MPVI Not Working With Better Than Minimum Laptop

[2xLS1]

Tried to use my MPVI cable for the first time today with a HP Omnibook 4150 P2 366, 128MB Ram, Win ME. Was trying to scan a 06 Z06 on the dyno. The scanner would connect up fine but when starting the log with the space bar, the scan would stop and start real jerky. When the frame count would get to 500, the scanner would freeze, the scanner program would close itself, and the laptop would lock up. Tried this several times every time with the exact same result. Before everyone tells me the laptop is crap and get a faster one, it does meet the minimum requirements listed on the order page and has worked flawlessly for the past 1 1/2 years scanning, reading, and flashing using my serial cable. I never tried to read the Z06 PCM or flash it. Didn't want to chance it since the scanner would not work. I ended up loading the software on a spare Toshiba the shop had and everything worked OK. I didn't get the specs on the Toshiba because of time constraints, but I'm pretty sure is a faster machine and was running XP. I guess my question is should the MPVI work on the HP laptop?

[jimmyblue]

I know USB is a lot "needier" resource than good ol'
serial UARTs, may be that on a slower machine you
will need to play with resources and maybe also kill
any unneeded background applications. When I was
using my dsedicated slow (266MHz) laptop I had as
little as possible in the way of installed programs,
and maximum installed memory. As the software has
gotten more complex (used to install from a single
floppy, now we're like 5+ megs?) it is requiring more
CPU speed to keep up and I bet that steals from USB
handling, just by itself. I'd check into maxing the
physical memory, because if you start hitting the disk
all the time those older laptops also have much slower
HDD bandwidth (this may account for sudden slowing,
once you start paging back and forth in VM).

But hopefully someone will offer you some detail on
best USB settings, and how to put them and make
them stick (Windows automatic settings may not be
the ones that maximize real-time response, more
likely a "least common denominator" compromise).

[Keith@HPTuners]

The MPVI Should work. What displays did you have open while you were scanning?

On slower laptops sometimes all you can have open is the table display, unfortunatley.

[2xLS1]

The MPVI Should work. What displays did you have open while you were scanning?

On slower laptops sometimes all you can have open is the table display, unfortunatley.

Table display only. That's all I ever have open when scanning. I wait and open other displays only during playback of log files. I have 3 identical HP laptops. This is a laptop I have dedicated to the MPVI only. Minimum apps installed. Fresh install of ME. No anti virus software. I kept my serial cable and am still running it on a separate but identical laptop so I'm not mixing HPT versions on the same machine. I would experience some starting and stopping scanning with the serial cable with the table and chart open and it would flash the trying to reconnect warning, but I could always eliminate that by setting the screen color properties to 256 colors instead of the higher 16 or 24 bit true color setting. That is why I always scan with only the table display open. Even when that would happen with the serial cable, it never crashed the scanner app or locked up the laptop requiring a power off to reboot it.
Ctrl Alt Del after the crash would show the only apps running to be Explorer, Em_exec, and Systray. It would even change my short cut icons for the scanner and editor to little dos screen icons.