#HELP – par: xfer & df0:
5 messages in this thread
I noticed on my A2000 that the drive light for df0: "blinks" during
heavy data transfers out the parallel port. This happens during:
(1) copy file to par:,
(2) Final Copy II graphic printer printing using the preferences HP LJ
printer driver, and
(3) PageStream printing to par: using the PGS HP Laser driver.
I suspect that it's a HW phenomenon associated with data transfers out
the Centronics port, particularly since it is most noticeable during the
file copy to par: (presumably the fastest data rate).
Is this a known characteristic of 2000's or has something in mine
'broke?' Looking at the schematics, I can see that the floppy control side
of Gary and the U300 8520 'share' signals but I'm not 'stute' enough to
understand anything more than that. BTW, the drive light for df2:
(external) does not blink.
Up til now, I rarely used the parallel port (and that to a slow Epson
FX286) so hadn't noticed any blinking (except for the periodic short dim
blinks that I assumed were checks to see if a disk was there). Any
enlightenment will be appreciated — the blinking is driving me NUTS!!
REC
——
Bob:
The two A2000's I work with every day don't have that problem. In fact, I
can't say that I've even ever heard of DF0: blinking while using the
parallel port. Maybe it does on some motherboards. The two I have are of
the v4.4 and v6.2 variety. I've tried both "Copy <file> to PAR:" and
PageStream (I don't have Final Copy II).
Wayne Steele
Saving $ with AutoPilot
Wayne –
> . . . and v6.2 variety.
^
Same here (I think)
> I've tried both "Copy <file> to PAR:" and . . .
What sort of a printer? I didn't observe the "blinking" (under normal
room lighting) until I started dumping to a laser printer's buffer (much
faster data xfer?) instead of a dot matrix. Since, I've observed the same
effect with transfers to the dot matrix printer – just much fainter (have
to darken the room). I haven't been able to see any blinking doing any/all
of these things with my trusty old A1000 (of course it has a different
drive mechanism — and a different "drive light").
Continuing my compulsive investigation — I have noted that the A2000's
df0: drive light blinks (very faintly) at a regular rate even with the
system "idling" (probably checking for diskchange?). The blinks are so dim
that they can't be seen under normal lighting and occur at two different
rates:
every 2.3 seconds (approx.) with no disk in df0:, and
every 180 milliseconds (approx.) with a disk in df0:.
Everything works OK including copies from df0: to par: — it just BUGs
me! Thanks for your response. If I come up with an answer — will post it.
REC
——
Bob,
Humm…to be honest…sounds like yet another 8520 problem…as in
it got zapped by static. The drive LED shouldn't do anything during a
print…unless you're printing something that happens to be on that
drive…so it's reading the data from the floppy.
Don
Don –
> …sounds like yet another 8520 problem…
Perhaps, although I've not noticed any operational effect — other than
display updates being 'jerky' during 'copy file to par:' data transfers
(even 'copy df0:foobar.prn to par:' seems to be OK).
As I noted in my response to Wayne Steele:
's
>df0: drive light blinks (very faintly) at a regular rate even with the
>system "idling" (probably checking for diskchange?). The blinks are so
>dim that they can't be seen under normal lighting and occur at two
>different rates:
>
> every 2.3 seconds (approx.) with no disk in df0:, and
> every 180 milliseconds (approx.) with a disk in df0:.
Guess that all I can do is wait until something more conclusive than the
blinking starts happening. Sigh!
REC
——