Getting back after 10 years - PC questions

[turbo_pascale]

I'm getting back in to astrophotography (and astronomy in general) after a really long break.

I've pulled the PC out of the observatory as part of the "spring clean", and Windows has died, and seems beyond recovery with everything I have tried.

The PC is old (2009 vintage Core 2 Duo with 4Gb ram), and ran Windows 7 32bit primarily because of the various serial port and firewire adapters I needed to run my gear (real serial ports not USB adapters).

I remember needing to stay 32-bit and "old windows" in order to have the drivers for everything work, including for the dome controller, but I'm assuming in the intervening time, people must have come up with solutions around some of this.

I'm not up for spending lots on replacing gear (ie my Firewire planetary camera is not going to be replaced with a USB one etc).

Before I embark on a new OS re-install (which is going to take a LOT of hours!), looking to get advice on if it's "safe" to move to a newer OS (Like Win 10 x64) or do I need to stick with vintage windows and 32 bit?

Thanks in advance.

[GTB_an_Owl]

linux mint

[Lognic04]

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: running for 2 years now (processing/main PC though, it would be hopeless at capture)


For the imaging PC i'd recommend win10, 64 bit but disable auto updates! Everything works pretty happily now with the latest everything, updates can interrupt your night.

software wise, if you are interested in something free and easy to use you cant pass on NINA, i used to be a die hard SGP fan, but with my new setup i've been using NINA and i not prefer it so much more. Hope this helps!

[doppler]

If you need Win7 32 bit for your older drivers you can run a virtual machine on your new computer, it's a bit like running win7 as an app and much easier than setting up a dual boot system. I have a win8 laptop with win7 installed as a virtual machine so I can still use some older software and my scanner which doesn't have drivers for later o/s.
This is the one I use, it's free for home use. https://www.vmware.com/au/products/workstation-player.html
Rick

[turbo_pascale]

Just following up on progress, I installed Windows 7 32 bit, on a 250Gb SSD I had lying around. I managed to get the firewire card to be recognised for the DBK camera, but it's a bit temperamental for some reason. If it boots OK, it stays OK for the duration.

I've also installed a Parallel & Serial port card so I now have 4 COM ports and 1 LPT port for my SBIG ST-7E. That is going to be fun to try and get working again. A very tiny chip, but really quite sensitive. But so slow.

The Starshoot Autoguider is working, the DBK cam is working, and I've got the modified Canon 350D working with Shoestring DSUSB adapter.

The only problem I have now is that the LX200GPS is having a meltdown and giving me a "Motor Stalled" message on startup (spinning the RA axis). I've got to unmount everything from the observatory to get to the base and see if replacing the CR3032 battery helps fix the problem.

Hopefully I don't drop it or injure myself getting it off the wedge.