Alstom/GE Controcad for P320

Hi All,

I have an old XP laptop that has Controcad for GE/Alstoms P320 AVR.
The laptop is on its last legs and we don't have the installation media.

We have the Cimplicity CD & License dongle.

Have contacted GE as they took over Alstom but have had no response.

I will try and create a VM of the laptop but considering the age I think I will run into problems.

Does anyone have the installation media or a contact?
We have the license dongle controcad and would like to install the software in a win7 laptop in XP mode to give us some time.

I know its time to upgrade but this certainly will not happen quickly.

Many Thanks

Maybe try contacting some of the old local Alstom offices in europe by phone.
Generally i would say they are helpful if they can help.
I may be misstaken but i think the Alspa system was developed in Spain so maybe if you contact some local office there?

Hello usedplcs,

as you know, Alstom Power was bought by GE in 2015. It is almost certain that GE will gradually kill Alstom systems and replace them by Mark VI/VIe solutions. I doubt there will be any detail help you're expecting from local GE representatives. Migration is the only way to ensure long time support. However, in the meantime, there is something you can do.

I would recommend you to virtualize existing XP laptop. I have done a few vitualizations of Windows XP systems and never had any problems.
First of all use some backup/imaging software to make a backup of your laptop (there are very good open source solutions like clonezilla), but I have used Acronis TM to make backup images of HMI computers.

When you have made a backup, you should download and install VMware converter standalone 6.0 if I recall correctly.

Now you connect some external USB HDD or similar, start VMWare converter and chose to virtualize physical machine. There are very good step by step youtube tutorials about P2V conversions.

When process finish, that's it. You can download vmware player on another computer and try to open this VM that you made. It should be without any problems.
It is possible that Windows XP will aks to activate, but that's not a problem if you have win XP installation disk.

I have virtualized and successfully used a few very old XP installations. On first use in VMWare player you'll have to download and install vmware tools but that's automatic process. Since application licence is with USB dongle, it should run on virtual machine without any problems (don't forget to add/attach removable device to the guest OS inside VM).

Good luck!

Hi,

I support lots of customers keeping their Alspa systems alive, including virtualization of the CCAD/P4/microETE station.

If you didn't solved your problem yet, you can contact me.

Regards,

FrMza said:

Hi,

I support lots of customers keeping their Alspa systems alive, including virtualization of the CCAD/P4/microETE station.

If you didn't solved your problem yet, you can contact me.

Regards,

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