Utility works OK on system one, but not on system two

[Muse]

Could it be a hardware issue? The same utility works perfectly on my Lenovo T60 laptop running XP Pro SP3. But on my desktop it's dodgy. The utility does a bunch of different types of things. It's 32 bit Clickflick version 1.5 and I've used it for almost 15 years on systems from Windows 3.1 (on Windows 3.1 I used the 16 bit version), all the way up to XP Pro. One of the things it does is send keystrokes to applications (It also launches just about anything you want). I use it to fill in things like user names and passwords in browser windows, both Firefox and IE, and on the laptop it works just fine. On the desktop system it works sometimes but I always have to try several times before it will spit out the strokes. I've tried closing down every damn program and process possible on the desktop and nothing has worked. Could it have something to do with the hardware on the desktop or its drivers? The desktop system is Beauty in my sig:

Gigabyte GA-K8n Pro motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (socket 754, FSB1600, E6, Venice, 90nm, L2-512KB)
BFG 6600 GTOC AGP video card
2 sticks Crucial 1GB PC3200 400MHz 184-pin DDR Memory - CT12864Z40B, 2 GB total
Corsair vx550w PSU
USR Model 2977 PCI hardware modem
Hercules GTXP sound card PCI with breakout box
MyHD HDTV 120 HDTV PCI
MyHD HDTV 120 HDTV daughter board

Windows XP SP3


I just did a fresh install of XP on an alternate partition and have the same problem. I've tried everything I can think of to troubleshoot this and gotten nowhere.

 

[bruceb]

Maybe it needs to open a port in the firewall ?
Sometimes, you also must add a program to
an antivirus allowed list or firewall white list ?

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: bruceb
Maybe it needs to open a port in the firewall ?
Sometimes, you also must add a program to
an antivirus allowed list or firewall white list ?

Thanks, I'll try that stuff. I didn't even know that there are allowed/white lists for AV and firewalls. However, the laptop is running the same AV (Antivir Free) and the firewall is just the standard XP firewall on both. I didn't do anything with it. 😕

Of course, the laptop, being supplied by Lenovo, came configured in the extreme with a ton of things preloaded and configured including the OS.

 

[Muse]

I made an exception for the program in Windows firewall, but things haven't changed.

There is a facility in Control Panel/Windows Firewall to open a port for a program but I don't know how I would do that. 😕

 

[bruceb]

You open the Windows firewall by Right Click the Network Icon in the system tray, select Change Firewall Settings, then the Exceptions Tab.,There are tabs there to Add a Program .. put your program on the list. When you do so it will ask what port to use. If need be you can change the port manually later thru the Add Port tab or the Edit tab .. I can't find much on who made
the program you refer to .. seems to be very old.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: bruceb
You open the Windows firewall by Right Click the Network Icon in the system tray, select Change Firewall Settings, then the Exceptions Tab.,There are tabs there to Add a Program .. put your program on the list. When you do so it will ask what port to use. If need be you can change the port manually later thru the Add Port tab or the Edit tab .. I can't find much on who made
the program you refer to .. seems to be very old.

Thanks, I'll try those things. The program was by Miratech based in Palo Alco, CA, and yes, it's pretty old. It originated as a sort of custom 3rd party program/utility for Wall Street firms (don't know exactly what firms, but it was supposed to be for Wall St.), and then it moved on to support mostly Autocad users, where it had a pretty big following. Then it was released for Windows in general. This was just around the time that Windows 95 was coming out and they had two versions, one 16 bit for Windows 3.1 and the other 32 bit to support Windows 95, which was just about to hit the streets.

I belonged to a computer club and one month the president/owner of the company did a presentation on the program and I won a free copy in a raffle/door-prize. I was upgraded to the 32 bit version when it shipped, for free. The presenter described it as a power user's utility and I fell in love with it and have used it ever since, even though it's unsupported for many years. It has bugs and quirks and at this point I can only get it to do a subset of the things it was developed to do, but even so, they are IMO awesome. It has a lot of stuff built into it.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: bruceb
You open the Windows firewall by Right Click the Network Icon in the system tray, select Change Firewall Settings, then the Exceptions Tab.,There are tabs there to Add a Program .. put your program on the list. When you do so it will ask what port to use. If need be you can change the port manually later thru the Add Port tab or the Edit tab .. I can't find much on who made
the program you refer to .. seems to be very old.

I don't have a Network Icon in my system tray. 😕

I have put the program in my list of programs for exception in Windows Firewall, in Control Panel. Maybe that's the same thing. I can specify a port for it, but don't know what port number to put in there. It says to consult the program documentation to find out the port to use. There's a fair amount of documentation that came with the program and maybe it includes some hints such as a port to use to make it work better.... ???

 

[bruceb]

What OS are you running ? ? Most Win2000 / XP / Vista will show the Network Icon in the system tray. But it can be set to not show thru Start, Control Panel, Settings, Network Card, Properties .... there is a check box for wether or not you want the icon in the system tray.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: bruceb
What OS are you running ? ? Most Win2000 / XP / Vista will show the Network Icon in the system tray. But it can be set to not show thru Start, Control Panel, Settings, Network Card, Properties .... there is a check box for wether or not you want the icon in the system tray.

XP Pro SP3, both machines.

I'm not seeing what you describe.

I have Control Panel, and under that:

Network Connections
Network Setup Wizard


My desktop has a mobo with built in ethernet: Gigabyte GA-K8n Pro

There are properties for the built in NIC in Device Manager but I don't see anything in the tabs pertaining to an icon in the system tray. 😕

 

[bruceb]

See attached link of screen shot

http://picasaweb.google.com/bruce.bubello/ScreenShot#

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: bruceb
See attached link of screen shot

http://picasaweb.google.com/bruce.bubello/ScreenShot#

Thanks, got it. Now I have the icon in the tray. The Change Windows Firewall Settings brings up a dialog that I saw before though, the same one I used to make an exception for the program. It also allows me to assign a port for it but I don't know what number port to assign it to. There's a hint there: It says to look up what port to use in the program documentation if possible. I'll see if I can find that info in the documentation that came with ClickFlick.

 

[Muse]

I now realize that I used to have this problem on the Lenovo T60 laptop but it mysteriously disappeared. Previous to getting the laptop I was running Windows 2000 on my desktops and in IE6 I was having no problems. I got the laptop, running XP Pro and IE7 and I had problems such as I describe for my current desktop running XP Pro and IE7 (also in Firefox 3.x). I started this thread that described the problem I was having using ClickFlick on the laptop a little over a year ago:

Utility sending keystrokes to IE doesn't work on T60

Now I see that the problem on the laptop has evidently totally disappeared. I have no clue why! 😕