P-cad Dos Schematic Transfer Problem With Pdifout, software problem

[RussH]

Hi all

Posted on other forums, but no luck, so I'm casting the knowledge net a bit further.

Have a problem with PDIFOUT.EXE that I'm trying to resolve.

I've been using this program on an old 386 (where old jobs are held) to convert old DOS circuits to P-CAD 2002 with no problems.
Anyway, I went to use it recently to convert a circuit, and it started to run, then came up with:

ERROR: Could not open Message file.

Not had this error before, and as I said it was working OK the last time.

Has the wonderfull old PC changed some settings while asleep?
As said, it's an old 386 that only gets used for this purpose.

So

I got hold of another copy of PDIFOUT5.EXE & EXP from the Altium site.
When I tried to convert I got this message:-

os286: Cannot remove kernal. Another program has been installed on vector chain.

mmm.....lost

Any ideas?
For information the PCB conversion program OUTPDIF.EXE works OK!

Regards
Russ (a newbee)

 

[Hero999]

Try booting from a boot disk.

Another option is to transfer your files to your newer PC and run the DOS program on that. You may need an emulator such as DOSBox or Virtual Box.

Of course it could be the hard drive on your old 386 is packing up. Have you backed everything up? If not, you should do. Storing important information on an old PC is not a good idea.

If the software doesn't run on a your new PC, either under Windows or an emulator, you could get another slightly newer junk PC and install DOS on that. If you can't find the version of DOS you used on your old 386, you could try FreeDOS.

Good luck with this. DOS can be extremely flaky. It was invented before the Internet was commonplace and is very insecure, although that shouldn't matter as most DOS viruses died out with it back in the 90s.

 

[RussH]

Hi Hero

Thanks for that, I'll give it a go.

Regards
Russ