[Barrykgerdes]

When I rebuilt my standby computer 18 months ago with a G31 Asrock motherboard (el cheapo that had three PCI slots) I wanted a Fully configured LPT port. There were COM port headers on the board so these were provided with connectors.

To get the LPT port I bought a "Skymaster" PCI Multi I/O controller card from my local computer shop for $40, I have since seen much cheaper versions. There were cards that provided COM and LPT or cards that just provided LPT. This is the type I have.

I have a number of programs written in Qbasic/Basic for control of devices via the Printer port. These programs worked correctly from Windows 98 2E with the standard Qbasic interpreter or as compiled exe programs.

However these programs no longer worked in Windows XP due to direct calls to port addresses not being supported any longer because of security problems. There is a work around that involves a mod to some Windows files ,I don't have the details at the moment. This mod worked OK for me.

When we come to Windows 7 and 8. These are 64 bit programs and Qbasic does not work at all nor do programs compiled from Qbasic. The way around this is to use QB64, a derivative of C++ that reads and converts basic source code to make 32 bit versions of the programs. However addressing of the I/O ports has not been completed yet.

Barry

PS I have located the modification info that will be required to run SB products. See attached PDF and zip