I support legacy laboratory equipment. These are usually things like Scanning Electron Microscopes(SEMs) or Transmission Electron Microscopes (TEMs). These microscopes are usually bought with $1-5 million research grants and expected to last 10-15 years. Some have been running since the late 90s.
[url]Scanning Electron Microscope | Apreo 2 SEM | Thermo Fisher Scientific - US
[url]product_detail : Hitachi High-Tech GLOBAL
[url]Transmission Electron Microscopes | TEM
The challenge I have is supporting the legacy systems that are connected to the SEMs or TEMs. Each microscope can have 2-5 PCs attached to it for various purposes. They are often Windows XP or older and can not be upgraded with OS updates. Any update would potentially cause the microscope software/hardware to loose communication and crash.
I currently have two PCs that are Windows XP Service Pack 2 that need new video cards. I purchased both a GeForce GT 710 and GeForce 8400 GS since they had Windows XP support listed on their boxes. However after trying to install the included drivers(368.81 and 340.52 respectively) they fail because Windows XP Service Pack 3 is the minimum requirement. I went online and searched for the oldest available drivers (320.18 or 320.92) and they too required Service Pack 3.
I could use help finding a solution. Either an older driver for these cards or a recommendation on a card that has Windows XP Service Pack 2 support available.