Geoplot 3 Technical Support


	Geoplot 3 Technical Support - Page 1 Page 1 Problems running Geoplot Problems starting Geoplot when using an Az-Tech LPT hardware lock Page 2 General Problems when using a software lock Problems transferring a software authorisation in 2000 or XP Problems downloading data Page 3 Problems with scrambled data Problems opening data Problems printing Problems with graphics Problems creating composites from master grids Problems with Publish Problems with Process Problems with Import Loss of floating History or Statistics forms Problems running under Windows 2000 and XP Problems with networks Page 4 General Information How do I save higher quality graphics than the Save Graphic Plot method offers ? How do I import non-standard data ? Running Geoplot 3 on 64 bit Platforms Problems running Geoplot If you find problems similar to the list that follows then it is likely that your Regional settings have the Decimal Symbol set to a comma and not a decimal point. Please check Regional settings as advised in the warning box under Running Geoplot in Installation, Chapter 2. A typical problem list is : (a) when opening Options - Graphics a second time you get the message "Invalid property value" and Geoplot exits immediately, (b) same with the Dot-density Graphics plotting parameter form, (c) problems with palettes, (d) problems importing files, (e) publish does not work at all, (f) problems with selecting areas and using the zoom controls. Also check that you have a valid printer installed, along with valid fonts. If you encounter a message similar to "Overflow in form MDIFormLoad at SetPrinterMargin" or "File Not Found" when trying to start Geoplot it is likley that the current default printer driver is corrupted. Try changing the default printer to another type (you can install a new driver without physically having a the matching printer). You may also have to reinstall the Geoplot Options files since these may have changed as a result of a faulty printer driver - either use backups of these, copy them from the Restorefiles folder if you have a CD, download them from this website or uninstall and then reinstall Geoplot. If Geoplot now starts correctly, reinstalling the original printer driver and resetting this as the default should cure the problem completely. This error may happen when installing new software. For example this error has has been known to occur after installing Adobe Photoshop and new network software, with the default printer driver being corrupted. Occasionally Windows XP will replace the system files installed with Geoplot with its own versions. Unfortunately these are usually older versions and not compatible with Geoplot. Should you get an error message when trying to run Geoplot that implies a problem with a .dll or .vbx file, check the date and version of the file installed in the Geoplot direcetory (typically c:\gp300) and compare this with the table given earlier in the section titled "Check DLL's and VBX's". If XP has installed an earlier version replace it with the later version supplied with Geoplot - a copy of all .dll and .vbx files is supplied in the RestoreFiles directory of the Geoplot CD. If you encounter several messages reporting missing files when you first start Geoplot it is probable that you have installed Geoplot to a root directory - you must install Geoplot in a directory structure of one or more levels. Problems starting Geoplot when using an Az-Tech LPT hardware lock Introduction Geoplot 3.0, protected by an Az-Tech LPT hardware lock, can be installed into Windows 3.1, 3.11, 95, 98, ME and NT4. If you wish to run Geoplot on Windows 2000, XP or higher then you will need to download and apply new drivers from Az-Tech. These can be found in our Download section where you can download Azsetup.zip. This file contains Azsetup.exe, Azports.exe and Azsetup.txt. Azsetup.txt gives instructions on installing the new drivers and Userport. You will need to be a System Administrater yourself or will need to contact your IT department in order to run program Azsetup.exe successfully. However, we have found these new drivers do not work on all 2000 and XP systems - should they not work on your system you will need to upgrade your LPT dongle to a USB dongle, preferably, or to a software authorisation version if there is no USB port available - note that if you do this you will no longer be able to run the DOS 2.0 version. If you are not using Windows 2000 or XP and cannot start Geoplot successfully when using an Az-Tech LPT hardware lock then it is likely that a device driver or diagnostic has been loaded by Windows that is preventing access to the parallel port, and access to the dongle. Examples are drivers for laser printers, parallel port scanners, parallel port CDROM or ZIP drives. In order to get Geoplot running it is neccessary to identify the driver or diagnostic and either disable it or change its settings. Advice is given below for the different operating systems. Before looking for these drivers it is worth checking that the latest DLL and VBX files are present on your system, as outlined below. If you are installing Geoplot on a new computer ensure that the parallel port has been enabled - this is not always the case ! You can check if the parallel port is active by trying to print using other applications. If it is not active you will need to reconfigure the hardware at bootup to activate a parallel port. If you experience difficulties accessing the dongle please could you let us know of the problem and details of how you manage to resolve them or otherwise. In particular please could you let us know which version of Windows you are using, setup details specific to your machine, any other software loaded and drivers that caused a problem - we can then advise other users of potential conflicts. Remember that if you are using NT4 you must be a System Administrator and run the NTSetup program first. If you are on a network you must disable the network connection. If the advice given below fails to cure the problem, and you have a dongle with a number earlier than 98167 then we may need to issue a new dongle. We believe at this stage that this applies more to NT4 than the other operating systems. Note however that a new dongle will not cure any device driver conflict problems or a faulty Windows installation, rather it may help with interfacing to new high speed parallel ports. Check DLL's and VBX's Check to see that there are no other DLL's, VBX's or SYS's on your system which are earlier than the ones distributed with Geoplot. These files would normally be found in the System directory of Windows. The files Geoplot installs in its own directory (C:\GP300) are :


