Windows 7 64 Bit compatability

[Bob Rath]

Can anyone confirm whether the Trotec Speedy 300 is (or soon will be) compatible with the Windows 7 64 bit operating system? I know most of the Epilog units are and I think that ULS VersaLaser series are, but am not sure about Trotec.

[Don Mayhew]

Trotec is currently developing a 64 bit driver. In the interim, Windows 7 64 bit systems has a feature WOW64 built in. This feature allows a user to run 32 bit applications on 64 bit system.

[Lee DeRaud]

This feature allows a user to run 32 bit applications on 64 bit system.

The key word in that sentence is "applications": 32-bit device drivers will not work on 64-bit Windows. See here, last question.

[Don Mayhew]

You are correct I should have read that a liittle more carefully. More info will follow on this from Trotec in a couple days.

[donald bugansky]

You can use VMware Free Player to run a virtual OS/APP on your machine. This will allow you to use an OS along with Corel & 32bit laser driver until 64bit is available.

(small hijack) And as I've said before....can't understand why anyone would want to work with the 64bit OS as you don't have any "real" advantage for some time in the near future. 64bit vrs 32bit does not necessarily mean "it's" faster. Can't understand why Microsoft didn't allow for the 32bit driver "backward" capability like Apple did when they introduced their 64bit OS.

[Lee DeRaud]

(small hijack) And as I've said before....can't understand why anyone would want to work with the 64bit OS as you don't have any "real" advantage for some time in the near future.

For most people/systems (i.e. those with 4GB of RAM or less), that is true.

But it's more than just a question of being able to use 64-bit applications. The 64-bit OS also lets you use more than 4GB of RAM and that does make a difference. I bumped my "big" machine from 3GB to 6GB and installed Windows7/64 a couple months back: it is now insanely fast, even with all the Aero 'eye-candy' enabled.

[donald bugansky]

Lee you're right, the 4GB limit is real but from my experience, most folks don't need or have 4GB in their machines. The modern mid-range computers have 1 to 2 GB and generally, laptops have less.

However, there are those that do (I have an 8-core machine with 16GB of 1066MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM as my workhorse editing machine) but usually only for memory intensive applications or multi-core machines.

Regardless, backward driver compatibility would have been nice. So for now, either a 2 boot partition or run a VM inside the OS.


Ok, I'm going back to the laser to burn something.

[Michael Kowalczyk]

I took a different route. My office PC is a quad core with plenty of speed but I use and older PC running XP and it is dedicated to the laser only. I do not even have it on my network. I have it set up with Corel Draw X3 so I can send it to the Trotec Job Control. That's all it needs. I have X4 on my office PC and save to X3 and walk it over on a USB stick so I always have a backup. You can get a used PC for a couple of 100's and make it a LASER ONLY PC. Less headaches to deal with when an issue may come up. Just my humble opinion but it has worked great for 8 years.

My first dedicated one was a laptop running win 2000 but when Trotec upgraded its Job control and firmware, a few years ago, I had to upgrade to XP and my laptop was too old to have XP. That's when I asked my brother for a bare bones used one that would work and am still using it today.

So I am in agreement that you do not need a 64 bit PC to run your laser.

[Dan Hintz]

Lee you're right, the 4GB limit is real but from my experience, most folks don't need or have 4GB in their machines. The modern mid-range computers have 1 to 2 GB and generally, laptops have less.

Wouldn't that be a chicken or the egg scenario? Mid-range don't have more than 3Gigs because the OS didn't support it (3.5ish)... why install an OS that supports more than 3Gigs if the machines don't normally come with more? Something has to give, and I smile at early adopters for helping the rest of us out

[donald bugansky]

Ok, this can go on and on and on. To me, it's not an issue of early adopters, my issue was more with Microsoft releasing an OS that is not backward compatible relative to drivers and a few other kernel patch issues.

Secondly, being an early adopter (I've been on my share of beta programs both as a programmer, developer & user) does come with some headaches, hence the phrase "bleeding edge". The biggest item 95% of users will realize is the memory management improvement, hence better OS response times, other than that...it's all about being compliant and having to update software/drivers/hardware.

Other software/computer companies (unnamed on purpose) do consider all the issues to address the needs of their user base in the sense of not requiring an "either or" decision.

I made the stupid assumption that folks were not using multi-core machines with their lasers as the application need as well as 64bit bus was not there.

[Tim Bateson]

Once upon a time 300 baud modems were given this same respect. Why on earth would you need anything faster? My first hard drive was 10MB & the sales lady asked what I was going to do with such a massive storage device.

I now use a laptop - dual core 4GB with Win7 64bit. It's handy and so portable, I have stopped using the boat anchor I called a PC.
Last Spring on a old dual core 2GB laptop I had dual loaded Win7 32bit & Win7 64bit - I can tell you for fact 64bit ran circles around the 32 bit. Same was true the previous year when I did it with Vista.
It may not seem like much to some here, but waiting 60 seconds for Photoshop to open is an eternity when you're in a hurry. Clicking print in Corel and waiting eons for it to transfer to the laser is unexceptable. Now have Outlook/Photoshop/Corel/Firefox all running at the same time it isn't even a fair race between 32 & 64bit.

I LOVE my 64bit machine & OS! Now... when are we getting 128bit?

... my issue was more with Microsoft releasing an OS that is not backward compatible relative to drivers and a few other kernel patch issues....

I do agree it would be nice to pick & choose.


Edited note: Sorry for the hijack... I now return you to your topic.

[Bob Rath]

All--Thanks for all the responses to my original question (although I'm not sure I can keep up with some of you heavy techies). My problem is that I bought a new HP 64 bit Windows 7 machine a few months ago to load (and learn) Corel X4 ahead of any laser purchase. This machine was to be a dedicated "laser machine" and it is working great. During laser due diligence, I ran into the driver incompatability problem. After a visit to Best Buy(where I bought the PC) today, I find that even though the new laptop came with the Windows 7 64 bit, since it was a Mfr install, I don't have access to the 32 bit Windows 7 that comes with the Microsoft boxed Windows 7. Am trying to avoid having to buy the box for an additional $$ since I have a perfectly fine 64 bit version running just fine. Never thought I'd have to "step down" to the 32 bit version. I guess I thought manufacturers would jump on the 64 bit bandwagon quicker. I guess this is the "early adopter penalty".
Anyway, thanks to everyone for their input.