Anyone firmiliar with the old Iso Bus??

[BigSexy396]

Ok, heres the thing. I am working for a company doing engineering drafting currently using a program called pointline. Pointline is like AutoCAD but ancient (running on Windows 95 100 mGz computers) If you at all firmiliar with drafting you should know AutoCAD. Anyways, the company tried making a switch to AutoCAD and we built 5 new computers fully loaded with XP Pro, Office, AutoCAD 2004, P4 2.0gHz you know....the works, and a server running Windows Server 2003. The only thing is that later the bosses changed their mind about switching to AutoCAD and they want to stick with Pointline. So we figured we can use those new computers to at least upgrade our slow, slow, slow Pointline system (uses a regular computer as a server, no actual server computer).

Now my task is to install Pointline, which is a DOS based program, onto those computers which i found a way to do. The only problem is, pointline runs through a card hooked up to the computer, this card is from the old ISO Bus, not PCI.

Does anyone know if they see PCI to ISO conversion cards????
or something similar to that that would get the job done?

[orangutang91]

You might check your local comp shop, mine has all that wierd stuff,(if it exists) dont go to the mainstream places though.

[PrairieDawg]

I believe that what you seek is, in fact, a pci to isa (not iso) adapter. After a bit of google searching I don't know if you are going to have much luck. If such creatures exist they may be a bit elusive. Your bosses may have to embrace the programs of the current decade. If they actually bought AutoCAD in addition to the new PCs they already have a lot invested .... it may be time to go foreward even if it involves a serious learning curve.

[PrairieDawg]

I was bored and did a bit more research. Turns out that what you are trying to do may be possible with a USB to ISA adapter : http://www.arstech.com/item-USB-2-0-...usb2isax3.html . If I were you I think I'd be e-mailing these guys with a lot of questions before the purchase but it does look to me like a viable option. The other problem I see is trying to find drivers for the old ISA card. What little info that I have found usually says that your card may need to be Plug and Play in order for Windows XP to recognize it.

[matm347]

I was bored and did a bit more research. Turns out that what you are trying to do may be possible with a USB to ISA adapter : http://www.arstech.com/item-USB-2-0-...usb2isax3.html . If I were you I think I'd be e-mailing these guys with a lot of questions before the purchase but it does look to me like a viable option. The other problem I see is trying to find drivers for the old ISA card. What little info that I have found usually says that your card may need to be Plug and Play in order for Windows XP to recognize it.

Nice find!, it looks like this IS what you need. But ISA should be compatible with XP as they still sell MBs with ISA slots(I just got one for a 98 rig for my older games). The manufacturer of the card should have updated drivers for XP, if not, you can try to manually install the cards using the drivers you have.

But looking at the prices for both the adaptors and the powersupplies, it might be cheaper if you just swapped out to motherboards that have ISA slots. Either way, you should order enough hardware for one system to see if it will work before spending the ~1k+ for everything.

[wayout44]

But ISA should be compatible with XP as they still sell MBs with ISA slots(I just got one for a 98 rig for my older games).

While XP was being developed M$ had already decided to drop support for all ISA devices so unless you use that USB/ISA adaptor you'll never get an ISA device to work with XP.

[Yawgm0th]

they still sell MBs with ISA slots

You're logic doesn't quite work here. They still sell a lot of things, but that doens't mean any of it's forward compatable by eight or so years. Boards with ISA slots haven't been made for about a decade, and Windows XP isn't even half a decade old.

Regardless, ISA will not work properly with XP and the USB to ISA driver should be necessary. Granted, it's pretty ridiculous that they're opting to use the older software, but to each his own I suppose.

[BigSexy396]

What about the windows compatibility mode? I think it would still run the program. And GREAT find by the way on that card. The card claims to have 100% universal software.

[Munkul]

what size is that slot? if its the one im thinking of, its like a massive pci slot. i had a creative soundblaster awe64 gold in one of those and it worked fine with XP

[DigitalDD]

How about contacting Pointline for support? http://www.pointline.com/EN/default.asp

Maybe they have either a newer version of their software which runs on XP? They had a version for Windows NT4.0 awhile back, so XP is possible or perhaps they have a paralell port/USB dongle which works with the older software?