Ask Me Help Desk - 2 pc's connection

I have an older PC running win98se. It has a program on it that downloads my diabetic information from my blood monitor through a serial port. I am going to get a new computer soon but my software for this program is not compatibale with Xp and the software company says it will not be providing updates for quite a while. I also have noticed that a lot of the newer pc's don't have serial ports either. Is there any way I can connect my older computer to a new computer and still access my program ? If so I would appreciate details on what I need to connect them. :confused:

Firstly, welcome aboard :)

So what kind of a PC are you running? Do you have the specs on it? Is the serial port that you're using a DB-25 or DB-9 type? If you mean DB-25 then very true, I doubt you'll find that on newer PC's. But DB-9's are still very common on desktops. Laptops are a different story and most now-a-days do not come with a serial port (at least not a DB-25 or DB-9 type). Now the good news is even if you do not have a serial port with a USB port you can get a USB to Serial (DB-9) adapter. The bad news is that I personally have had mixed results with those (hopefully others can chime in here on that point).

In terms of software... under Windows XP you can run in Compatibility Mode. I've personally found few software products that run on 98 but not XP. Having said that, you are dealing with a medical company which from experience pays a lot of attention to the medical part of any device and very little attention to the PC end of things so it may not run as they claim on XP. What I would do is see if you can run it on another XP machine before you move forward... it may just work. For all we know the company may just be trying to sell you a new device.

You can definitely connect your older computer to a newer computer and gain varying degrees of accessability. There are many answers to that same question here on the board as well. Any number of people here on this board can help with that when the time comes and the solutions depend on what your setup is like now.

So what is the make/model of your glucose tester? How soon were you thinking of getting a new computer?

Casey

Thank you casey, your information is very helpful to an old timer like me. I really don't have a clue about what kind of serial port I have but I did pull it out and it has 9 holes, so I guess it is a db 9. My current machine is a hp 8650c and my glucose monitor is a hypoguard advance. I would like to try to do like you said and get a usb/serialport connector and see if I could run it on xp. I plan to get a new computer in about a month. Most of the new hp's I looked at didn't have a serial port and I didn't know I could get a connector. I also have never worked with XP and was unfamiliar with their compatibility aspect. I was not wanting to have to connect my old PC to a new one just for this one program but it is the one program that is very important to me. I hope what you suggested works! Thanks again:)

As Casewy mentioned compatibility mode may work for you. But it's a big maybe. Since the program is designed to read input from a serial port it may be going outside the OS to do so.

Here is an example of the adapter Casey mentioned:

Welcome to Belkin - USB Serial Adapter

If the program doesn't work in compatibility mode, you may be forced to run it on the old machine. However, its possible you can access the data from the new machine. You would need to find out from the company what sort of data file format is used for the downloaded data.

I looked at the HP website (since you plan on going with an HP) and indeed they don't include the old serial port (DB-9). Only the new serial ports are included. USB by the way is the new serial port (Universal Serial Bus). I was surprised but I guess I shouldn't have been.

I also looked at the link ScottGem sent and a sticker shock hit me :eek: (no offense scott). So I searched another site and was surprised to see there were so many options at very reasonable prices and good ratings:

Newegg.com - Search Results for USB serial

I found an article at a site for you which I think might be good news for you. Based on your model it looks like the software that came with your machine is called GlucoBalance and the good news is that in addition to 95 and 98 it also runs on NT and 2000 which means that chances are very very good that it would also run on XP. Check this link for more details:

GlucoBalance Data Management System Offers Help for Downloading - Software - Diabetes Health magazine

Casey

I know this sounds stupid but y don't you keep using the old 1 for your monitoring IF its XP INCOMPATIBLE... and the new 1 for anything else?

Thank you all for the time and help you are giving me. Casey , you are correct that my software is glucobalance and I did call them to ask for an upgrade and the rep. I talked to was the one who informed me that it was XP incompatible. But also, it was just a salesperson and they may or may not be correct on the XP compatibility. I looked at the site everyone gave me for connectors and they are most helpful.To answer tommy's reply, I have very very limited space and setting up 2pc's and monitors would just about require having one on the floor, so that is why I was wondering if I could connect the two and stack them on top of each other, but that too would be crowded. For Scott, I am not savvy enough about data file formats so what exactly would I ask them? If I can't get it to work as suggested I and still considering trying to stack the two until an upgrade is available so, I will probably need help to connect them also. I'll research this forum and ask questions about that later down the line.Any more help is always welcomed.

Many many thanks to all:)

Quote:

Originally Posted by mskat

For Scott, I am not savvy enough about data file formats so what exactly would I ask them?

Ask them exactly what I said; "What sort of data file format is used?" The answer may be comma separated values or fixed width or Excel or dBase or a variety of other formats. You may not specifically understand what they tell you, but one of us probably will and can help further.