Sony ICD-R100 recorder in windows XP

[taz]

I have a Sony ICD-R100PC recorder that I purchased in 1999. The recorder comes with a data cable (parallel port) and some software (Win95/98) that allows you to download the voice files (*.ics) from the recorder onto the computer. I can get the software to "work" under Windows ME. I can also get it to "run" under Windows XP by changing the compatibility mode settings back to Win95/98/ME. However, I was unable to download the files form the recorder in XP, it's as if the computer didn't want to see the recorder was connected. I tried it on other computers and I got the same problem. So, I figured the compatibility wizard wasn't enough to overcome the fact that the Sony PC Link software is too old for today's standards. My question is, has anyone ever tried to mount the recorder as a storage device? Many years ago I used to have an external hard drive that plugged into the parallel port. I wonder if there's a way to mount the recorder file system locally, through the parallel port. There probably isn't but I thought I'd give it a try. It would be nice if it were possible because transferring the files would be a lot faster than having to sit there and wait for the recording to play into the audio input ports of my soundcard so I can record it into digital format. I have already contacted Sony about this and, as I suspected, they say the software will NOT work in XP, there is no USB-data cable available, and they don't believe they will be working on that any time soon.

Thanks in advance for any assistance you may be able to provide. :cheesy:

[klausbert]

"I feel your pain" :cry:
I spent 400 bucks on that gadget.
It won't work on W2000.
All they have is a software update which assumes the previous, bundled version is correctly installed. Sigh.
Got no decent tech answer from them.
Me, I'll never buy anything else from Sony, ever.

[jutl]

http://www.beyondlogic.org/porttalk/porttalk.htm

I've just managed to get the extremely dodgy Visual Basic Sony ICD-R100 software to work under Windows XP for the first time, thanks to the piece of software linked to above... The procedure is

a) Install the dodgy software, using XP compatibility mode
b) Set up the icd-pclink.exe to run under XP compatibility mode
c) Use the allowio.exe from the porttalk package to give the dodgy Sony software access to the parallel port:

c:\> allowio.exe icd-pclink.exe \a

It is shameful that Sony haven't rewritten this software to use the NT/2000 HAL. It'd just be a case of tweaking the Visual Basic source a very little bit - lazy so&so's... or perhaps they want to sell some of their new ICDs?

[jutl]

c:\> allowio.exe icd-pclink.exe \a

Make that allowio.exe icd-pclink.exe /a

[TallCool1]

I've just managed to get the extremely dodgy Visual Basic Sony ICD-R100 software to work under Windows XP for the first time, thanks to the piece of software linked to above... The procedure is

a) Install the dodgy software, using XP compatibility mode
b) Set up the icd-pclink.exe to run under XP compatibility mode
c) Use the allowio.exe from the porttalk package to give the dodgy Sony software access to the parallel port.

A major part of the problem is not entirely Sony's fault. It turns out that there are no interrupts assigned to the parallel port under NT/2000/XP, so the software chokes because the hardware interface is not as expected. See: http://www.lvr.com/parport.htm -- this is also why CPU usage rises sharply when using a parallel-port printer, as opposed to a USB interface. Deprecation has its price.

[jutl]

A major part of the problem is not entirely Sony's fault. It turns out that there are no interrupts assigned to the parallel port under NT/2000/XP, so the software chokes because the hardware interface is not as expected. See: http://www.lvr.com/parport.htm -- this is also why CPU usage rises sharply when using a parallel-port printer, as opposed to a USB interface. Deprecation has its price.

No, absolutely. They should have released an update though - their failure to do so makes me extremely wary of their hardware's longevity in general where it depends upon Windows drivers...

Also, while checking out what the s/w actually does, it became clear that some of the more minor incompatibilities stemmed from the author's decision to hardcode the names of certain registry settings that he writes and checks, rather than going through a guaranteed API - this is partly why I described it as dodgy.

[tatchus]

jutl, everything is great. Under XP - my ICD was connected, i can play msgs on ICD, but if i would like to tranfer files from ICD to computer, i have got an error - Run time error 6 - Overflow. What can i have to do? Can you help me?

[ibmtechie]

http://www.beyondlogic.org/porttalk/porttalk.htm

I've just managed to get the extremely dodgy Visual Basic Sony ICD-R100 software to work under Windows XP for the first time, thanks to the piece of software linked to above... The procedure is

a) Install the dodgy software, using XP compatibility mode
b) Set up the icd-pclink.exe to run under XP compatibility mode
c) Use the allowio.exe from the porttalk package to give the dodgy Sony software access to the parallel port:

c:\> allowio.exe icd-pclink.exe \a

It is shameful that Sony haven't rewritten this software to use the NT/2000 HAL. It'd just be a case of tweaking the Visual Basic source a very little bit - lazy so&so's... or perhaps they want to sell some of their new ICDs?

