Hello Jeff!
24 Apr 97 08:29, Jeff Guerdat wrote to Mark Wright:
 JG> @MSGID: 1:2613/313@ e7f8dadb
 JG> On 04-23-97, MARK WRIGHT said to STEVE CAVANAUGH:
 JG> My HP 5L is sure using an interrupt (IRQ7 for LPT1) for PCL.  It's not
 JG> a function of the printer language - it's only for high speed
 JG> communication with whatever's attached to the port...
I'm still surprised (we discussed this some time ago), because my HP 5L (PCL) 
does not, at least not for the ZIP drive.  Recently, I moved the ZIP drive to 
LPT2 and the tape drive to LPT1, connecting the HP 5L to the pass-through 
connector on my Iomega Ditto Easy 800. (Cheyenne Tape Backup cannot see the 
tape drive on LPT2.)  Of course, with the tape drive on LPT1, I had to assign 
IRQ7.  Works like a charm :-)
Does your system have ECP or EPP ports?  If ECP, did you know it uses a DMA, 
whereas EPP does not?  I sure wasn't aware of this; here, from Promise 
Technology's W95 Tips (www.promise.com):
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The Promise EIDE2300+ and EIDE4030+ controllers utilize the High speed l/O 
SMC 37c666GT Chipset which supports both ECP(Enhanced Capabilities Port, a 
Microsoft&HP proposal) and EPP(Enhanced Parallel Port, an Intel proposal) 
bi-directional parallel port modes, defined by the IEEE1284 standard. Current 
release of the EIDE2300Plus carry the Goldstar chipset which is also defined 
by the IEEE1284 standard.
Printers and systems today are limited by the standard 150KB/s 
non-bidirectional parallel port. An EPP controller and a IEEE1284 compliant 
cable has acheived 700KB/s transfer rates.
There are few devices that supports ECP. This mode requires the use of DMA 
channel. Most devices are EPP compatible. For troubleshooting purposes should 
there be problems with the parallel port, switch to EPP and disable DMA 
(close pins 2&3 on JP8). Note: Current release of the EIDE2300Plus, carrying 
the Goldstar chipset, automatically disables DMA when switched over to EPP.
Another area to look into is the parallel port address. The default is at 
278H, IRQ 7. Switch to 378H, IRQ 7 (commonly used). There is another address 
undocumented, 3BCH. It shows in the manual as Reserved (refer to page 9, JP6 
of the manual). This address is not available with the current release of the 
EIDE2300Plus.
Some programs or utilities finds the parallel port as uni-directional. This 
is a problem with either the driver of that program or utility to distinguish 
or identify the enhanced feature of the parallel port.
If a device fails to operate (specifically older printer models), use the 
standard output only. This is done by moving the first two jumpers (from left 
facing card) on JP7 to the down position (close pins 2&3).
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Cheers, Hans
... I'm one with the Universe...on a scale from 1 to 10.
--- GoldED/386 2.50+ / Squish / Maximus / Binkley / WINDOWS 95 / V34+
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