Restarting with proton after a few years

[Dean]

I bought proton with a license key back in 2007.  I had my fun and played with some projects and eventually parked that system a few years back.

To give you a sense of timing, what I parked was an XP laptop with compiler version 3.2.5.5 .  That compiler still runs and still recognizes my USB license key.

I tried to get started again in late 2020 and I was pretty confused by the state of transition.  It's nice to check back in a few days ago and find this forum!

I downloaded compiler 3.7.5.5 from a somewhat unexpected site (with positrons?!?) and installed on a clean W10 laptop.  The compiler runs, but it won't recognize the USB license key.  But the compiler is kind enough to suggest that I email the dev :-)

Les reports that I should check the forum for help on installing the sparkey drivers.  When I search online for these I find multiple hits, so I'm a bit hesitant to go down the *wrong* rabbit hole.

Any advice on how to proceed?

Many thanks,
Dean

[John Drew]

G'day Dean,
Welcome back to the fold.
If you have downloaded 3.2.5.5  (Is that a typo as the latest version is 3.7.5.5) I would have imagined that it should work fine with sparkkey.
If you've lost your drivers then send me an email address -use a Private Message to do this. I'll then send you the two folders I have zipped up, one is for 32 bit, the other for 64bit.
That way you can be confident.
Cheers from Oz
John

[joesaliba]

Dean,

On the old forum I posted the following to help with USB drivers installation for Sparkey.

Installing USB Key drivers

One day I had a problem when I tried to install the drivers on a 32bit Windows 7 version, and ended up with this message: - "A service installation section in this INF is invalid". I gave up and installed a 64bit Windows OS version with which I had no problems installing the Sparkey drivers, but I took a different approach of how I installed the drivers with what I did when I had the 32bit Windows OS.

First I installed the drivers using a .exe installation of the drivers from here. Choose the one that suits you.

I think using the .exe file version of the drivers will force the drivers to be installed in the Windows directory.

Then if the dongle is still not recognised open the Control Panel, locate the Sparkey dongle in Device Manager, and update the driver by pointing to the file downloaded from here.

But, before you do anything, I would suggest you download USBDeview from here and delete / uninstall the offending USB related to the dongle. You can see which one it is by removing and inserting the dongle in the computer.

PLEASE NOTE: - This is not a definite solution for Sparkey driver installation problems.

Hopes this helps.

Proton USB Key Driver - Windows 7 (32-bit).zip
Proton USB Key Driver - Windows 7 (64-bit).zip
Windows 7 64bit.zip
Windows Vista 32bit.rar

[Dean]

Thanks! All good now.

I used the:
-- Windows 7 64bit.zip

I simply extracted the files, and then opened up the windows device manager.  Inside the device manager I found the USB key, selected "update driver", and then navigated to the folder where I extracted the files.  Now the compiler recognizes the USB license key.

Thanks!

And maybe more of a lounge item: just before this I spent an hour trying to figure out a problem with USB device enumeration failures.  Two computers, two operating systems, and some deductive reasoning led to the housecat.  He had bitten my USB cable in a single spot, causing an intermittent short :-)

Now on to exploring my old PicKit2.  I see that I should look into PicKitPlus...

Cheers,
Dean

[joesaliba]

Glad I was of help. I should move it somewhere in the Wiki. Having said that, next release of the compiler, which will be a paid update, will make no use of the dongle.

[RayEllam]

Hello all,
Im really really HAPPY to have found the new forum, I thought for one minute that Proton was dead 

Anyway, im looking to do a new install of P8 and P24 on a windows 10 machine but I see no files in the downloads section? can someone point me in the right direction?

PS I originally purchased PDS back in early 2000 and I have the USB dongle.

Best regards
Ray

[OG]

Hi Ray, welcome.
Check out these two topics, please.

https://protoncompiler.com/index.php?msg=423
https://protoncompiler.com/index.php?msg=679