Programmer Installation troubleshooting guide

Although the programmer and software have been designed to work with all PCs with an SPP or ECP parallel port (ECP only for the Matrix Programming System), there are occasions when the programmer will not work straight away. Should you encounter any problems, just follow the steps below and hopefully these will resolve any issues you encounter.

  • Firstly, ensure that you are running the very latest software. If you have purchased the programmer through one of our distributors, it is quite possible that the programmer has been held in stock for a period of time. The software version number is printed on the CD-envelope label, and is also displayed on the splash screen when initialising the programmer after double-clicking on the WinLV icon. To see if this has been superseded, please check our web site on the Internet, at www.icetech.com. This will show the latest software version number and release date, plus a full list of associated updates, changes and amendments.

  • The power to the LV48 programmers is controlled by the software. This means that the Power LED will not necessarily light when the programmer is first powered up. This ensures that power is not wasted if the programmer is being run off batteries. The programmer will also power down automatically during periods of inactivity. Try running the Selftest, in DOS, or running WinLV. The light should come on as the programmer is initialised.

  • Although the programmer has been fully tested on a range of different PCs, you still may encounter some communication problems. If that is the case, firstly check that the parallel port is set to ECP or SPP mode from within the PC BIOS. Also, some printer drivers capture the parallel port, and interfere with the programmer signals. It may well be worth disabling the printer if you encounter any intermittent communications problems.

  • If the PC hangs at the splash screen when running WinLV, there are a number of possible causes, and solutions. Try adding C:\ICETECH to the PATH statement in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file, this occasionally resolves this problem, and also ensure that C:\WINDOWS; C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM and C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND are also in the PATH statement. Also check that there are no unnecessary semi-colons (;) within the PATH statement - it can make all the difference.

  • The WINLV.INI file in the ICETECH directory may also have become corrupt. Delete this file and run WINLV again.

  • For NT users, ensure that the software was installed while logged on in Administrator mode.

  • Also for NT users, check that the very latest NT4 Service Pack has been installed. Currently, NT software is checked on NT4, Service Pack 6

  • Some PC’s and Notebooks require separate software utilities which may solve any port connection problems. These are required as certain branded machines do not use standard Chipsets for their parallel ports, and may also include power saving and low voltage features on the I/O ports. Here are a selection of sites that we have found to be useful :

Currently there is no support for UNIX or LINUX Operating systems. However, LINUX drivers are under development, and should be available at a later date. Other OS platforms are also being considered. Details of these will be available on our web site.

If you do have any problems at all, either with installing the programmer or software, or with general usage, just contact our Technical Support team, who will be happy to help:

email: support@icetech.com