Sign in to follow this  
Followers 0
Ben

Step7 V5.4 SP1 installation problems

12 posts in this topic

Hi, I am trying to install Step7 V5.4 serv pack1 on my laptop with operating system Windows XP Prof. SP2. I have tried 8-10 times by now, so far no progress. During installation it stops everytime at the same place... - During installation of CD1, and while "Installing Shared components" the progress bar reaches almost 70% then it waits....and waits.... - After few minutes it gives a message "An external process has not responded for a long time. It is recommended that you wait a little longer. Do you want to continue waiting?" - If you say yes..it waits.........(feels like 10 min) and gives the same message again. If you say No, it doesn't do anything. Aborting installation doesn't kill installation!! Now what I did so far.... - I had Siemens Sizer (for Servo) and ET200S configuration tools installed on my laptop, Uninstalled, rebooted, restarted installtion..SAME problem - Called Local distributer, directed to see an article on www.support.automation.com for complete uninstallation of step 7. Cleaned up the registry manually , cleaned up all the garbage it threw all over the hard disk, rebooted, restarted installtion..SAME problem - Called Siemens Tech Support. Asked to copy the CD on to Hard drive and try. I was told the CD drive may go to hybernation during installation. Did that..SAME problem I'm talking to tech support but now I'm told to disconnect the network since it may interfere in the installation . I'm going to try..But i'm not having very good feeling about the tech support.. Anybody who is familiar with similar issues, please reply...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
krk, Tried to install few more times. Cleaned up registry and hard disk again from all traces of Siemens. ALM_LOG.TXT doesn't tell me specific problem. By the way I have AB RS Logix500, RSLogix 5000 (V10..15), Omron CX-one, Mitshi GX-developer etc installed on my C: drive. Anybody faced conflicts of these with Step7 V5.4? Edited by Ben

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I use Virtual PC and made virtual computers and each PLC manufacturer has it's own virtual machine. I only run one at a time (they take some memory) but that way if one vendor (like AB) doesn't play well with the others (RSLinx in particular) or if an update screws up Windows, I only have to repair one. And I back up the virtual hard drive files to DVDs once in a while, so I can always go back to an older version. BTW Virtual PC is a Microsoft product (they bought it from Connectix). VMware should also allow the same idea.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I just finished doing some software evaluation on VMWare. It was great for experimenting. You can make an image of your machine before you start, then if you mess up, you can just start over. I plan on getting VMWare for myself

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Wishing a happy new year to All, Finally I was able to install the step7 on my laptop without formatting the drive. I had some A-B, Mitshubishi and Omron software installed prior to siemens. I uninstalled CX-one and RS linx, installation didn't work. Uninstalled all rockwell (A-B) products and GX-developer (mitshubishi), bingo... I could install all siemens softwares. Step7, Wincc flex etc. Then installed cx-one, both are working so far without fight. Haven't tried A-B yet. Siemens USA tech support's responce was Quote I have had people do a system restore of their pc then try the installation again and all went fine. If this doesn't work we talked to Germany and they said you would have to reform the C drive. Unquote Restore to what date??? "Reform" sweet term for lot of work!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I've tried to install S7 5.4 on a virtual PC on my laptop for the same reasons detailed above. I am however struggling to install the S7 Licence. Microsoft Virtual PC doesn't pick up the USB stick which contains the licence, I have tried sharing the USB drive, but Licence Manager doesn't pick up the shared drive. I would be interested to know how you did it. I like the idea of the Virtual PCs, I have a Rockwell Machine, a Wonderware Machine and I'm currently doing a Siemens one, it saves carrying multiple laptops around. Any help would be appreciated. Many thanks

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
ALM will pick licences up over a network, does your virtual machine have network access? What about using a floppy disk? (but it has to be the original yellow disk that came with Step 7)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I use VMWare, since Microsoft Virtual PC does not support any USB devices which require drivers. Virtual PC is very limited (hence the price tag, or lack thereof). Your flash drive should work, but there should be a setting where you will map it to a drive letter in the virtual machine. The virtual machine won't see the flash drive by default.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
had exactly the same problems, tryed removing all mitsubishi software but step 7 would not install. finaly copyed the instalation disk to my c drive adn restarted the in safe mode, installed first time! had to do the same with the ptp add in, hope this helps.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
There have been a number of posts here about Step 7 Installation problems. Unfortunatley Siemens tech support assume/require that you install Step 7 onto a clean XP SP2 installation, and we all know in the real world that will not be possible. The problems seem to fall into two categories: Clashes with other software, RSLynx has been one of the suspects in this resect Previous failed installations of Step 7. To cure this you have to manual trawl the registry and remove every S7 reference, and trawl the hard disk and remove every S7 file, Not a pleasent task. I have also encountered problems with S7 and certain Mobile broadband dongles. I suspect that a lot of problems are caused by the authorisation software. I know Siemens are trying to protect their legitimate copyrights, but when that protection starts to affect legtimate users then one wonders if they have their business model wrong. Maybe they should reduce the software costs and charges, and reduce the amount of copy protection, and concentrate on making their profit from the hardware. An interesting thought: If one of the big plc manufactures, say for example Siemens decided to give the software away, in order to sell more hardware what effect would this have on their market share. In a time of shrinking economic activity the only way manufactures are going to increase sales is to increase market share

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
You may use windows restore in start menu -> accessoiries -> system tool . You'll be able to clean registry and come back to a previous day. good luck

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I knew it wouldn't take long for that 'give the software away' argument to come up. It's not feasible. Hardware margins are minimal. Software requires a dedicated team of programmers working year round. Those programmers don't come cheap. And the potential customer base to buy the software and recoup the investments is nowhere near the size of say Microsoft Office's installed base or one of those. That's why PLC software costs as much as it does. It takes as much effort to write, and can't sell as many copies, so to recoup their investment, the price must be higher. If Microsoft knew they would be hard pressed to sell more than 1 million copies of Windows, they would charge 4 times as much for it. Instead it's cheap because they spread the costs out over such a large number of customers. And BTW Siemens does give away Step 7 Lite for free.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!


Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.


Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  
Followers 0