Resolved Advice needed for getting laptop PC Card or Docking Station

Hello, I am turning again to the community for some help. Where I work, they have a factory in Alabama that creates garments to protect clothes from sweat. These items are especially made for people who suffer from hyperhidrosis / excessive sweating issues, etc. The name of the company is Kleinert's. Our website is http://www.kleinerts.com

Now, they have a plotter that is used to create the patterns for the same or new garments they create but this plotter is from 1999-2000 era. Quite old by today's standards. They also use a proprietary CAD program from the same company that makes the plotter which connects to a laptop that is also from 1999-2000. As you can see it is very old tech.

Now the laptop is starting to fail which does not surprise me. The plotter connects to the serial port of the laptop and the software uses a 25-pin Dongle which allows the program to work. That connects to the Parallel Port of the laptop. I have not seen this in person since I am in Miami and have not made the trip up there. I assume that is Parallel Port Cable though right?

So we recently purchased a new laptop for them at the plant. It is actually a refurbished Dell Latitude D630 from Dell Financial Services. This contains a serial port and I thought everything was fine, problem solved. Well no, the problem is the Dongle. I know I mentioned above the Parallel Cable but I did not know that until this morning. If I would have known this I may have gone another route. I also got the laptop with XP since it will not work with any Windows OS after that. I do apologize for this being long but I have some questions to ask that hopefully someone can answer.

I can purchase a PC card that allows a parallel port to be used on the laptop. Does anyone have experience with this and can recommend a brand for me? One obstacle I keep seeing is that many of these cards once plugged in are still seen as USB printing by Windows. We need one that creates a true LTP1 Port as these old programs are made to work with that only.

The other option is to get a docking station or port replicator that will come with a Parallel port already installed and that will or should be recognized by Windows as true LPT1. Can anyone confirm this for me? Would this be the safer option? Also is a port replicator enough or should we get the docking station? I should mention that the plotter is a Gerber Infinity 761 and the software is Accumark 7.6.3 also from Gerber.

This is what happens kids when you use a very old technology. I am at the last minute having to scramble and find what will work. Like jumping through hoops but I must find a solution.

Thanks for everyone's help in advance

 

Thanks for the tips. As to #1 It will be very hard to find someone with the same issue. I know I can look and look but no go.

This is small town in Alabama and it is a unique situation. Let me ask you this, with the docking station does Windows install it as true LPT1? I would think so because usually with adapters it does it like USB support in some instances I have come across.

Is a port replicator better or is docking station the best bet?

 

Tony wanted to follow up with another question. You have the Latitude D830 and we have the D630.

Is the card slot just express card or can it also support PCMCIA? I hear with express cards they usually show up as USB support but not the PCMCIA

 

Can't you build a basic desktop that includes a parallel port? Install XP or Windows 2000 on it or run the software in Win 7 compatibility mode. I don't see any reason why that shouldn't work.

 

Found a solution, have yet to try it

http://www.usbgear.com/USBG-LPT-PCM.html

We purchased that device and it creates a true LPT1 port. Tomorrow it will be installed and we shall test it.

I will post what happens.

 

Unfortunately it did not work. The software dongle does not accept it so we have to try an alternate route.

We will just have to return the item.

 

Looks like your only option now is to try my suggestion in post 5

You should be able to pick up a cheap PC that should fit the bill on eBay or in your local paper.