[Virtualacorn-list] New VRPC Installation Doesn't Start

[John McCartney]

In article
<73EEE9A1F6E94FAFA8A5775E2D556D82 at philipsdesktop>, T.O.M.S.
<admin at toms12.plus.com> wrote:

> On Tue Jul 8 21:14:58 BST 2014, John McCartney
> j.mccartney at blueyonder.co.uk  sayeth:


> > So my query is, are the instructions in the link only
> > valid for Win 8?

> Forgive me if I've missed it, but I'm unclear as to what
> version of Windows your self-build machine is running.

Win 7 Home Premium. Sorry if I didn't mention it before. It
does appear in my insane ramblings which I linked to in the
thread Self-build PC. Don't go there unless you have
difficulty sleeping.

> We have no experience of either W7 or W8, so all we've
> done is to suggest pointers where you might look for an
> answer. AFAICT from the Forum posts and Support
> articles, the problem of not having an ATAPI-compatible
> optical drive...

Indeed it is.

> ...(if that is indeed the problem) seems to apply equally
> to W7 and W8 - but that's only a presumption from what
> has been said.

I said in my last post yesterday, the contents of the atapi
folder in Win 7's registry don't seem to match up with
those of Win 8. Specifically, there is no sub-folder named
Controller0.

> But to clarify the potential solution, IF it is a drive
> compatibility problem...

It seems to be.

> ...(and going back to the earlier Forum posts), I
> understand that by removing the atapicd.dll module from
> the Plugins folder, that will then allow VirtualRPC to
> start up. And I see Mike T's post at 22:02 yesterday does
> mention that.

Despite what I said in my reply to Mik, I think that
removing atapicd.dll is where I end up going.

> The downside is that the optical drive will not then work
> 'normally' under RISC OS (i.e. under CDFS), but you can
> still set up a HostFS mount for it and access the CD/DVD
> contents. If you specifically need to access a 'RISC OS
> only' disc, the following Support article explains how
> to do it:
http://www.virtualacorn.co.uk/support/articles/135/index.htm

Setting up a mount is straightforward (I have three others
in my standard setup) so that shouldn't present a problem.

> If all that still doesn't help, I'd suggest a trawl
> through the VirtualRPC website. Open the Home page on
> http://www.virtualacorn.co.uk/index2.htm  type
> atapicd.dll into the 'Search VirtualAcorn' box and your
> browser should lead to various W7/8 links. Good luck!

Indeed it does.

I think the best solution, in the long term, would be if
Aaron and Graham can come up with an update which obviates
the problem. I've no idea what might be involved and it's
quite possible that this has been incorporated already in
the updates which Aaron has mentioned elsewhere.

Thanks for your help. I'll report back later with the
results.

John

-- 
John McCartney
j.mccartney at blueyonder.co.uk