Running 33S and 35S emulators in Win 8



#14

I installed the files from my old Win XP rig and finally got them to install properly. However, they don't run properly: if the window with the appearance of the calculator is closed, it cannot be reopened because the emulator's process is still running in the background. I have to manually go to the Task Manager and stop the process. This is a pain. I wonder if there's something that can be done to make it close and open more smoothly. I prefer these to Windows 8's native algebraic calculator.

I know, I know, why not bring out the REAL 33s and 35s? Sometimes, I'm really too lazy to turn around and open the drawer. Seriously.


#15

Maybe you should switch to the WP 34S emulator(s). At least the Qt Version is pretty much under our control and can be tailored to work with Win 8.

#16

The problem with those is we don't have native versions of them and they are true emulators. The emulator code is contained in a DLL which we have no source for, nor any way to get. :-(

TW

#17

This is not (only) a Win8 problem, I had the same problem on my netbook with Win7 (at least for the 33s, not sure about the 35s).

On my notebook with WinXP and Vista this does not happen.

Franz


#18

Yes, they worked very well in in Win XP, from which I've just (very) abruptly switched.


#19

It can actually happen in any windows version. My best guess is that the emulator DLL can get into a state where it has a blocking condition and even closing the program doesn't get it out. I later added something to try and detect a previous version running and force close it. That seemed to help quite a bit, but even then it can get stuck.

TW


#20

Win 8 will actually tell you that *maybe, if you'd like, you could, you know, um, er, like, go over and manually shut down the process, ' cuz it's, like, you know, still running*. And if I do that, it runs again, but then it's "deja vu all over again" (oh, I miss baseball season). I've uninstalled the emulators because it's such a pain to me to have to run Task Manager and then manually close the process down.

I might as well pull out the real 33s or 35s, as I often do, anyway.


#21

Quote:
I might as well pull out the real 33s or 35s, as I often do, anyway.

Well, you can let the real 33s in its bag - I think I've found (and fixed!) the problem. :-)

I've analyzed the 'HP 33S.exe' and found that more than 400kB (of about 507kB) are just a 'loader' program which loads the true emulator, and this emulator is only 90kB. I saw this because when running the 33s it creates a temporary hidden file with random names (like e.g. 'HP 13C2.exe'), and this hidden file is the true emulator with only 90kB. You can also see this in the taskmanager, because it shows both processes running, the original 33s and the smaller emulator.

And I guess that's exactly the problem: when you close the program, one of these processes is still running (sometimes, at least in Win7/8).

Ok, with this knowledge it wasn't difficult to solve the problem: I've simply extracted this 90kB emulator, and guess what - yes, this small emulator file is running without any problems. :-)

Since I can't reach my own website at the moment, I've uploaded this 'fixed' HP33s emulator here for you:

http://www.spaadyshare.net/71t9siwhcw35/HP-fixed.zip

Just unzip the 'HP 33S.exe' from this file and copy it over your original one (make a backup if you want).

BTW, after removing this 'loader' code there's still another advantage: now the emulator doesn't need a serial number anymore! ;-)

And since the HP-10bII emulator has the same loader program, I've also included the pure emulator file for the 10bII (this one runs without any extra files).

The 35s does not have such a loader, so if you really have the same problem (staying in memory after closing) with the 35s, then it must be something else. But I doubt that the 35s shows this behaviour, because I never had this problem with the 35s (even on my Win7) - so maybe it was just a single failure on your side.

Let me know if my 'fixed' 33s solves your problem on Win8 ...

Franz

Edited: 5 Dec 2012, 9:02 a.m.


#22

Fascinating!

And, thank you!!

I must compliment you on your coding ability and perserverance. Sometime later tonight, I will certainly download a copy from your site.

This gives me further insight into "bloatware": I guess part of it is that the companies that sell a given piece of software may want more than just for it to run for the buyer. They may still want to retain some control or have other motives.

Again, thank you for a great piece of detective work.


#23

Quote:
Sometime later tonight, I will certainly download a copy from your site.

I don't understand, does it mean that my spaadyshare link didn't work for you?

The problem with my own website is that the servers of the provider 110mb.com are down most of the time, that's really the worst fileserving host I've ever seen. Right now my site is again unreachable.

Franz


#24

No, Franz,

The download worked.

But only the 10bii emulator works. The 33s emulator failed; it was looking for various .dll files. Even after I put them with the fixed emulator, it still doesn't run!


#25

Quote:
But only the 10bii emulator works. The 33s emulator failed; it was looking for various .dll files. Even after I put them with the fixed emulator, it still doesn't run!

Yes Ed, the 33s emulator needs additional files. But from your first posting here I concluded that you would have the original HP33s emulator package (with all other necessary files), so I've just uploaded the 'fixed' emulator file for replacing the original one!

If you don't have the full package you can download it here:

http://www.hp.com/sbso/product/calculators-emulators/hp-33s-emulator-setup.zip

Franz

Edited: 7 Dec 2012, 6:41 a.m.


#26

Ah, Franz, I see now!

All I had to do was to replace theirs with yours! No problem.

Once more, thanks for the hard work.


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