I managed to install the PCLink software in XP Compatibility mode and set it up to run in XP Compatibility mode. I also downloaded/installed the I/O Port device Drive software from PortTalk. When I run the following:

c:\>allowio.exe c:\Program Files\SONY\ICD-PCLINK\icd-pclink.exe /a

the ICD-PCLINK software starts up. The I get the dialog box to
"please connect IC Recorder to PC. then press the OK button."

I connected the IC recorder to the parallel port, then clicked OK.

I then get the error message:
"Could not communicate with IC Recorder. Make sure that the cable is connected properly."

Do you know how I can get past this error? Thanks.

[Techsup]

I managed to install the PCLink software in XP Compatibility mode, set it up to run in XP Compatibility mode, downloaded and installed the I/O Port device Drive software from PortTalk. after running
c:\>allowio.exe c:\Program Files\SONY\ICD-PCLINK\icd-pclink.exe /a

I got the following:
"please connect IC Recorder to PC. then press the OK button."

and after connecting the recorder I got the following :
"Could not communicate with IC Recorder. Make sure that the cable is connected properly."

could anyone help in solving this error?
Thanks.

[elementsrtyte]

I managed to install the PCLink software in XP Compatibility mode, set it up to run in XP Compatibility mode, downloaded and installed the I/O Port device Drive software from PortTalk. after running

I got the following:
"please connect IC Recorder to PC. then press the OK button."

and after connecting the recorder I got the following :
"Could not communicate with IC Recorder. Make sure that the cable is connected properly."

could anyone help in solving this error?
Thanks.

I'm not familiar with command lines and such. is "c:\>allowio.exe c:\Program Files\SONY\ICD-PCLINK\icd-pclink.exe /a" the exact commandline you put into the target or run box? I tried putting that in but it said c:\>allowio.exe was not a valid command. i also tried putting the command in w/o the >, but instead that just ran the allowio program without icd-pclink program starting up. Im frustrated with Sony right now :cry: and any help thats given would be appreciated. I think im on the right track :confused:

and btw, yes i was able to install icd-pclink w/ the latest patch from SONY.

[BobSmith1]

I have a Sony ICD-R100PC recorder that I purchased in 1999. The recorder comes with a data cable (parallel port) and some software (Win95/98) that allows you to download the voice files (*.ics) from the recorder onto the computer. I can get the software to "work" under Windows ME. I can also get it to "run" under Windows XP by changing the compatibility mode settings back to Win95/98/ME. However, I was unable to download the files form the recorder in XP, it's as if the computer didn't want to see the recorder was connected. I tried it on other computers and I got the same problem. So, I figured the compatibility wizard wasn't enough to overcome the fact that the Sony PC Link software is too old for today's standards. My question is, has anyone ever tried to mount the recorder as a storage device? Many years ago I used to have an external hard drive that plugged into the parallel port. I wonder if there's a way to mount the recorder file system locally, through the parallel port. There probably isn't but I thought I'd give it a try. It would be nice if it were possible because transferring the files would be a lot faster than having to sit there and wait for the recording to play into the audio input ports of my soundcard so I can record it into digital format. I have already contacted Sony about this and, as I suspected, they say the software will NOT work in XP, there is no USB-data cable available, and they don't believe they will be working on that any time soon.

Thanks in advance for any assistance you may be able to provide. :cheesy:

Hi there I have one too (Sony ICD-R100) and have been very frustrated in trying to get mine to work as well. I have just looked here for the responses. Was woundering if you have any good news to a not as advanced computer person as it seems you are. Did you ever get your Sony ICD-R100 working with XP???

If so how??

Please email me at bobsmith1 dot America on-line

Thanks

[EdW]

My problem is that I can't even get the software to install on XP. Keep getting a message that I need the latest VB5 files. I have tried the latest (I did make sure they were registered) and also tried the ones from the Windows 98 machine where the recorder worked fine. Any ideas?

[drbradmb]

I am having the exact same problem with the sony recorder. If by chance you happen to get it to work I would greatly appreciate some advice. My email is [e-mail]. Thanks.

[frajag]

I have one of these recorders with the link cable. I did not receive the software so I would be grateful if someone could send me the three setup files ([e-mail])
It seems that Win XP,2000 and NT do not use the parallel port in the same fashion as Win 9x and this is the problem. I cannot see a fix until someone re-writes the interface.
Because I did not have the software I resorted to other means to transfer the files to the PC :
1. I use a cable (few bucks at Radio Shack) to link the ear phone output to the line in of my sound card (Creative).
2. I set the Creative recorder on and start the ICD-R100
3. This transfers a WAV file.
4. You can save the WAV file and convert it in any way you wish.
The ICS format file is no longer being used by Sony anyways and Sony provides software on their web site to convert ICS to Wav etc.
Hope that this helps others.

