My initial guess would be that the properties tab for the start-up icon does not contain the right settings. But if, as you say, you are managing to open Arev OK, it might suggest you're simply not using the right username/password to open the Recorder application itself.

For a full development copy of Recorder (with Arev in a completely different directory on the c: drive), my settings in the Properties>Program tab in Windows XP are as follows:

Cmd line:  C:\AREV\AREV.EXE , /X /M4096
Working: C:\AREV

For my runtime copy I have these settings:

Cmd line:  C:\RECORDER\AREV\AREV.EXE , /X /M4096
Working: C:\RECORDER\AREV

Be warned: if you omit the space and comma from the command line, the Arev application will open immediately. With it included, you should be prompted for a user name and password. Once this is recognised the Recorder application should open.

I'm afraid it's been ages since I've had to play with RECORDER 3 startup settings; let me know how you get on!


Nick Moyes
Derbyshire Biological Records Centre
Derby Museum & Art Gallery

For the sake of completeness, here's the FAQ referred to in the original question.

FAQ3
Recorder 3.x generally works without problems with Windows XP, and there are no known problems when upgrading to XP Service Pack 2 whcih was issued in autumn 2004.

Stuart Ball of JNCC has kindly provided the following guidance for running RECORDER 3 in Windows XP. These help you make sensible adjustments to the Properties Tab of the icon used to launch Recorder, or to enable Expanded Memory.

"I have been asked rather frequently lately about running Recorder 3 on Windows XP. I have XP Home Edition on my computer at home and find Rec3 runs very well. The way I set it up was as follows
(NOTE: These instructions also apply to Windows 2000):

1. Starting in Windows, go to your \Recorder\Arev3 directory ((using My Computer or Explorer) and right-click on AREV.EXE

2. Choose "Send to Desktop (Create shortcut)" from the menu.

3. You should now see a new icon appear on your desktop which will be labelled "Shortcut to AREV.EXE" and will probably have an Arev icon (Blue and white clouds with a yellow lightning flash). Right-click this new desktop icon and choose "Properties" from the menu.

4. The properties will open with its "General" tab selected. You may want to change the name of the shortcut whilst you are here (e.g. to "Recorder 3") - just edit the text in the box at the top.

5. Now choose the "Program" tab. It has a box labelled "Cmd line:" which will contain something like "C:\Recorder\Arev3\AREV.EXE". Add the following command line switches to the end of the line:
   ...\AREV.EXE , /x m4096 (i.e. you need to add " , /x m4096" to the end of the existing line)
The "4096" is the number of kb of Expanded memory you are asking for. You can choose what you like here, but 4096 is a reasonable value. The comma tells AREV to prompt for a user name during startup. If one person only uses Recorder 3 on the machine, you could put their user name instead: ...\AREV.EXE SGB /x m4096
In this case, Rec3 will login as user "SGB" without further ado (you will still get prompted for a password if yours is set). You can also change the icon from here if you like - just click the [Change Icon] button and choose one you like.

6. Now choose the "Memory" tab. Change the "Expanded (EMS) memory" entry to 4096 (or whatever value you typed after the "m" in 5) and the ""Extended (XMS) memory" to "None". Make sure the "Uses HMA" checkbox is ticked ((it should be already).

7. Now choose the "Misc" tab. You may want to un-tick the "Always suspend" tick-box. If you de-select this option, it will allow Rec3 to run in background mode when it is minimised so that you can work in other Windows programs whilst it is gets on with long operations in the background. If you leave this option ticked, Rec3 will be suspended whilst it is minimised and Rec3 won't do anything if you leave it running and switch to another program.

8. Now choose the "Screen" tab and select "Full-screen".

9. Now click the [OK] button to save the changes you have made to the properties.

10. Double-click the new desktop icon and Rec3 should start. You will probably find that the image only occupies the top half of the full-screen DOS box and that the bottom half is black. To fix this, select "Utilities -Environment - Hardware - Display - Environment" from the main menu. In the window that opens, the top prompt "Video Display Mode" will be blank. Press [F2] and select "DEFAULT" from the popup. Save the settings by pressing [F9].

11. Quit out of Recorder by pressing [Esc] until you get back to the main menu, and the select Quit.

12. Restart Rec3 by double-clicking the icon again. The initial startup screen may still only occupy the top half of the screen, but once Rec3 is running, it should now occupy the whole screen and display properly. Finally, you can select "Help - System Info" from the menus and look at the "Expanded memory" setting. It should say "Active". If it doesn't, your DOS setup is not allowing expanded memory - which seems to happen on some specific machines (like my machine at JNCC!) and I have been unable so far to work out how to change this. Anyway, Rec3 should run OK without expanded memory, so don't worry if this happens to you. 

Important Note:
Whilst Expanded Memory is not essential to run Recorder, it MUST be active to run the update of Rec 3.2 to 3.3 (supplied on 3 disks in 1997). Without it the AREV directory will be corrupted and will need to be restored from a backup You may be advised to ensure you have at least upgraded to Rec version 3.3 prior to running in Windows XP as some users report intractable problems in activating expanded memory in Windows XP, whilst others have no difficulty at all - see below.  Copies of these upgrade disks are still available. See FAQ2

If all you want to do is simply copy your installation of RECORDER from one PC to another, you do not need to go through the installation process. Simply copy all relevant RECORDER and AREV directories and subdirectories from one C: drive to another.

Problem solved: See instructions from Stuart Ball below:

In Recorder 3, go to TCL (press [F5]) and type the command:

EDIT LRC_SYS SUBDIRECTORIES

This contains the list of locations which are ATTACHed during start up.
In my case it looks like this, yours will be different:

D:\REC3DEV\SYSTEM
D:\REC3DEV\CODES
D:\REC3DEV\SPECIES
D:\REC3DEV\DATA
D:\REC3DEV\XML

All you need to do is edit these to reflect the new paths that you are
moving to (e.g. change the D: to C: in each of the 5 lines in my
example), save the changes (press [F9]) and quit the editor (press
[ESC]).

Next time you start Rec3 it will ATTACH the new paths.

I have been asked to rescue Eric Philp's large database, which I believe must be Recorder 3. His machine is a Dell Dimension 4600 running Windows XP. I am Comptia A+ qualified, and concerned about the issues with expanded memory and presume his system has version 3.2. My proposals are to copy all relevant files to an external hard drive, reinstall the operating system and migrate back the files onto the fresh install of Recorder from his existing installation disks. Bearing in mind I have no experience of Recorder other than reading your forums, I wish to ensure that no data corruption occurs and need to be aware of the do's and don'ts concerning transferring the Recorder program and data and the best process of upgrading  the version to the current one without the problem that his data becomes incompatible and requires re-entering.

Any help out there would be welcome.

Apparently Eric Philp is running the 2000 version of recorder, but presumably only has the earlier installation disks. Therefore it seems that the issues with  Windows XP and expanded memory might not arise. Apparently there is a file "default.pif" in Windows XP which has the option in "properties" to check a box for expanded memory.

Thankyou moderator for your warning concerning the password. All so far makes sense. Is it possible for me to make a blind installation from my own computer using Eric's disks to check for any bugs along the way. Afterwards I would clean off the installation on my own machine once I become sure that all is working ok.