NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #30/NN_1992_30.iso/spool/comp/sys/ibm/pc/hardware/33374

Internet Message Format | 1992-12-16 | 1.7 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!consult!bob
From: [e-mail] (Bob Willey CDP)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Colorado Memory Systems Trakker Problems
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 16 Dec 92 13:28:03 GMT
References: <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Bob Willey CDP )
Organization: CCS Enterprises, Inc. - Easton, MD
Lines: 24

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Robert C. White Jr.) writes:
>To briefly summarize, the unit won't format tapes or do much of anything
>else, in spite of having tried it on two different computers.  Errors
>vary, from "tape drive communications failure" to  the infamous error 90,
>"Tape software/controller incompatibility".  I can print without problems
>using the pass-through parallel port nicely provided.
>Most disturbing is that apparently CMS shipped these units with software
>known not to work in some cases.

Your problem may not be the tape drive at all, but
rather your parallel port.  Under DOS, some really POOR designed
cards will still print, but.....  that does not mean they are
right.  Since DOS does not use the interrupt some board designers
pull out the interrupt logic, etc..  When running the tape drive,
thus two-way communications, you really need a well-designed card.
Try another type of parallel card and you might see different
results.  We have run into this problem a lot with UNIX/Xenix,
since they do use the IRQ logic.

--
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