[WriteLog] PI4COM need help with CW problems

[Bob McCormick W1QA]

Ron:
> The last 2 weeks I am busy to get all the networked 
> multi/multi PC's ready for the upcoming PACC contest at 
> PI4COM. I am working now on a PC which give my problems in 
> CW. We use the LPT1 port for CW (just a normal CT cable). I 
> think there is a timing problem in the computer. When 
> transmitting some letters or figures, they are totally 
> disturbed (no CW at all hi).
> 
> I am working with W98 second edition (including the latest 
> patches). The hardware is a Tulip Vision Line P5/166 64 Mb 
> memory. There is an internal network card available.
[snip]

Maybe try booting into safe mode ... or checking to
see what else you may have loaded that is running
on the system (task manager, plus anything in the
startup group and/or through the various registry
settings that auto start things when you boot up,
if you're into registry edits).

We run WriteLog on a Windows 98 SE based system at
NC1I contest station ... and CW sends fine using 
the LPT interface as long as not much else is 
going on, on the system.  (The system is also usually
connected to a dial-up Internet connection whilst
contesting.)

I find if I even try to do something simple like
use a web browser (Internet Explorer) when WriteLog
is sending CW - the CW becomes affected (garbled).

I suspect there's something that's running on 
your system, maybe handling interrupts or other
higher priority code causing the WriteLog keying
not to function properly / cleanly.

After doing a bunch of research on this looking 
through this list's archives and other Internet
resources, we decided on ordering the keyer box
that goes with WriteLog ...

Hope this gives you some starting ideas as others
also send their thoughts.

Met vr. gr.,
Bob W1QA ex-PA3GCQ ZL2GCQ EI4VFH