Protel Advanced PCB 2.8 in Windows 7 - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: moffy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2015, 11:15:46 pm
content: In the beginning there was Protel, before they became Altium. A small Australian company that developed good schematic/pcb cad software at a great price. I bought my copy of Protel Advanced PCB 2.8/Advanced Scematic 3 in the late 90's. It was excellent software and still is. I definitely preferred it to the Protel 98/99.Not able to afford the $10k price tag of Altium Designer 15 I've been looking at reusing the old software for hobby purposes. It runs fine under WinXPx32, but my 2 computers run Win10x64 and Win7x32. Virtual machines work very well, but they are a bit cumbersome to use: You have to boot them and then get your info in and out of them, they also have to be configured.So I tried to run the Protel under Win7x32 and found the schematic program was fine but the pcb software would have its buttons corrupted if you opened it, closed it then opened it again. The problem lies with the 16 bit DLL, BWCC.DLL. Doesn't matter what version you use the problem is the same. It doesn't happen under WinXPx32, but there are problems if you use the Microsoft XP extension to Win7x32.It looks like there is a problem with the 16 to 32 bit code in Win7x32, WOWEXEC.EXE. The solution to the corrupted buttons is:1. Just "Log off" and back in or2. Open Task Manager and close the process "wowexec.exe"Then you can open Advanced PCB 2.8 and the buttons will be correct or3. Always keep it open, also keeping the schematic software open seems to work as it uses the same BWCC.DLL.I did manage to try Altium Designer 14 and found that the schematic capture was just like the old Protel 3.0, same short cuts etc. it felt very familiar. The one thing I miss though is not having the modern libraries to use. Does some one know of a way to back port them ?

author: BradC
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 19, 2015, 01:02:27 am
content: I use Altium in a VM full time.A couple of tricks that help :- Put your data on an SMB/CIFS share. I use a small server for all my work stuff anyway, so the desktop and VM use the same shares on the server. No issue getting data in or out of the VM, it's just there.- Set up the VM to run full screen on at least one monitor so there is no hassle with the mouse wandering out of the VM.- Once you get your VM set up just the way you like it, snapshot it or backup the entire VM. That way when it inevitably does a windows and needs a re-load you can just roll back or restore the backup.I can't help you with the other stuff unfortunately.

author: moffy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 19, 2015, 10:44:44 pm
content: Thanks for the advice BradC, but I have used VM's extensively and I just prefer the native environment if I can. I ran across a much better solution to the 16 bit memory corruption issue though:a) Create a desktop icon of the Protel Advanced PCB 2.8b) Right click then choose "Properties" then "Advanced" then tick the check box "Run in its own memory space..."Problem is solved! The memory space gets reloaded/reset each time the program opens avoiding the corruption issue.

author: musiklab
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: October 24, 2019, 01:31:12 pm
content: Hello Moffy,came across this old thread that helped me back then .I wonder if you could help -My advpcb 2.8 with win7 sp1 recently gets a start up error saying "not enough system resource space"advsch 3 still works fineIs there a way to run both under win 8.1 - 10 ?sorry, but I never got under the hood with windows , so any help will be greatly appreciatedbest, Michael "musiklab"

author: moffy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2019, 08:16:09 am
content: I have moved on to Altium, things just got too complicated. The only advice I can offer is to use a Virtual Machine running windows XP with Protel installed. Sorry for the meager advice, but glad to hear the original post helped someone. Good luck.

author: deramp
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: November 08, 2019, 08:11:01 pm
content: I just ran across the same problem (My advpcb 2.8 with win7 sp1 recently gets a start up error saying "not enough system resource space"). It started occurring after the Windows 7 update KB4519976. I uninstalled KB4519976 and PCB 2.8 works again.Mike

author: musiklab
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: November 13, 2019, 05:38:06 pm
content: @deramp and allthanks - I was just logging in after a while of silent despair, & then finally found the same solution - dump MS "update" KB4519976 of oct 10/10-19 and all is well again. And no longer accepting MS auto updates for w7.I now intend to make a ´museum´ install version of Win 7, to keep running this off-grid after it is made obsolete.I have found that only w7 x 32, sp1 will run 2.8 ok .I run advpcb 2.8 under Win7x32 sp1 , as suggested I start by using a Win7 desktop shortcut, with compatibility set to win XP sp3,and set in "shortcut " > advanced , set to "run as admin" , + "run in separate memory space"no problems with greyed-out buttons etc.Win7 update auto- installed KB4519976, on oct 10- 2019.this update broke the PFW startup with an error message:"not enough space for system resources" which is BS..uninstalling KB4519976 restored the PFW ability to start and function.

author: musiklab
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: July 25, 2020, 03:14:56 pm
content: just to update: the win 7.32 sp1 running protel 2.8 for windows PFW.exe ,and advanced schematic 2.0 exe is also running well under win7.32 , that has some 32 to 16 bit compatilbilityand to avoid a greying of dialog button legendsperform the same steps of creating ( rightclick) a (PFW or SCH.exe) shortcut inside the program folder , then set properties of this shortcut >compatibility to winXP sp3 , and via advanced , set to run in separate memory space.to keep 7.32 running it needs a virus prg like AVAST that keeps updating for win7 too.possibly win 10.32 might also work, but this is also being dumped by MS.any 64 bit OS may not have the 32>16b compatibility. If you have a win10 64 machine , Consider setting up a partition with a win7.32 OS , to create a dual boot win 7.32 / win10.64 machine - it is much less complicated than I believed.cheers, Michael