I have a laptop I just upgraded form win 98 to 2000 and my PLC5 A.I. software will not work right on the communications. I am using a 1784 pcmk card in socket 1 but when I go into the communication config screen in the AI software there is not an option to tell it which socket my card is in. I have heard a lot of other people having this problem too. Does anyone know a way around this other then buying RS Logix 5?

Use RSLinx. AI will work with RSLinx Lite with no license required.

Because AI is DOS based, it uses the old DOS hardware access methods. These won't work in Windows NT, 2000, or XP because there is an impenetrable operating system layer between the application and the hardware.

As Firetubes said, you can use AI version 8.x with Windows NT/2000 by using RSLinx for communications. RSLinx has the proper Windows drivers for the 1784-PCMK card, and AI can talk to RSLinx using API calls, not hardware access.

Most DOS apps will not run in the Win2000 DOS shell. One scenario is to setup your new laptop with a dual-boot setup and install Win98 or Win95. Both run DOS shells capably for AI to function.