Windows 7 and Digital Goldsmith

Jewelry Discussion
1

I have the Digital Goldsmith program from Gem Vision and I have just
upgraded my computer to the new windows 7.

I was using xp but this is no longer available on new computers. I
spoke with Gem Vision who I bought the program and a camera from (for
lots of money) and they said tough luck they dont support the new 7
so Im sh-- out of luck.

Does anyone have a solution? Its something to do with the “bits” (its
greek to me!) Does this mean Gem Vision just wants me to buy their
new program? Why would they not help? does anyone else have the
Digital Goldsmith program and how are you handling this issue?

micky

2

Have just been going thru some Windows 7 issues on various hard and
software. The difference is 64 bit versus 32 bit technology. My old
Epson All-In-One printer that I used for about 3 yrs with my old
laptop will not work with my new laptop that came with W7-64. My
wife’s new laptop has W7-32 and the Epson will work with it. I
checked all around for new drivers-Epson, Microsoft- and found that
only certain printers are supported by W7-64. I know have a new HP
Premium All-In-One that works fine with W7-64. HP also makes the
Premium model for 32 bit tech as well. Having issues with a terabyte
sized external hard drive as well. My wife has the same external and
it works fine on her W7-32.

Check all new hardware and software closely at Microsoft and the
product maker for compatibility. I wouldn’t have bought it with 64
bit tech if I had known that was an issue.

Ed R

3

Hi Mickey,

Have you posted that question on Gemvision’s forum? You may find
that to be very helpful. We don’t have DG but do have Matrix and Revo
and Gemvison has been super helpful dealing with a number of fairly
large and sticky issues. If you are not getting the support you need
I’d keep asking them in different ways. We have found that paying the
annual fee for the GV support is well worth it.

Mark

4 
Does anyone have a solution? Its something to do with the "bits"
(its greek to me!) Does this mean Gem Vision just wants me to buy
their new program? Why would they not help? does anyone else have
the Digital Goldsmith program and how are you handling this issue?

Since I am a Mac user, I can’t speak to Windows problems, but I do
have somewhat similar experience.

Sometime ago I purchased a Casio keyboard ( I mean like a piano ). I
assumed that any USB keyboard will be compatible with USB equipped
computer. That was not the case. No matter what I did, I could not
make my Mac to acknowledge keyboard.

I contacted Casio tech support and was told that they do not support
Macs because of this and that and etc… I googled the problem and
found a lot people in my situation. The good thing about Apple is
when you buy a Mac, it comes with Software Development Tools. One
guy simply took an Apple provided code sample for writing hardware
drives, changed couple of lines, recompiled using Software
Development Tools and voila, we have a functioning Casio keyboard
driver for Macs. He made it available for download and everybody did.

This sheds a lot of light on the whole ugly side of software
business. A lot of times changes to software are not done because it
is required, but simply to make you spend money. I can guarantee
that changes necessary to make new Windows to recognize your hardware
are minimal if any. Google the issue and you should find the solution
somewhere. As far as your software company, take your business
elsewhere and your will be amazed how quickly they shall resolve the
problem.

Leonid Surpin

5 
and they said tough luck they dont support the new 7 so Im sh-- out
of luck.

Well, Mickey, you need to call again and talk to someone who
actually knows what they’re talking about… At the bottom of every
Gemvision page, it says, “All Gemvision software is compatible with
Windows 7 and more”. In fact I copied/pasted that off of the web
page… I went deeper and found, “Windows 7 Home Basic or Starter
edition NOT supported” - Those are (frankly) not something to buy
anyway, for a serious computer.

It could be that you have an older version, especially your camera
(camera drivers, actually). This is the bits and bytes part… In XP
and before, you could install unsigned drivers (that means they are
certified by Microsoft, which isn’t free). In Vista and 7 you can no
longer do that - some things may work, but all Kernel-level drivers
(deep inside the OS) must be digitally signed. I have 64 bit windows,
and it is ~required~ for that. In XP you used to see a window pop up
that said, “This driver is unsigned, do you want to install it
anyway, at your own risk?” In Vista and 7 it will just come up and
say, “You can’t do that…”

I’d suggest: Instead of depending on your windows upgrade, do a
fresh in stall of your software and camera drivers, and see if it
works. Call Gemvision and talk to someone who actually knows what
they’re talking about, if it still doesn’t fly. You may need to
upgrade windows to Home Version or update your Gemvision or camera
drivers.

6

Hello, my name is Kent West, I am the Technical Support Manager for
Gemvision. I am replying to Mickey Roof’s post about Digital
Goldsmith and Windows 7

ALL the software products produced by Gemvison run on XP, Vista, or
Windows 7 both 32bit and 64bit…

With Vista and Windows 7, due to fact of things they introduced well
after we released our software there are couple settings (run as
administrator or turn off UAC, for DG in 64bit run in compatibility
mode XP 32)…we have these documented out and have many, many
users running without problems (as well as most users at Gemvision
are using Vista or Windows 7).

