PropLab in Windows 7

[VE3UW]

I’ve been running PropLab3 under Windows XP Pro for several years, with no problems.

I recently installed Windows 7 on my computer in a dual-boot setup with the existing Windows XP Pro.  Programs I wanted to run in Win7 (including PropLab) were installed from their original media into the new Win7 partition. The idea was to have the option of running legacy programs in WinXP if they didn’t work in Win7.

Since then, PropLab3 will not work properly in either WinXP *or* Win7. Here’s what happens:

Windows 7:
When starting PropLab, a box pops up saying “The program can’t start because VCL50.BPL is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem”.  So I ran PropLab upgrade 1016 again in Win7, but this problem remains.

Windows XP:
PropLab starts OK, but there is a new problem with the MUF module: A box pops up saying “sqrt:DOMAIN error”. If I click “OK”, a new box pops up saying “Invalid floating point operation”. If I click “OK” on that one, PropLab hangs up, showing only the hourglass cursor and one blue bar in the progress bar. I also ran PropLab upgrade 1016 in XP, but this problem also remains.

All other programs I’ve tried still work fine in WinXP if they fail in Win7.

Cary, I realize this is probably my problem, but is there anything you can suggest?

Many thanks!


Rod Elliott VE3UW

[Jeff VE6EFR]

Out of curiosity, does anything change if you try to run Proplab under Windows 7 but in XP compatibility mode? Right click on the program, click on properties and then click on the compatibility tab. Tick the box next to "run this program in compatibility mode" then select Windows XP Service Pack 3. Then try to launch the program again.

This is just a guess on my part but I wonder if that would fix the problem that you are having.

[admin]

The problem you are experiencing in Windows 7 (cannot find VCL50.BPL) should be corrected if you copy that file from the system directory (in XP it's C:\windows\system32) into the folder where Proplab is running. If that fails, let us know.

We haven't confirmed that all features work in Windows 7, but it should work using the compatibility mode that Jeff suggested. There isn't a 64-bit version of Proplab yet, so it must be run in a 32-bit XP compatibility mode.

[VE3UW]

Good morning Jeff and Admin! Thanks for your replies.

I've spent much time since then working on this problem, and have concluded there is a bug in PropLab: All attempts to run a circuit with a *date later than Dec 31 2009* causes two problems... 1. The MUF module hangs up with the "sqrt:DOMAIN" error reported in my first post, and 2. Although the ray tracing module runs, its results are obviously not correct. Neither problem occurs when running the same circuit with pre-2010 dates.

I reproduced that behaviour on three different computers:
a: A Dell Dimension 5100 running XP Pro SP3 and Win7 in a dual-boot setup. The 2010 date bug happens in both XP and Win7 on this one.
b: An HP Pavilion laptop running Win7 updated from Vista.
c: A Dell Inspiron laptop running XP only.

In all those cases, I first clean-installed PropLab v. 1002 from the original CD, ran the test circuit, then upgraded each installation with a recent download of v. 1016, and ran them again.  In every case runs dated before 2010 all ran perfectly, while 2010 and later all failed. Setting the "Run in compatability mode with XP SP3" parameter ON did not correct the behaviour, but did make Win7 run faster.

BTW, forget about the "missing VCL50.BPL" issue I reported earlier. That was finger trouble on my part caused by trying to run PropLab in Win7 with files copied directly from my original XP installation. Brave, but no banana... once I installed PropLab correctly from the CD the VCL50.BPL file was no longer reported missing. 

If you wish to replicate my circuit, tx is 45.249n, 74.613w, rx is 28.459s, 113.725e  (Houtman Abrolos Island off the coast of Western Australia). Dates used were Dec 30 2009 and Jan 02 2010. I used Dec 30 2009 internet values for all ionosphere parameters.

Best regards, have a great New Years Eve...

Rod Elliott VE3UW

[dl1efd]

I can confirm the problem with the date. Any calculation with today's date fails. Setting the date to manual entry and changing the year to 2009 without any other change the problem goes away. I tried 2011 but that fails as well.

[CE4RWS]

Any calculation with today's date fails. Setting the date to manual entry and changing the year to 2009 without any other change the problem goes away.

[admin]

We are aware of this problem and will have a patch out to fix it as soon as possible (hopefully within the next week or so).

[catherih]

On a 64 bit Windows 7 installation using the latest upgrade (1017), I got the following error message:


"The procedure entry point @Icslogger@Finalization$qqrv could not be located in the dynamic link library ICSBCBSO.BPI"


Any suggestions?

[admin]

The file VCL50.BPL is a part of the main distribution for Proplab. It is stored either in the System32 folder of your computer, or the main installation folder where Proplab was installed. There are several other BPL files that are also required for operation. They all need to be placed somewhere where Proplab can see them when it is run. Normally, they can all be seen when they are in the System32 folder of XP. Check your system to see if you can find them in the corresponding folder.

[catherih]

Here is the latest.  A file search was performed and the BPL files were all found in the

folder C:\Windows\SysWOW64.  The following BPL files were identified:

Tee8C5.BPL
TeeDB8C5.BPL
TeeGL8C5.BPL
TeeImage8C5.BPL
TeeLanguage8C5.BPL
TeePro8C5.BPL
TeeQR8C5.BPL
TeeTree2C5Tee8.BPL
Tee2UI8C5.BPL
TeeWorld8C5.BPL
IcsBcb50.BPL
VCL50.BPL
vcbc50.BPL
vcljpg50.BPL

I copied and pasted these files together with a suspicious file designated as TeeChart5.ocx

to folder C:\Windows\System32.  The system was rebooted and I got the same error message.

Are these all the relevant files and is there a better place to locate them?