IRQ conflicts

[surapak]

I'm a bit intimidated at the vast array of geek knowledge but I suspect you will be kind to a largely ignorant neophyte. I need to install a 100mb zip, but I already have a cd-rom, cd-writer,250zip, and floppy in the tower. I need the 100 zip to work with a friend, but technical support has said that if I try to install it, that it could very well likely cause IRQ conflicts. I also have a scanner and need to get a printer hooked up too. Am I pushing it here and should I just scrap the zip? The tech guy told me he had never heard of more than 5 units attached from the tower IN HIS TEN YEARS IN THE NAVY! ...in the navy...in the navy. um sorry. Thanks kindly.

[andyb]

I hate to get all non technical on you - but you said that you needed the ZIP100 drive so that you could work with a friend, and that you had a ZIP250 drive already installed.

Were you aware that your ZIP250 drive will is fully compatable with ZIP100 disks and will read and write to them without a problem?

Your tech guy was right - installing this unit alongside the ZIP250 will cause issues and not just with IRQ conflicts.

Regarding your need for a printer and scanner, my advise there is....

If you are already fully loaded, and you are running Win 98 or Win2000... Buy USB devices (scanners and printers are out there - HP are a good option), theorectily you can connect upto 127 devices to a single USB port. Although I only managed to get 40 connected before I ran out of workbench space.

[surapak]

Thanks for the help andy. My scanner is already USB and I expect to get a USB printer also. How did you connect all that hardware via USB? Do they not still have to go through the IRQ? The thing with the zip is that I think I can only use the 100zip on the 250, but not vice a versa. It says on the 250 zip that it's not compatible with 100zip. So I take that to mean that I can't bring a 250 zip over to use on his 100 zip. We're working with photographs so the zip seems the best route to go. Otherwise I could write them on cd, but seeing as he doesn't have a cd-writer
once we do work on his computer it will be impossible for me to return the finished files back to mine. hmmm.. I'm in a bit of a dilly

[Paleo Pete]

OK, lemme get all non-technical on you too...

Get a data switch. About $20 and you can not only connect 5 parallel devices, if you run the scanner through the printer, but all on one parallel port. And without IRQ or other conflicts. I ran 3 printers and a scanner on mine for 2 years, until the laser jet decided to take an extended vacation.

USB you just plug in and go, or at least that's the way it's supposed to go. It shouldn't cause any IRQ problems, assuming you have one open for the USB port to begin with.

The Zip 250 disks won't work with the zip 100 drive, but no reason you can't get zip 100 disks to use to transfer to the other machine and back. They will work with both.

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