The System6HD we have sold…and has been only camera we have sold
in last 3 years works fine in the above versions of Windows as
well…

Problem comes with users wanting to migrate older hardware (capture
cards) that were used in our older camera systems… NONE, I repeat
NONE of these cards are compatible with Vista or Windows 7…and to
be fair, many of these cards are 6-8 years old…and even older…
for computer hardware, that is fairly antiquated. Microsoft changed
the methodology with regard to how video capture was done in
significant enough ways that these cards will never be
compatible…This has often been case with hardware moving forward
to newer OS’s and will continue to be case… and unfortunately,
Gemvision is not immune to this.

I myself recently got a computer with Windows 7 and until the end of
November, there were no drivers available for the HP Laser printer
in our support department. I simply could not print to that printer.
HP had posted on their site that drivers were coming at the end of
November, and they indeed posted drivers that worked and I can now
print.

It gets even harder for 64bit systems as these REQUIRE ‘signed’
drivers…basically manufacturer has to write driver for their
software, submit it to Microsoft, and then can make NO changes to it
to get it to be able to be installed on 64bit Windows Vista and 7.
This is Microsoft’s answer to being ‘slammed’ in press for stability
problems…Part of fallout is smaller manufacturers will have hard
time trying to be able to afford to follow this, both in terms of
time and money…

Our answer to customers has never been…“Well, you’re out of
luck”…But we have honestly told them that there will be no way
they are going to get their old capture card to work on their new
computer, and even with new one, it might not give them the ease and
quality they originally were receiving…

Also, you ask if we are trying to get you to purchase a new version
of Digital Goldsmith, this is not the case, as we do not have a new
version available nor is one currently under development - version 5
is our current version.

We have a company we have referred (Winnov) that makes capture cards
that are compatible with Vista and are beginning to support Windows
7 and can be used in conjunction with older camera systems and called
by our software…We have successfully migrated customers who
wanted this, after advising them that in our opinion to keep using
their existing system as is as they get NO benefit from our software
on a ‘newer’ OS, it runs exactly same…all you get is the upgrade
problem…

Note that as the newer motherboards and controller chips were
introduced by Intel, this company (Winnov) as well has been working
out the kinks, so to speak in getting these cards to work…

Actually, there is groundswell in development and tech community for
next version of Windows to not support ANY legacy
hardware…Basically, just the latest tech and updates for the
newer stuff, this would dramatically increase stability, performance,
and ease of use (basically what Apple does…you can’t upgrade…you
just buy new computer and no ‘older’ technology (sound, video,
capture, controller, etc) will work…)

Many computer vendors still offer XP as an available operating
system. Dell still has new computers on their site with XP available
and pre-installed. You can also still purchase XP from companies like
www.tigerdirect.com ($139.99 for XP Pro SP3) and www.newegg.com
($136.99 for XP Pro SP3) and if the computer vendor you purchased
your computer from has XP drivers on their support site, you could
convert your current computer to XP.

So, I guess what I’m saying is the statement about software not
working is FALSE…

If it is referring to getting an older camera system to work on
newer computer running Windows 7-TRUE (but there MIGHT be solution
now (Winnov) or in the near future)

I invite you to call Gemvision support and we will be happy to help
you in any way we can - first to ensure that DG is working, then to
do what we can to get your camera working.

Kent West
Manager Support
Gemvision Corporation
888.357.6272
563.884.8181

7

Hi Mickey;

Yeah, Windows 7 is a 64 bit OS, XP is 32 bits. I’ve heard some
software won’t run on the newer 64 bit system (Win7 and Vista Pro).
FYI, you orchidians who are thinking about the windows upgrade,
better find out if your software will run on it (you Quicbooks fans
out there). Biggest advantage of the upgrade, IMHO, is that you can
load more than 3.5 GB of memory on the machine.

I think you’ve got two solutions here.

You’ve got some great guys over at Black Box Computing (saved my butt
when I trashed the partition table playing around with Linux).
They’re right there in Ithaca. Talk to them about setting the
computer up as a dual boot system with two operating systems. When
the computer boots up, you’d have the choice to run either Windows 7
or the old XP. Then run Gem Vision in XP. If you bought win7 as an
upgrade, you wouldn’t need to buy anything more, but would need to
do a complete re-install. Just get all your important docs onto a
portable drive, or big, fat, flash drive, reinstall the old OS, then
when you install the upgrade, you should be able to choose a dual
boot install. I don’t know if you could do a roll-back to XP with
the Win7 disks, depends, I guess, on how the upgrade was installed.
But whatever you do, back up the stuff you can’t afford to lose. I do
that myself with an external hard drive. Couple hundred bucks will
buy you a big one (relatively speaking).

But, here’s how I think I’d do what you need to have done: it’s
easier and safer.