	VBRUN300.DLL 398,416 22/09/94 TRUEGRID.VBX 328,720 17/02/95 NTSETUP.EXE 23552 4/03/1997 COMMDLG.DLL 88,544 25/03/99 VSVBX.VBX 92,176 05/01/95 KECHK2.DLL 23,040 02/11/98 MSCOMM.VBX 34,816 12/05/93 CMDIALOG.VBX 18,688 28/04/93 DOWNTVDD.DLL 11,776 29/10/96 THREED.VBX 64,432 24/08/96 DS1410D.SYS 7,328 07/08/97


	If you find that there are earlier files installed in the Windows System directory you should replace these by the later files supplied with Geoplot. Problems with Windows 3.1 Drivers You should first of all try disabling drivers from the Program Manager - either from the Control Panel icon in the Main group or from any specific device driver groups. For example the Windows 3.1 diagnostics driver provided with the HP LaserJet 5L printer loads a TSR that takes control of the parallel port, which prevents access to the dongle. The diagnostics program in this case needs to be disabled in Windows and then the computer rebooted to remove the TSR which would still be loaded and operating, even though disabled in Windows. If using the windows control panel does not correct the problem you should then look in the SYSTEM.INI [386Enh] section for any drivers Windows may be loading. Any suspect driver can be temporarily disabled by placing a semicolon (;) at the beginning of its "device=" line and rebooting Windows. Make sure you have a full backup of the original file first and ignore any driver lines that contain an asterisk "" which are built-in Windows drivers that should not be causing a problem. You should consult the documentation provided with any driver you disable to determine the effect of disabling it or to determine what other driver settings can be made to resolve the problem. If SYSTEM.INI [386Enh] section contains the statement : LPT1AutoAssign=xx then make sure the value for "xx" is 0 or 1. High values may cause access difficulties to the parallel port. You could also look in the WIN.INI [Ports] and [Printer Ports] sections to make sure these are correctly configured. Also check your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files to see if they are loading and running any drivers that may access the parallel port. Problems with Windows 95, 98, ME and NT4 Drivers* The first step is to see if other background programs are taking control of the parallel port. With just the desktop displayed and no other applications running, press Ctrl-Alt-Del to show a list of current tasks or programs running in the background. You can end each task in turn to see if the problem is resolved - but do not under any circumstances end the Explorer or Systray tasks. If this does not solve the problem then reboot and start Windows 95 in Safe Mode. This will load only the bare minimum of essential drivers that Windows itself needs, and you should now be able to run Geoplot, though you will then probably be restricted to a VGA display resolution. Should this cure the problem then the next step is to try and identify where the problem driver is being loaded when you start Windows normally - any driver that could be accessing the parallel port. You should first of all try disabling suspect drivers from the Control Panel. For example the diagnostics driver provided with the HP LaserJet 5L printer takes control of the parallel port, which prevents access to the dongle. The diagnostics program in this case needs to be disabled using the Windows Control panel settings - you will probably also then have to reboot the computer. If this is does not cure the problem, you should look in the SYSTEM.INI [386Enh] section. Any driver can be temporarily disabled by placing a semicolon (;) at the beginning of its "device=" line and rebooting Windows. Make sure you have a full backup of the original file first and ignore any driver lines that contain an asterisk "" which are built-in Windows drivers that should not be causing a problem. You should consult the documentation provided with any driver you disable to determine the effect of disabling it or to determine what other driver settings can be made to resolve the problem. If SYSTEM.INI [386Enh] section contains the statement : LPT1AutoAssign=xx then make sure the value for "xx" is 0 or 1. High values may cause access difficulties to the parallel port. You could also look in the WIN.INI [Ports] and [Printer Ports] sections to make sure these are correctly configured. The last resort step is to search registry files for any drivers that could cause problems and either disable them or change their settings. Proceed with EXTREME CAUTION when changing registry settings!!!!!!!. Only attempt to do this if you are totally confident how to do this and can recover from a situation where the registry becomes corrupted. This must be done using proper registry editing tools by users fully competant in altering the registry - if a mistake is made it may make the PC inoperable so you should know EXACTLY* what you are doing and be confident in being able to restore the PC back to a working state. Changes should not be undertaken by users who are unfamiliar with such steps. You will also need to find out from the supplier of the driver what alternative settings are valid. It is more likely you will be able to identify and disable a problem driver using the first few suggestion without having to resort to registry changes. Back to top of page