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AussieG4

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 14, 2008
6
0
I've searched and looked through different sites including virtual pc, virtual box, bochs, etc. I have a powerbook g4 and am running leopard, I want to be able to install and run an automotive tuning program I have(hondata) but it's a windows based program and will not run on a mac. I know there are emulators and such but I hate to pay 70 dollars to only run one program, it doesn't take any power to run, very simple. Does anyone have any suggestions, or is there a way to get around incompatibility issue? Thanks for any help.
 

iShater

macrumors 604
Aug 13, 2002
7,027
470
Chicagoland
Only option is to get Virtual PC 7. If you really need to run this application, you gotta have to buy it unfortunately.
 

AussieG4

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 14, 2008
6
0
I've thought about it, I don't want anything unstable. Last thing I need is the program crashing in the middle of a tuning session.

Edit, If I have a windows xp install disk from my old sager can I use that to install windows or would I have to purchase a new copy?
 

iShater

macrumors 604
Aug 13, 2002
7,027
470
Chicagoland
VPC7 is pretty stable. You can get it from MS for $129 or so without a copy of windows (if you have your own to add), or a little more if you want it with a version of windows.

What kinda PB do you have?
 

AussieG4

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 14, 2008
6
0
I have a 12" G4 1.5ghz and a 17" Titanium G4

Just use them for minor things, email, photos, home video, internet, webpage, etc.

I have a sager 5600d I used to play a lot of games on but that's in pieces right now as I'm fixing the dc in. So this is why I need to get the program able to work on the mac.
 

iShater

macrumors 604
Aug 13, 2002
7,027
470
Chicagoland
Aaaah, so you have "my" PowerBook. I use VPC7 on it and for non-intensive applications (that don't need a lot of CPU power) it works fine.
 

AdeFowler

macrumors 68020
Aug 27, 2004
2,319
362
England
I've got VPC 7 and Windows XP on my 1.5ghz PowerBook and it's painful. Screen redraw is ridiculously slow. (edit: in my humble opinion). If I were you I'd save up for a second hand MacBook or a PC.
 

iShater

macrumors 604
Aug 13, 2002
7,027
470
Chicagoland
I've got VPC 7 and Windows XP on my 1.5ghz PowerBook and it's painful. Screen redraw is ridiculously slow. If I were you I'd save up for a second hand MacBook or a PC.

I use Windows 2000 on it, and it is pretty usable. I haven't tried XP on it (since I never needed that).
 

AussieG4

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 14, 2008
6
0
So would I be able to use my windows xp disc if I have the product key?

I was going to buy a new macbook but I would rather not spend 1200 right now if I don't need to. I would rather just buy a new macbook pro in the future when I actually need it. Which I plan on doing.
 

velocityg4

macrumors 604
Dec 19, 2004
7,336
4,726
Georgia
Since you only need to run the one tuning program why not just get an old PC laptop.

For less than $75 you aught to be able to buy a Pentium III laptop off ebay with enough RAM to run XP and the diagnostics program. Reinstall from your XP cd and do not bother with antivirus or anything else if this is your only use for the thing. It would be much faster running Windows than the Powerbook emulating windows.

Really any AMD or Intel CPU over 400mhz should be fine with 256mb RAM.
 

AussieG4

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 14, 2008
6
0
Aussie, can you tell us more about the app you want to use? what does it do? and what are the requirements for is?


It just requires windows xp and 256mb of ram. The program is a simple windows based program, other than that just a usb connection.

I thought about going down the buy a cheap laptop route but it's nearly impossible for me to find anything that cheap. Also I need something where the battery actually works as I need to be remote(in car) when using it. If it comes down to it I'll just fix my sager and use it. I just thought it would be easier to use my mac with some type of program.
 

iShater

macrumors 604
Aug 13, 2002
7,027
470
Chicagoland
ooh! The USB connection might be an issue. I never got a good result with that. Mice/etc. work fine, but if this is some special connection for external hardware, your millage may vary.

Does it use a lot of CPU?

Oh, and XP might not be as fast as my system then.
 

velocityg4

macrumors 604
Dec 19, 2004
7,336
4,726
Georgia
ooh! The USB connection might be an issue. I never got a good result with that. Mice/etc. work fine, but if this is some special connection for external hardware, your millage may vary.

Does it use a lot of CPU?

Oh, and XP might not be as fast as my system then.

This is probably true. I never tried running Windows only hardware through emulation when I used it many years ago. But as I recall the emulated System just gives calls to the hardware from the host System. Given that you would need Mac OS X hardware drivers for that USB device. Since Windows is not actually operating it directly. Rather the calls from Windows to the hardware and those from the hardware to Windows must pass through Mac OS X.

Even with Mac OS X having drivers does not necessarily mean Windows can fully utilize the hardware. Such as you do not get hardware acceleration through your video card from an emulated OS within Mac OS X.

While it may or may not work it seems the safest bet would be to fix up the Sager or buy a cheap PC laptop off eBay.
 

AussieG4

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 14, 2008
6
0
I see what you guys are saying about the usb connection. It does real time data logging and I will constantly be sending info to the cars ecu from my computer so that might cause a problem.
 
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