Procoder dongel nightmares
 

I purchased Procoder 1 some time back for $30 on Ebay and use it now and then. It comes with a dongle that fits into your USB port. I need to move it from my laptop at home to my desktop at the office depending on what I'm encoding and where.

Today I needed to encode on the desktop and the dongle, for some reason, was not responding. I got an "error 7... plug in hardware key" when I tried to open Procoder. Tried all three USB ports on the card in my desktop and no luck. I was sure that dongle was shot. I've heard Canopus is anal about these things and wants $50 for a new one and the old one back, first.

For laughs, I installed Procoder in another desktop, plugged in the Dongle and it worked. It worked in 2 of the 3 UBS ports on that machine.

Now, here's the kicker. The first desktop is a Dell Optiplex and it has 2 built-in UBS 1.0 ports on the front under a door that I never use as they are the older, slower format. Well, the dongle worked ok in one and not at all in the other. Of the five USB ports on this machine it worked in only one and that one is the older USB 1.0.

I pass this along because there must be others who have either paid the $50 to Canopus or stopped using the product because of a similar situation. Not sure why it is but it does not seem to like every USB port it is connected to.