[LarryandSusanMacDonald]

Not having a whole lotta luck so far. We left on the 3rd of September - Suzi's just a little superstitious and wanted to leave on a Thursday not a Friday. So we travel several hundred yards and drop anchor. And our Heart Link 2000R craps out. No lights on the display at all. Get out the meter and start checking - there's a little black box and the power light is out on it. but there is power to it - I'm thinking "Crap, you can't fix a black box." Checked out everything else I could and then pulled up anchor and went back to our slip, head hanging at the appropriately contrite angle.

Contact friend Mike who's a whiz at boat electronics. He gets HIS meter (much bigger than my meter - I have meter envy) crawls into the appropriate position for checking aforesaid Link 2000R. And he starts checking the fuses which go to the wires which sense the state of the batteries. "I already checked those fuses, Mike," I said, "They're fine."

"I'm not checking the fuses, I checking the fuse holders," Mike responded, "and they're not looking good." He wigglerd them and the lights came on on the Link 2000R. He cleaned the contacts, put the fuses back in and said, "You should be fine now, change the fuse holders as soon as you can." We had a rum and we left again. Suzi now refers to him as "Miracle Mike." (And believe it or not, He brought the Rum!)

Off to the Labor Day weekend fireworks on the Rhode River (spectacular) and on to some world class relaxation (raising the standards, we are.) Putzing round on the Severn, Spa creek, Weems Creek, taking lots of photos. Over to St. Michaels for the Log Canoe Races - some of the best photos that were ever taken were taken by me, yes, me, of the Log Canoe Sailboat Races. But you'll have to take my word for it - because after I downloaded them onto the computer and erased the chip to take more the next day - the computer crapped out.

So much for superstition.

Spent a day trying all kinds of stuff trying to fix it, went ashore, borrowed a car, went to Best Buy and bought a new computer.

And herein lies my problem that I want to ask you guys and gals about. My Garmin GPS (both 76 and Map76) connects to my computer (to run my charting software, Captain's Voyager) with an RS-232 to USB cable which requires a driver from Garmin. The disk which came with it only has drivers for Windows XP, 95 and 2000. The XP driver worked with my old computer which has Vista but it's a 32 bit computer (ancient technology - I bought it new almost 15 months ago) My new computer (lucky me) is a 64 bit. The driver won't work. I searched the internet and can't find anything. E-mailed Garmin today, but haven't heard back yet. I don't expect much from them.

Anybody encountered this? Any solutions?

I'm afraid to get up each morning because I'm afraid something else will go wrong. Fortunately, I can stay in bed all day if I want to. But I don't because I keep spilling rum on my pillow.

 

[JohnRPollard]

Larry,

Glad to hear you've begun cruise #4.

Sorry to hear about the electronics woes.

I seem to recall a thread on this very same or similar problem (Garmin drivers), sometime in the past year or so. I think Sailingdog and some other members were discussing a work-around. I took a quick look but couldn't come up with it -- although it might be worth you while to get creative with our search feature.

Good luck -- we'll miss you around the yard.

 

[n0w0rries]

I'm a computer consultant. I did a little digging but it looks like 64-bit GPS/Serial drivers are still hard to come by. It might take some time.

You might want to try running vmware on your notebook, and setting up a XP virtual machine, and see if the USB passthrough works.

VMware Server is free. You can get it from VMware Business Infrastructure Virtualization: Beyond Virtual Machines & Servers
You'll need an XP disk to install XP. You'll have ot fire up the virtual machine to use your GPS, but at least it's a workaround until the drivers have a chance to catch up.

 

[T37SOLARE]

Larry,

I feel your pain, VISTA and serial anything is a royal PIA.

Do yourself a favor and pony up and get a USB unit like the Garmin GPS 72H High-Sensitivity Handheld GPS for $135 and be done with the headache.

I assume you'll be well south of Herring Bay by the weekend, if not let me know and I'll gladly buy you a rum or 3.....

Keep us informed of your travels, sounds like you up for a great adventure!

