[CQ-Contest] Contest Programs and Windows 7.0

[Jeff Clarke]

Our computer died and I was thinking of buying a new laptop. Does anyone know if there are problems with the popular contest programs running under Windows 7.0 ? The computer that died had Windows Vista on it and I just hated it. I got N1MM to run but had major problems getting my radio interface to work even though I had the Vista driver for it. It would just lock up for no reason in the middle of a contest and I couldn't even get N1MM to end by doing CTRL-ALT-DEL. I ended up having to power down the computer to reset it. I am using a Piexx USB-CIV interface to control an Icom 756PRO.

I'm thinking of just buying a cheap laptop/desktop on the Dell reconditioned web site that has XP on it.  Has anyone ever owned a Dell
Latitude D620 or D820 ?  Most of the laptops they are auctioning off are these two models.  If I were buy a new computer I don't want to spend the $$$ on it can't run my ham radio programs in Windows 7.0. Any advice would be appreciated.


Jeff KU8E