[RESOLVED] Getting WIN98 to see me Parrellel Port Zip Drive

[Bourby]

I have an A-Bit BH6 Board .. with a CEL300 prossessor .. with 128meg RAM ..
My Zip drive, which works fine on other computers, wont be found by the installation.
I don't have anything running from the P-Port .. and I dont' know what to do ?? .. Could someone advise me please .. cheers ..

[Darren Wilson]

have you tried a printer on the port???

if a printer works then it could be that the LPT port does not like the ZIP drive. I have seen this many times on PC-Chips boards but not on big name boards such as Abit....

Try running the DOS version of Guest from the ZIP tools cd and see if it finds it in DOS

------------------
why are our jobs so interesting??????
visit me @ http://www.ace-computers.co.uk

[Bourby]

Nup .. printer didn't work either..

anyone else got ideas?...

[scoobie]

I have that mobo and a parallel zip and it works fine.

do you know which mode your port is set to in the bios?

try the most basic bi-directional setting and see if that helps.

you said you tried a printer, do you have the port - zip - printer connected and can print? or did you just disconnect the zip and connect the printer? try that too. (you probably already did)

good luck,

scoobie

[Bourby]

Scoobie .. in regards to this ..
What setting do you have your Parrallel port set to .. in your BIOS ..
What do you classify as the "most basic bi-directional settings" ?? ..

Cheers ....

[scoobie]

I think that my setting is called "bi-directional". I am at work and my computer we are talking about is at home. I can check this evening.

I mean basic by that, some bios revisions call it bi-directional, some call it standard, it just depends. change it from epp, ecp, and those type of settings.

[scoobie]

have you tried printing through the zip drive yet? connect the zip to the computer, then the printer to the zip and try printing.

if that is how you have it configured now, have you tried taking the zip out of the loop and connected the printer to the computer by passing the zip?

in your previous message you said you could not print, is that still true?

what irq is your printer port set to? the traditional setting is irq 7, check that and try to get the port on that setting if it is not.

[Darren Wilson]

sounds like the LPT port is dead, RMA the board.

Try setting the LPT port to EPP with EPP version 1.9 in the BIOS.

------------------
why are our jobs so interesting??????
visit me @ http://www.ace-computers.co.uk

[Bourby]

Sorry .. but what do you mean by "RMA" the board ?? ...

[scoobie]

seems a little quick to say it is the port for sure if you ask me. it is certainly pointing to that but we don't have anything conclusive yet...

What kind of printer do you have? dot matrix, bubble jet, laser?

try this, connect only the printer to the lpt port.

next boot to only dos, not a dos prompt inside windows but start the computer in dos mode.

next at your dos prompt type "dir >lpt1". of course drop the quote marks. this will dump text directly to the printer port, it will bypass any drivers and conflicts that may be the fault of windows.

if you have a laser printer you might have to use the form feed or whatever the button is called on the printer that will advance the printer one page.

if the lpt1 port is set to standard mode, you can't dump text to it, then I would agree that the port is dead and it is time for a new mobo.

if however you get a text dump to the printer, we have an os conflict with the port.

good luck!

scoobie

[houseisland]

A cheap alternative to ditching the MB might be cruising the recyling shops and looking for a good used ISA parallel or parallel/serial card. I have found a number of Boca I/O AT55s in recyling bins at $5.00 Cdn a pop - nice little cards. A new "no-name" parallel card can't run anymore than about $20.00. Turn off the parallel port in your bios and configure the card and stick it in. Should work.