occasional, and crash the system.
Some backup software can be scheduled to run e.g. an hour before arrive at work, so the files are on you XP box waiting for you after an overnight run.

The ISA HPIB card is an 8bit, whos driver is loaded on a Win95 PC, when installing the G1701 A.03.01 chemstation software.

Alex

[joeshmoe]

I second the advice to make backups.

You could probably run Windows 98, that's the newest OS I've managed to get up and running with my old 5890/5970. The drivers for the old ISA HPIB card seem to require an actual DOS install in the background.

It seems the communication protocols changed between the older systems and newer ones, I've tried using newer HPIB cards and different versions of chemstation to get it to work with XP but haven't gotten anything else to talk with the old machines. It can probably be done with custom drivers but I wouldn't know where to even start.

[Camisotro]

My lab has a 5890 (with FID, no MS) controlled by a machine running XP. Don't know the details because I don't use that instrument.