[Hallo1]

jutl, everything is great. Under XP - my ICD was connected, i can play msgs on ICD, but if i would like to tranfer files from ICD to computer, i have got an error - Run time error 6 - Overflow. What can i have to do? Can you help me?

Thanks to the Hints of jutl i managed to install and run the icd-pclink software
with the allowio driver but received the same "Run time error 6 - Overflow" error when trying to save a data file.
ANY HINT???:evil:

[DAW]

I have one of these recorders with the link cable. I did not receive the software so I would be grateful if someone could send me the three setup files ([e-mail])
It seems that Win XP,2000 and NT do not use the parallel port in the same fashion as Win 9x and this is the problem. I cannot see a fix until someone re-writes the interface.
Because I did not have the software I resorted to other means to transfer the files to the PC :
1. I use a cable (few bucks at Radio Shack) to link the ear phone output to the line in of my sound card (Creative).
2. I set the Creative recorder on and start the ICD-R100
3. This transfers a WAV file.
4. You can save the WAV file and convert it in any way you wish.
The ICS format file is no longer being used by Sony anyways and Sony provides software on their web site to convert ICS to Wav etc.
Hope that this helps others.

Thanks frajag, for the solution, which I plan to use - but how do I find the Creative recorder or equivalent? Thanks again.
DAW

[frajag]

Thanks frajag, for the solution, which I plan to use - but how do I find the Creative recorder or equivalent? Thanks again.
DAW

The "Creative Recorder" that I mentioned is software that comes with my sound card (Creative SB Live). You should have something similar that was installed with your sound card.

[PavelZ]

I have just now finished (successfully) the installation of ICD-R100PC's software. Just for others to know, I have overcome several problems some of which I found solutions for in this forum (thanks). Just to summarise, the steps to perform the installation for Windows XP are the following:

1) Install the Sony's software (ICD-PCLINK). This should be done in Windows 95 or 98 compatibility mode - Change the compatibility mode for the Setup.exe in the "properties". If successfull, you should have no problems installing the software, if you fail to do this, the setup requires "the latest patch" - an obvious nonsense.

Note: you can also apply the patches available from Sony (I used version 1.22 but I am not sure whether this is necessary or not.)

2) Install the PortTalk software (at http://www.beyondlogic.org/porttalk/porttalk.htm), run allowio.exe once and then copy the allowio.exe in the same directory where you have icd-pclink.exe. Then always start the icd-pclink.exe as:
allowio icd-pclink.exe /a
(some comment - allowio icd-pclink.exe 378 would seem to be OK but it did not work for me). If you are successful, the program should start OK.
I also created a small batch file containing the above line which works OK.
I switched the ICD-PCLINK.EXE in the Windows 98 compatibility mode but I am not sure whether this is necessary.

3) The program may tell you that the ICD did not connect properly (some stuff about the cable...). This issue can be solved through adjusting the parameters of the parallel port in BIOS and Windows. First, I adjusted the parallel port to Bidirectional mode in BIOS, then I selected configuration with no interrupt and no DMA at ports 378-37F, 778-77F in the device manager in Windows XP (I believe I used configuration 006 but this is probably not that important). I am not that sure that this is the only configuration that works. What is, however, important is that changing the parallel port setup worked so it is worth playing with this...

4) The program seemed to work until I decided to save the data from the ICD to the disk. I got the Overflow error - runtime error 6 - mentioned in this forum. Well, I discovered that the program only saved the files onto a FAT16 partition. I created one using the partition magic software (but many other will do, too). THIS IS THE PROBLEM I DID NOT OVERCOME - IT ONLY SAVES TO FAT16 partitions - definitely not to large FAT32 or NTFS partitions.

That's it :cool:

Pavel

[Hallo1]

Thank you for your posting.
The solution for the overflow error worked for me.
:twisted:
shame on SONY

[Pawol]

Hi

I've got the ICD-R100 but my floppy disks are broken. I cannot find the software (pclink) in the net. Could anyone send me that one by email?

