16-bit application commanding ISA hardware directly

[Guest]

Hi,
I am attempting to run a 16-bit application in Windows XP Prof. I can get
the software to begin loading (by editing the properties of the executable
and instructing Windows XP to run it as a Windows 98 application) and it
successfully initialises one piece of hardware however then creates an error
regarding the Windows XP 16-bit Subsystem and informs that an illegal
instruction occurred.

The software is designed to initialise some ISA hardware before running and
communicates to it directly without the need for drivers. The computer is
running a P4 3.0Ghz 512MB RAM and SATA 80GB HDD. I have managed to run the
software on my laptop which is a 1.6Ghz Centrino Duo with 1GB RAM, Windows XP
Prof, although the ISA hardware is obviously not connected. Is there any
obvious things I am doing wrong? Maybe a hardware conflict?
Any ideas would be great!
Thanks,
Dan

 

[Yves Leclerc]

Hi,
I am attempting to run a 16-bit application in Windows XP Prof. I can get
the software to begin loading (by editing the properties of the executable
and instructing Windows XP to run it as a Windows 98 application) and it
successfully initialises one piece of hardware however then creates an error
regarding the Windows XP 16-bit Subsystem and informs that an illegal
instruction occurred.

The software is designed to initialise some ISA hardware before running and
communicates to it directly without the need for drivers. The computer is
running a P4 3.0Ghz 512MB RAM and SATA 80GB HDD. I have managed to run the
software on my laptop which is a 1.6Ghz Centrino Duo with 1GB RAM, Windows XP
Prof, although the ISA hardware is obviously not connected. Is there any
obvious things I am doing wrong? Maybe a hardware conflict?
Any ideas would be great!
Thanks,
Dan

Do you at least know which ISA hardware device it is trying to communicate
with? Sound like a security key on a directly access COM/Parallel port. NT,
2000, XP and 2003 do not allow any programs/utilities to directly access the
hardware. There are some "third" party drivers which will give direct access
to COM / Parallel ports.