It would be pretty easy to get a new drive (500GB for $99 on ebay).
Put it in the computer, move Win7 to new drive, then reinstall XP on
the old drive. From the bios at boot up, you should be able to pick
which drive to boot from, but you could take out the old drive and
put it in a $20 drive enclosure with a USB cable, then change the
boot order in the BIOS to seek the USB first. If and when the
enclosure is plugged in, then XP will come up, if not, the computer
will go to the internal drive and boot up Win7. In any case, there’s
probably no way to alternate between OS’s without a reboot from one
to the other.

Okay, now that your eyes are fully glazed over, you can call the
Black Box guys, show them this email and see if they agree with me on
the latter solution.

p.s. Hope your Christmas season is great for you guys.

David L. Huffman

8

YES they want you to buy their new program, just like you wouldn’t
sell a gold ring for the same price as last year…

…you could reinstall XP if you have the disks (may be labeled
Restore disk). Find a used computer with XP installed…should be
available for 200-300 dollars.

If you have a big enough hard drive, it could be partitioned and one
partition could be set to run XP…Google or a teenager next door
may be helpful. This shouldn’t be too hard, but proceed with
caution…don’t drop any bits on the floor…

Jay

9

In Windows 7 there is a Compatibility Mode for executable programs.
It may be of some help.

  1. Right click the program icon. (This should be the program that
    actually starts everything. If you’re not sure what it is right click
    the shortcut and see what is listed for “Target:”.)

  2. Select Properties.

  3. Select the Compatibility tab on top of the Properties window.

  4. Under “Compatibility mode” select the checkbox for “Run this
    program in compatibility mode for:”

  5. Select which version of Widnows you want it to run under.

  6. Click “OK”

You might have to be logged on as administrator for this to be
properly saved.

Mike DeBurgh, GJG
Henderson, NV

10

micky, windows 7 problem running a lot of xp programs died with
vista/windows 7 supposedly there is a setting on windows 7 that
permits you to run xp programs.(like old days when running 95
programs on 98 was an issue) go to windows help section look for it.
or you can buy windows xp and run it with widows 7, from my talks at
staples, get someone to show you how to “partition” hard drive or get
linux for free on web and install on computer(again partition), with
someone who has done it/ linux runs everything from what i have read.

all above must be done with help from person who has done it before.
(maybe store you bought computer)

zev
ps it was the 64 bit version of vista that was the problem not 32 bit

11 
I have the Digital Goldsmith program from Gem Vision and I have
just upgraded my computer to the new windows 7.

Finally! Something that I CAN contribute!

Some versions of Windows 7 will support the ability to run Windows
XP as a sub-task (Windows 7 Professional & above). This means that
while running Win7 as normal, you can start up a second environment
within Win7 that runs XP, and any programs that run within XP, just
like “the good ol’ days”. There is a free download from Microsoft
that may be necessary, too.

In this case, Windows is running in “virtualization” mode. The
lower-end versions will not handle virtualization, but they can be
upgraded to “Pro” if needed, for a fee.

The other issue is whether or not your computer will handle
virtualization. Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor can answer most of the
questions, here:

There is a lot of info on this page, to answer most upgrade
concerns.

The Advisor will take some time to run once installed. It can tell
you if an older computer will run Win7, and if it is capable of
virtualization. At issue is the actual processor in the computer, how
fast it is, and the amount of RAM available. Just because the
computer is new is no guarantee that it will run virtualization.

No affiliation; just a professional user.

David Stitt

12 
The difference is 64 bit versus 32 bit technology.

The Gemvision rep threw out a lifeline on this thread today…

The quote above represents the future of computing, and it’s good to
understand some of it. When I built my new computer I went 64 bit
(Vista, which I like despite some other’s opinion of it). I did that
because it IS the future, and I understood that I would have to give
up some of my old hardware to do it.

My first computer was an IBM clone with the 8086 chip - that was a
16 bit computer. You can think of it as lanes on a freeway - 16 bits
is 16 lanes of data. It’s actually an “array” - a virtual box that is
16x16x16. And more than that, which most don’t need to know…

The essential thing about all of it is memory. A 16 bit computer can
access 2 to the 16th power (don’t know how to type that in a way that
will get to everyone here), which is the old “640 K” of memory. Then
came 32 bit computing (Pentium…), which could address 2 to the
32nd power of memory- that works out to around 3.8 gigabytes, of
which some is reserved for system processes. That was fine until the
age of video and ipods. Program writers have also pushed that
envelope over the decade. Now comes the 64 bit system for the
consumer market - it’s been out there for years in Unix systems. 2 to
the 64th power works out to something like a million gigabytes (I
could look it up…). The future of computing for some years to
come…

But the real issue is that, while most 32 bit software will run
because there’s a 32 bit mode, anything that is deeper in the
system, like printer and other hardware drivers, MUST be written in
native 64 bit code. Windows 7 still has a 32 bit version, and I
doubt the author of this thread has 64 bit (they would know, I
think…). But this issue is going to rear it’s head more and more
in the next couple of years. Microsoft announced a long time ago
that 7 is going to be the last 32 bit Windows made…