Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Windows OS question from a newbie

Hi everyone - first of all, this is an awesome user board thanks to the folks who contribute their knowledge so generously.

I am setting up a new office - solo practice - with 1 physician, 1 medical assistant and 1 office assistant.

Is it ok to go with a 32-bi Windows 2008 R2 on the server and 32-bit Windows 7 on the client PCs? The reason is that the vendor for the PC-based EKG system does not recommend 64-bit Windows for their software. Am I giving up too much by not going to 64-bit?

Doable - depends on how much memory you'll have on the server. Anything above 4Gigs gets wasted with a 32bit OS.

Has your EKG vendor tested their software on Windows 7 running compatibility mode? http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/features/windows-xp-mode.aspx

The EKG is the Welch Allyn CardioPerfect PC-Based PCR-100 system. The sales rep said that he has found that the product is flaky when installed on 64-bit machines.

Is anyone here using the PCR-100 on 64-bit Windows?

There is no such thing as 32 bit Windows Server 2008 R2. It installs 64-bit & will only run on computers with 64-bit processing power.


Install 32-bit Windows 7 on the computer with the least RAM/slowest processor. Use the EKG machine on this computer until Welch Allyn software catches up to the rest of the world.

If you have 4 GB of memory or more on the other Windows 7 client PCs, you will benefit from installing 64-bit Win 7.

FYI, this is an issue with the Midmark ECG as well. They don't currently support 64 bit systems.

We have the Welch Allen Digital 601 and I am unaware of any problems. My staff (lower IT skills than even me) loaded it, and it seems to be running fine on a laptop which WIFI's to our net running a server with Windows Server 2007. I don't like the image of the finished EKG in AC, as it is monochrome and the original on the laptop is two color and larger, but otherwise it is fine.

Thanks. I was hoping that I didn't have to have a dedicated pc with 32-bit Windows installed for EKGs. But I guess that is the only way to go. I wouldn't want to 'downgrade' my entire system to accommodate the EKG.

Imagine if every office or business that upgraded from a 32-bit OS to a 64-bit OS had to also upgrade their clients. If they had 20 or more clients that would be awfully costly as they would have to upgrade all of their PCs to support 64-bit OS.

AC and SQL is running on the server with 64-bit architecture. Those are the programs that need to be compatible. The other computers are simply accessing the database. They need not be 64-bit.

There are very few 32-bit programs that won't run on a 64-bit OS. If you go to Program Files on Microsoft Server 2008 R2 and look at the regular folder and the x86 folder, you will likely find far more programs in the latter. Even most of Microsoft's programs will be 32-bit.

The key here is that Microsoft developed WoW64 which is Windows on Windows 64-bit. The servers or OS with 64 bit processors can run both 64-bit programs and 32-bit programs. In many cases, they can run them faster.

If you were still building your server and could choose a processor, the IBM PowerPC 970FX will run 32-bit programs faster than on a 32-bit platform, because it will run them in native support. Processors which can run the 32-bit programs natively can run them with better efficiency than if they have to use emulation.

Bottom line is you should ask your vendor why their EKG system won't run as well on the 64-bit OS. I would definitely make them prove this to you. If you have the capability to install a 64-bit OS, especially 2008, and you don't because of one program, would be a shame. They should be coming up with software that is better to take advantage of 64-bit rather than expecting you to stay with 32-bit.

BUT HERE IS THE ISSUE:

I went to their site and read all of their install manuals. The detailed one was rather confusing. Basically, they talk about two different setups. One is a standalone workstation/server with software and database. The other is a network. They give specs for the workstations and for the servers, none of which talk about 32-bit or 64-bit. But, from the manual, your workstations can easily be 32-bit, and I would imagine everyone would run it that way. The installation talks about and shows in the install windows that you should install the CardioPerfect software. That makes sense. It then talks about installing a database, which makes no sense. There are some other files especially if you are from the U.S. Apparently, there are different hearts in Scandinavia.

It finally goes on to talk about installing the database on the server. So, I don't know if they are talking about two different databases or what. But, here is the problem. I couldn't find a date on the PDFs, but the databases they are giving with the system are ancient. You can tell by the fact that they give you Adobe Acrobat 5.0. How long ago was that. So, the SQL Servers they are giving you are either MSDE or 2000. I thought they mentioned SQL 7. They are all basically the same. With the exception that MSDE can use 2GB of RAM it failed compared to SQL Server Express 2005 in every way.

But, the sales person is correct if they are providing MSDE. While it may run on 2008, it isn't supported on any OS from Vista on. Microsoft would not support it on your server. And, I would not doubt it runs a bit flaky.

I am hoping that they have moved up (given Express is also free), and they have just not updated their documentation. Which, for Welch Allyn, seems out of character.

So, the deal is, you should either be using SQL Server Express 2005 which comes with AC anyway or you could use the 2008 version for free as well.

My first question tomorrow would be what SQL database are they providing. You the have the following options based on his or her response:

1. We provide SQL Server Express 2005: In that case, you would already be running 2005 on your server, and you would already know it is compatible.
2. We provide SQL Server Express 2005 but we do not think it is compatible, which it is so you would have to question him on that.
3. We use MSDE: I would run in the other direction. After that, you could tell him it needs to run on SQL Express or you can't use it.

The other option would be to run MSDE on an XP machine by itself.

HTH

Hmmm...so was it MSDE? SQL Server 2000?