Mac/Virtual Windows question

[Beemer]

I'm thinking very seriously about purchasing a G5 Apple Mac, one thing that is concerning me slightly is the fact that my Quest GPS software is for PC. Can anyone tell me if they're running the same software on a Mac G5 using Virtual Windows and if so are there any problems with it?
Many thanks
Steve

 

[kcain]

I have a G5 and a PowerBook G4 but keep a Windows machine for my Garmin GPS. Virtual Windows is extremely slow in general and in particular does not recognise the USB connection for the Garmin.
Both Mac machines are wonderful.

 

[CarlM]

Pretty much the same really;
Using a G4 Powerbook (OSX Tiger), 2610, Mapsource etc and did load up VPC......complete pants and not worth the effort.
Bought a mega-cheapo laptop PC from Time, now does just fine.

 

[Beemer]

Thanks for that guys, you've probably saved me a ton of money and a lot of grief. I'll be keeping the PC for my GPS when I get a G5.
Cheers
Steve

 

[emjay]

Contrary to the previous posts I have found VPC 7.02 running Win 2K on a DP 2.3ghz G5 to be be fast enough to retire my PC, OK maybe not as fast as the latest Winbox but I use it 2 or 3 times a week for work related journeys and trips to Europe. After updating the driver it recognises my USB to serial cable without a problem.

It's important to set VPC to have the max RAM & VRAM for best performance.

 

[Dahoum]

After updating the driver it recognises my USB to serial cable without a problem.

Which driver did you update and where from. I have the same problem with VPC not 'seeing' my GPS

 

[emjay]

Which driver did you update and where from. I have the same problem with VPC not 'seeing' my GPS

I think it may depend on which chip is in your USB/Serial cable, in VPC do an CMD T and look at the USB settings to see what it says about any devices. If you want you can PM me your email address and I will send you the drivers I have, one is for OSX and another for Win 2K. They are both quite small. I can't remember where I got them, all I remember is a lot of googling was involved.

 

[Heston Service]

A couple of years ago I used to own a Garmin V and managed to get it to talk to VPC over serial. It was very slow but worked ok.

I seem to remember that I had to use a Lego Mindstorms driver to get the two to talk.

Could be worth a google.

 

[Stocka]

Virtual PC

I use Virtual PC 6 on my 15" AlBook with my 2610. Didn't need any special drivers for the Mac to get it to work via USB. Fire up VPC, plug in the GPS, load MapSource and away it goes. No problem.

 

[Dahoum]

What's an AlBook ?

 

[emjay]

What's an AlBook ?

An aluminium cased powerbook as opposed to the earlier Tibook (titanium) powerbook.

 

[emjay]

Re: Virtual PC

I use Virtual PC 6 on my 15" AlBook with my 2610. Didn't need any special drivers for the Mac to get it to work via USB. Fire up VPC, plug in the GPS, load MapSource and away it goes. No problem.

The problem with VPC appears when using a Serial to USB cable for GPS units that do not have a USB connection. I had to update the drivers when I moved to VPC 7 as VPC 6 won't run on a DP G5.

 

[samwise]

I'm thinking about an 12" iMac or 12" iBook next year, together with a Quest, maybe.

If I max out the ram on the notebook (1.5Gb in all), do you think it would run VPC 7 OK?

I'll be keeping my XP desktop that I'll remote into, so could attach the Garmin to that I suppose, although would be useful if the Max notebook could run it through Virtual PC.

 

[emjay]

I'm thinking about an 12" iMac or 12" iBook next year, together with a Quest, maybe.

If I max out the ram on the notebook (1.5Gb in all), do you think it would run VPC 7 OK?

I also run it on a 1.25Ghz G4 Powerbook with 1Gb RAM not the fastest machine but OK for sorting and uploading routes. VPC can only be set to use 512Mb of RAM so you will be fine with 1.5Gb. The main problem is the slowness of redrawing the maps (VPC can only be set to use 16Mb of VRAM) I set the detail to medium to view whole routes only using the highest detail level when zoomed in. It's not that slow really just that we have come to expect more.