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                                 ***WARNING***

                                  bY SKiDZ/A51

Just the other day I decided to print a file and was surprised to find
that nothing happened!!!

Hmmm...I  thought that my settings just needed adjusting, so off to WB
Prefs and fiddles about. Still no luck!

What was wrong?

Had a virus infected my files? Just in case, I installed new copies of
everyone  of  them.  From  L:Port-Handler  right down to every printer
driver and system-config file etc.

Still  no  luck,  so  I decided to try the printer on another A1200 to
check the printer and cable and was shocked when it worke first time!

Hmmm...I spent a good few hours poking about and even took my Amiga to
bits to see if there was a loose pin, but no luck there either!

Damn Shit!

So  an  email was sent to the CU Amiga Mailing list where the guys `n'
gals are only too happy to help peeps out :)

Within  an  hour  or  so  a guy named Chris Green emailed me his phone
number and urged me to contact him imeediately, which I did....

The  upshot  of  all this is that he too had a 33.6K modem attached to
his  Serial  Port  and  THREE times it blew his Parallel port (or some
chip in his Miggy).

He spent a fortune getting his machine fixed before he realised it was
the modem causing this prob!

I  decided  to  try  my Stereo Sampler in the parallel port as a final
test and it worked fine! DOH! What the firk is going on.....?

I  then  spent  the  best  part  of  two  hours  searching  my vast CD
collection  for as many Bench testing utils as i could. I remember one
which  let  me  test  the  Parallel  port,  but  for the life of me, I
couldn't remember its actual name :(

Hmmm.....eventually  I  found  something  similar  called PAR TEST. It
worked  fine  too!  It  send  signals to my printer and it beeped away
quite happily etc and grinded.

Funny  thing  is, via Opus and Ced when printing, the printer attempts
to print (grind grind) and then stops dead!

(BTW I'm using a Canon BJ10sx so you all know how noisy it can be....)

Anyway,  Chris suggests i send my Amiga away for repair and buy myself
either a Surf Squirrel or one of those Hypercom things which plug into
my  Clock Port (this will allow me my PCMCIA still for my Zappo ya see
:) and that sounds good to me.

However,  I'm not 100% convinced my Amiga's port is truly gubbed! As i
have  said,  it  does  do something and my sampler works fine. I guess
I'll test out my Digitiser next to grab some pics for a final test.

Anyway,  if  Chris  is  right  (which  he probably is by the sounds of
things), then make sure if you are using a 33.6K modem via your Serial
port  at  the  back of your Amiga, that your printer still works a few
weeks/months later....

The  funny  thing  is,  I  had  no probs until I installed my Blizzard
1230-IV which seems even weirder if you ask me.....

I'll  let  you  know how I get on next issue of BTF and if I do get it
fixed, I'll let you know the full cost too....

SKiDZ/A51

Let's be careful out there.....