Windows XP upgrade issues resolved

A few days ago I posted a couple of issues on my home computer (a Dell)
after a clean install of WinXP Pro.  Both are now solved.

1) Diskette drive not working:  Hardware problem.  It has been replaced.

2) Won't print to my HP722C printer:  Remember this weird one where the
PC thinks it's printing (documents slowly disappear from the queue as if
printing) but nothing ever happened at the printer?  When I told the
Dell tech that I had upgraded the BIOS to a version that supported XP,
he immediately suspected that.  He had me reset the BIOS and clear
NVRAM, then change the printer address to 3BCh from 378h.  Doing that
had 'woke up' the printer on a couple of other systems with similar
problems.  Alas, when I got home and tried it, that didn't help me.  I
tried ECP 3BCh with different DMA channels (every one possible), no
work.  Then I noticed that IRQ 5 was reserved in the BIOS, so I
unreserved it and tried again.  Still no work.  Then, just for the heck
of it, I tried "PS/2" in the BIOS instead of "ECP" and now it works!
Have no idea why.  I sent him an email explaining it to see if he had an
explanation.  No word so far.

I actually had a really good tech from Dell, even though what he
suggested didn't work.  That sounds strange, but he worked at it hard
enough and informed me of enough that it got my brain working too.

--
Jeff Crosby
Dilgard Frozen Foods, Inc.
P.O. Box 13369
Ft. Wayne, IN 46868-3369
260-422-7531

The opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily
the opinion of my company.  Unless I say so.