 

[Valiente]

I don't know why you'd actually need Vista or Windows 7 or anything 64-bit aboard. Most computing tasks are not particularly demanding (even chartplotting and interfacing with the SSB), and you can either get away with an older XP/W2K computer or simply get a bunch of circa 2003-4 Pentium 4 laptops (seek out end-of-lease corporate laptops and buy identical models for maximum spares), and "ghost" the drives. Use one and backup frequently to a USB stick, and keep its pals vacuum-packed in a dry spot.

Alternatively, there's a few threads on here describing home-built or modified "car computers" in the pico-ITX form factor that draw very little and are fanless...you stow these paperback sized "desktops" inside the nav station and run cables to touch-capable displays elsewhere.

 

[southshoreS24]

if you can go to windows 7 then you will have a 32bit virtual machine and the ability to install and run programs as a virtual 32bit machine. aka - windows 7 can pretend its a 32bit operating system and allow you to run those programs.

 

[LarryandSusanMacDonald]

Valiente,

Good points, but I also have a midi keyboard for music composing, I have 3 websites, for which I do photoshopping, etc. I do a lot of photography. etc. etc. All requires a bigger, more powerful, faster computer. I'm an impatient soul and hit things when I have to wait for computers.

SouthshoreS24

Good news! I have a coupon to upgrade to Windows 7 when it comes out next month.

T37Solare

Check out our blog Cruising on Kanau Not much up yet except our trip to California last month, but you'll see some cruising stuff as soon as I get past my computer problems. We're in Solomon's right now, and are seriously considering coming back for the rum. (Kidding, but thanks for the offer)

NoWorries

Thanks - I'll try it.

John,

Thanks, you missed the going away party - they usually have another after they're sure I'm gone.

 

[southshoreS24]

Awesome! windows 7 is soo much better and stable then vista. vista was a poorly executed joke that only bill gates got. I've been using the Beta/Release Candidate for months and its great! Can't wait for the official version.

 

[Valiente]

Valiente,

Good points, but I also have a midi keyboard for music composing, I have 3 websites, for which I do photoshopping, etc. I do a lot of photography. etc. etc. All requires a bigger, more powerful, faster computer. I'm an impatient soul and hit things when I have to wait for computers.

OK, you have "special needs", then. I run Indesign 3/Photoshop/Illustrator on a tricked out Dell M6300 so I know what you mean.

Here's a suggestion, then: Keep your Vista/Win7 laptop separate from your boat needs in terms of navigation, SSB, etc. Run all that stuff on the aforementioned XP or W2K equipped "dumber" laptop (which you probably can score cheaply). Network the Vista laptop for backing up data, and keep the programs separately stored on DVDs in a box with dessicant, etc.

The "music/graphics" computer becomes a backup source for the "helm" laptop, which is now cheap, cheerful and expendable. Conversely, consider a netbook for this stuff with a video out to a nice flat panel at the nav station.

Otherwise, you're taking a Stradivarius to a hoedown. Nav laptops don't need a lot of brain power and given they can get exposed to the elements, should be considered semi-expendable, like a five-year old "submersible" VHF handheld you keep floating loose in the cockpit for random hailing and the weather channels.

 

[artbyjody]

Just a suggestion - whatever you are running on Vista - or Windows 7, you can do right click on properties of the app icon and select mode you want to run in.. You can emulate XP etc... from that process..

 

[n0w0rries]

Just a suggestion - whatever you are running on Vista - or Windows 7, you can do right click on properties of the app icon and select mode you want to run in.. You can emulate XP etc... from that process..

Problem is that won't help a driver issue, only an app issue. From what I read, sounds like it's a universal problem with serial ports and 64-bit Windows. So I'd be leary of even buying a USB GPS, because they are typically a serial GPS with a serial to USB bridge built in, so the problem will likely be there as well.

I've been running Vista 64-bit for a while now, and it's been very stable and easy to use. I had to do all my mappoint stuff on my notebook that was still XP though. I just got a new notebook and am running 64-bit Win7 on it. I love it but will have to figure out the gps thing sooner or later. I've got a Garmin 60cx with blue charts loaded on it.

 

[wind_magic]

If I could mandate one change for all new laptops in the world that would be it, that no matter who made it, they have to put a plain old regular serial port on it, just one is fine. Not a USB port, they can put as many of those as they want, I just want one serial port.

 

[Stillraining]

Larry;
Your avatar reminds me of my first baby sitter..the first one I remember anyway...