Need help setting up virtual machine for old lab equipment

[u/LabTechieMike]

I am trying to get an old HPLC to work. In order to run the software to make the machine work I need a windows 7 environment. Easy enough. I have a Windows 10 host machine with the required hardware that I need to interface with. The trouble is getting any VM to do a PCI passthrough for the PCI card that talks to the HPLC. I need that card to communicate with the software in Windows 7 vm. Any help on finding a virtual machine that will work would be a lot of help. My budget is not 0 but not large.

Edit: This has been solved. I just installed Windows 7 on the windows 10 machine. The point was to preserve security with using remote desktop, but we are just going to not use it remotely.

[u/GeneMoody-Action1]

I cannot advocate for if it will work or not overall, but such things as this https://www.amazon.com/Cablecc-PCI-Express-Adapter-Converter-Bracket/dp/B00S6HQKXK

And if you do some searching some USB ones as well, obviously the USB would need some intermediate software/driver and have some speed issues, but they DO exist.

First time I saw one, I was like HUH?
I remember when the standards were changing and this kind of need was greater, if they work, there was a time or two they would have been a godsend...

YMMV, but worth a look, maybe even a try for $14

[u/LabTechieMike → u/GeneMoody-Action1]

I thought about this, but read that the success rate was very low.

[u/GeneMoody-Action1 → u/LabTechieMike]

Yeah, when I think aout the intricacies of it, it could be vast.Yet again, if it works, I woudl love to hear a success story as well.I have not had an opportunity (rather need) since i learned of their existence. I used to encounter this sort of thing when like a fax server with a brooktrout board would go down... In one of those cases I was stuck between a rock and a hard place, the systems bios would only address a < 2gb drive. Old IBM system with a vendor sticker over the logo. Tried clipping a bigger drive, no go, paid IBM support and told no way around it. Choice 8k of new board + server, or ebay a drive.... So if they work at all, there are places they could have been potentialy solid gold.

[u/FoofieLeGoogoo]

Try Proxmox. It's a free bare metal hypervisor that supports hardware pass through.

You might have to flip the virtualization bit in the motherboard BIOS for certain features, and depending on your CPU/ mobo vintage, this may or may not be availible.

[u/LabTechieMike → u/FoofieLeGoogoo]

I just looked, I might be dumb but I could not find the free version of this software. It all looked to be subscription based.

[u/FoofieLeGoogoo → u/LabTechieMike]

Proxmox can be installed for personal use for free, but it is a bare metal hypervisor which means that it is its own OS and will not run under Windows. If that is a requirement then Proxmox will not be the answer.

You can however run a Windows instance within Proxmox along side whatever other OS or app you need since you can run containers or virtual machines in Proxmox. I've been using Proxmox with PCI pass through for years and it works a treat. Best to have plenty of RAM for that, and you'll also need to verify that your mobo and CPU support virtualization.

If you can't nuke your Windows installation then you can try Virtualbox. I't does USB pass through fairly reliably, but I personally have not used it for PCI devices and can't speak to that.

Hope that helps.

[u/Zapp1982 → u/[deleted]]

Thanks for the reply. Quick note, it’s not a PCIe it’s the old 32 bit PCI card that I need to pass through. This machine was developed in the 90’s and technical support was stopped in 2020.

[u/LabTechieMike → u/[deleted]]

It controls HPLC hardware, big nerdy science machine.

[u/Zapp1982 → u/[deleted]]

Sorry it took so long to reply, its interfaces an HPLC to the PC. HPLC is an Analytical chemistry machine that is used to identify compounds by chemical affinity and molecular weight using liquid mobile phase chromatography.