Pete's QBASIC Site

I'd like to use the QB commands OUT, PEEK and POKE to access the serial and parallel ports in XP.

In good old Win9x and below port addresses were easy to find but in XP where are they? It was also easy to find the Keyboard Control Byte and the display area but XP has me baffled. I think all these goodies are stored in the Non-pageable area of ram but have, as yet, not been able to identify anything there.

Any help appreciated.

Thanks

Get PortTalk off of the web free. Follow the install instructions! You must add something to the registry, but it is done for you pretty easily by clicking on a file. AllowIO.EXE must be in your QB folder unless you use command line paths.

Once you have it installed, look up your port addresses in Windows and use the address to run an EXE file. Use an address like 0x378 for a parallel port (888). Then you can use BAS or EXE files to access that port until a reboot.

Batch Command line: AllowIO LPTPort.EXE 0x378

Warning: Running "allowio.exe" without an address may disable your mouse!

To use VB, you can get INPOUT32 to use INP and OUT like in QB. VB6 did not allow those commands.

Ted

Thank you Burger2227 - the first positive advice to my queries.

I'll give your suggestions a go.

R.R