[TRLog] Freeing up IRQ's and some good info on Universal Serial Bus

[David Jones]

Great information, but I have just a couple little things that might 
help

>First my good buddy Jay WS7I pointed out ....
>
>"Turn off the IRQ to LPT's Dave. Printer port's aren't bi-directional 
>so IRQ's aren't needed. Usually in BIOS setup you can disable the 
>IRQ." 

This isn't entirely true.  In the old days, LPT ports were not 
bi-directional.  However, most BIOS programs now let you make them 
bi-directional, for a few reasons.  First, remember the Zip drive?  
Because it both reads and writes, it needs a bi-directional port, and 
therefore an IRQ.  That applies to all devices like that.  Second, some 
printers have features (like my HP Deskjet 692) that require a 
bi-directional LPT port/IRQ.  My printer does stuff like aligning the 
cartridges, cleaning, and stuff like that via the port, not by pressing 
a button on the printer itself.


>
>I was able to turn of the IRQ on LPT2 which is on a card. The bios and 
Win98
>wont let me turn off the IRQ on LPT1 which is on the mother board. I 
could
>probably disable the mother board LPT and go to a card and then turn 
off the
>IRQ for that one as well. At any rate freeing up IRQ 05 from LPT2 has 
at least
>allowed me to install the sound card, my first goal. The 2nd radio and 
COM5
>are
>months away anyway.

Again, what do you have running on LPT1?  W98 might not be letting you 
if you have something running on LPT1 that is using the bi-directional 
capability.

--rest snipped--

Thanks for the USB information, that was quite useful.  I even have 2 
USB ports that came with my computer (an HP 266 MHz).

73

David Jones, KK7GW   
kk7gw@hotmail.com

Trustee for the Juanita Contesting Club-KD7BWU
jcontesting@hotmail.com


______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com


--
FAQ on WWW:               http://www.contesting.com/trlogfaq.html
Submissions:              trlog@contesting.com
Administrative requests:  trlog-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems:                 owner-trlog@contesting.com
Feature Wishlist:	  http://web.jzap.com/n6tr/trwish.html