Error:5 Invalid procedure call or arguement

[brianthedell]

Howdy all. I just got my shipment of 8ms and programming kits here in the states; after soldering up the programming kit, I was able to get the chip responding to the programming environment. It verifies the firmware as 9.1 (PICAXE-08M Firmware version 1).

Everytime I try to run the sample program, however, I get the "Error:5 Invalid procedure call or arguement" error. This is the exact text of the program I entered:

main:

high 4
pause 1000
low 4
pause 1000
goto main

I have been very excited about using these chips; anyone have an idea how to get them to actually work? Thanks in advance.

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[brianthedell]

It seems I get this error with ANY code, not just the example code. Even something simple like:

main: goto main

won't work

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[Technical]

If you get this mesaage also when you do a 'syntax check' then read through the 'RM CC3'installation instructions on the software page of this website. This will give you ideas of what to check (even if you are not using a CC3 network).

[brianthedell]

After a little guessing and trasnlating from the help pages http://www.rev-ed.co.uk/picaxe/cc3.htm and http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/lgcyapps.mspx#EIAA I was able to figure out to right click the application in WinXP Pro and set it for windows 95 compatibility. I also set it to turn off advanced themes, to revert to 256 colors, and to turn off "advanced text services" -- basically every compat. setting but the super-low resolution.

While the Error:5 is no longer a problem, I now get "Error:53 file not found" and then get a notice "The following path is invalid c:\program files\programming editor\picprog\picaxe08a.exe"

I checked the physical directory and that file WAS indeed there.

I suppose the nature of my error has changed now, and I'll look through these forms for help on file path issues. Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks.

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[Rickharris]

quote:
...While the Error:5 is no longer a problem, I now get "Error:53 file not found" and then get a notice "The following path is invalid c:\program files\programming editor\picprog\picaxe08a.exe"...
/Quote

I also get this error the first time I try to download a programme but not subsequent times. This is a recent activity and I am unable to think that I have changed anything to create it.

[brianthedell]

I am really at quite a loss. I uninstalled the program, made a special directory right on my c:\ (c:\picaxe) and installed it there. I set it to Win95 compat. mode and rebooted my machine. I ran the program, and reran it.

Nothing I have done has made the file system error go away. I suppose for a teacher, paid to prepare labs for students, these complications aren't a big deal. As a casual hobbiest, the PICAXE system now seems much less attractive a proposition to me. I'd gladly pay more per chip, per progamming kit, whatever, to have software that works reliably in WindowsXP.

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[brianthedell]

I apologize for the harsh tone of my last post. You would do well to consider including the 8.3 registry fix (as well as the win95 compat. fix) in more places in your documentation -- problems setting the basic system up are much more frustrating than any other bug (save frying the chip or something).

Having said that, the problems aren't that bad at all once you know how to deal with them.

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[Technical]

Sorry that you have had issues, but over 99% of users will find that the software works fine, straight away, on XP. If it doesn't you must have a non-standard Windows XP setup, such as the 8dot3 issue.
We are not aware of any reason to use Windows 95 compatibility mode.