Agfa Grand Sherpa 50 Dongle Sadness

[GrandSherpa]

Hi all new to these forums in desperate need of help

my dad purchased an old Grand sherpa 50
as he wanted to do some "large printing"

of course he didnt know entirely whats involved and admittedly i don't either. as an It student it was relatively easy for me to eventually figure most of it all out.

with the printer came a dell sc1420 with windows 2003 and the agfa apogee version 2 i believe. ive managed to connect it all up and have it printing out pdf's but it has demo written through the image.

after much frustration i figured out that the dongles arnt detected

with the whole setup came two dongles a teal LPT dongle and a yellow usb dongle both are detected by wibu server but i think the keys or whatever is stored on them are corrupt

after speaking with some agfa remnants of service they said yeh it probably is and they would have to chase a dongle down as they are so old now, never heard back from them.

and the guy that came out to test the printer and see if it was working charged us $500 to do so. not fond of having him come out again

does anyone have any solutions or a fix for the dongles or alternate RIP's for an agfa grand Sherpa


thanks for your help !!!

 

[prepressdork]

Your best bet would be to contact Agfa sales. They are better equipped to handle dongle issues. If memory serves, the Apogee series 2 software used LPT dongles. This is a shot in the dark, but have you tried having ONLY one dongle attached and then start the rip? Perhaps both dongles being attached at the same time is confusing the rip?

Also, I recall the LPT dongles being susceptible to static electricity. Sometimes holding the dongle between both hands (to generate humidity) helps discharge any static that may be built up on the dongle. You could also try putting the dongle into an anti-static bag if you have one.

Good luck!
pd

 

[chevalier]

If you can't get AGFA to help you google "lpt dongle emulator". The first search result may be a good place to start. LPT dongles are a PITA and typically won't work if plugged in the wrong sequence or if plugged into expansion cards. They tend to die randomly as well. USB dongles are more forgiving but still a PITA as well. I am so glad most of this dongle madness is past us.

 

[zombie]

If you can't get AGFA to help you google "lpt dongle emulator". The first search result may be a good place to start. LPT dongles are a PITA and typically won't work if plugged in the wrong sequence or if plugged into expansion cards. They tend to die randomly as well. USB dongles are more forgiving but still a PITA as well. I am so glad most of this dongle madness is past us.

Apogee is using WIBU LPT dongle, and there is no free emulator for this dongle.

GrandSherpa, send me your e-mail address via PM.