Thanks in advance
PAwol

mail: [e-mail]

[Pawol]

According to lack of the VB5 libraries.
You should install the setup.exe file with win98 compatibility mode. (Click the right button on the setup.exe and select win98 mode)

[wts]

PavelZ said "Overflow error - runtime error 6 IS THE PROBLEM I DID NOT OVERCOME - IT ONLY SAVES TO FAT16 partitions - definitely not to large FAT32 or NTFS partitions." I don't think so.
At first, I used the method "allowio icd-pclink.exe /a" which worked well without any question. I was able to copy files from the recorder to the disk. But today, to my surprise, I experienced the same issue as " overflow error = runtime error 6". Why did this happen? I thought to myself. It was the same computer, nothing added to the programe. It should not be like this way. Suddenly, I thought it may be due to the volume change of the disk. I just deleted some files yesterday. The volume of disk changed from 1.99G to 2.01G. Maybe that was the point. So I copied one of the files to make the volume of the disk smaller than 2G. Then I used the same command again, It worked. Oh, my god, volume of the destination disk is actually the key.
Because my partition is NTFS, so the oveflow error has no relationship with the partition format. It is only the volume of the destination disk which must be smaller than 2G. You can try my way to overcome the overflow error issue.

[tel08]

I'm an older guy that doesn't know his USB from his esc key. Could someone give me some easy to follow instructions on how to get my HP to talk with my ICD so I can save some very important voice files. ll that mumbo jumbo I have read in the forum is way, way way over my head! I have the original cable (parrallel port) and 3- 3.5" disks. I have attempted the set-up program but I get a message stating I need an "update". What the H#** is that? Give me hand before I give this POS the heave ho!

[hard money easy]

If i go to Fry's and buy a new Sony ic recorder and install it's software, will that software work with my old Sony ICD-R100? I suppose the new IC recorders attach via a USB and not the Parallel port?
is there a USB cable available for the ICD-100?
many thanks
Jim

[John W]

PavelZ's post was extremely helpful. Unfortunately, I'm stuck at number 3. I just can't seem to get communication between the ICD device and the parallel port. I think I've tried every available port combination on my computer and I still can't get it to work!

So if anyone else is able to conquer this step (I already tried Pavel's suggestions in this regard), I'd appreciate knowing how it's done!

Meanwhile I have an alternate solution I'm using in the meantime... I dragged out an old, old computer I haven't used literally in years, along with an old Windows 95 cd. It was easy to get the PCLink software going on the old machine. Networking it with my XP system was harder, but that's done now too. So I simply transfer files to the 95 machine and then copy them through the network cable to my XP system.

Lots of people have old computers around, and you should be able to pick up 95 or 98 off of ebay if you don't have it already.

Not quite like copying directly onto your main system, but it does at least enable me to get files off the recorder.

[John W]

If i go to Fry's and buy a new Sony ic recorder and install it's software, will that software work with my old Sony ICD-R100? I suppose the new IC recorders attach via a USB and not the Parallel port?
is there a USB cable available for the ICD-100?
many thanks
Jim

I don't know the answers there, but I've been wondering: if I buy a cable that converts parallel to USB, will my computer recognize the ICD-R100 as kind of a USB drive?

I'd like to know the answer to that one...

[John W]

Here's what I was thinking: If a parallel to USB connector would allow WinXP to recognize the ICD-R100 as a drive from which the *.ics files could be downloaded, you could then use the ICS player to convert to wav.

But it looks like a moot point. This conversion function works on my win 95 system, but not on the XP one - even in win95 compatibility mode.

So I'm back to my plan above (maintain a cheap 95 or 98 system networked to your XP) as the best plan I've come up with so far.

Sony ought to be horsewhipped for selling this device and then immediately abandoning support on it.

[John W]

Hang on! Update!!

I just downloaded ICSCONVERT.EXE from Sony's web site. It does a very good job of converting ICS files to WAV. And it works under XP.

So... the question is: will a bidirectional parallel-to-USB cable allow XP to recognize the ICD-R100 as some kind of USB drive and enable you to upload the ICS files from the ICD-R100? If so, then you really wouldn't need the dodgy PCLink software, just the original cable, the parallel-to-USB adapter, and ICSCONVERT.EXE to easily upload the ICD contents and convert them to WAV.

No fiddling with compatibility modes, PCLink, and parallel port and hard drive settings (method 1) - or with old computers and network cables (method 2). If this new method (method 3) will work, then it would make things just about as simple as they were meant to be.

[John W]

CAUTION HERE: any such cable would have to have a female parallel connector for the existing cable to connect to, just like the one on the back of the computer, NOT a parallel connector designed to connect to the printer!

[John W]

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like such a cable exists. Drat.

Nor can I find any cable that will connect from the ICD-R100 to USB.

So it looks like method 2 is the one that works for me... at least until I decide to buy a new digital voice recorder and toss this one in the trash. A shame, because this one works pretty well.