ROWPRO V4,3 & PM5

[bluejay22]

I've just come back to rowing for the first time in 4 years and already have found I have had to upgrade my ROWPRO to V4.3 as I have loaded it onto a new laptop running 64Bit windows 7. I have a brand new Concept2 D with PM5 running the latest firmware. When I connect to rowpro I do get the green icon but it does not say PM5 next to it (Or concept2, can't remember which it is suppose to be) It seems to work for a single rowing session, but if I try to set up 3 other pace boats in Rowpro, it comes back with a message saying it's not connected to the PM5, even though it is and I have a green icon!

I have connected via the USB port.

Does any kind soul have any ideas?

[Carl Watts]

See my recent posts from the last couple of days.

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=185258

Finally had to let V4.3 go as I was starting to give too many problems.

Really wouldn't want to be on Window 7 anymore either.


RP V5.3 with a PM5 on the latest firmware and a decent Window 10 64 bit PC with a decent graphics card seems to be stable.

Apparently don't use the USB memory stick in the PM5 if your using RowPro.

RowPro V4.3 was great but sadly its time to move on.

[bluejay22]

For others who need info, I have been in contact with RowPro and this is the reply I have received:-

I see from the system info that you’re running RowPro 4.3 and using it with a Concept2 PM5.

There are several issues here:

RowPro 4.3 doesn’t work with Concept2 PM5. Concept2 has changed the PM5 firmware in ways that RowPro 4.3 can’t handle, and because RowPro 4.3 is such an old version, we can’t ‘fix’ it to handle those PM5 changes.

RowPro 4.3 is getting into ever more difficulty with every new Windows Update, to the point where it’s really only useable in old computers running old Windows versions and connecting to old PMs of that era.

For these reasons, your only viable option is to use RowPro 5. You already have a RowPro 5 product key so the upgrade will be free of charge.

Having said that, RowPro 5 needs to run in a reasonably modern computer, i.e. one that shipped new ex-factory with Windows 10 already installed, not an older one that was upgraded from Windows 7.

[Carl Watts]

Yes I received similar information all though I'm not in total agreement that the PC has to be so new it was pre-installed with Windows 10.

I was running a 2006/2007 Pentium P4 until very recently and it was designed for Windows XP and the CPU was literally just able to Run Win 10. Some slightly earlier versions of the P4 just get a blank screen if you try and instal Win 10 on it.Used it for like 6 years and no issues until a couple of months ago.

If a Quad core Pentium i5 cannot run Windows 10 there is a problem. Unfortunately its all the updates to Windows 10 that have caused the problem. If I could have frozen Window 10 in time it would still be working with RP4.3. Its a bit of as pain really because the only thing that PC was used for was rowing.

You cannot use the PM5 with RP 4.3, not even on one of the earliest firmware versions of the PM5. It looks like its working but on Online rows you just row off into the sunset and the row never finishes.

Your Video card is just another potential problem, you need to keep the drivers and software for this up to date as well.