Cannot get plasma table to initialize or communicate with my computer

[Tehdanzig]

I just recently purchased a plasmacam table with the computer from a company going out of business. Was told it worked and had no issues.
When I got it back and try to initialize the machine I cannot get it to communicate with the computer. I’ve tried changing the parallel port and when I do and try and initialize it causes a fatal error in plasma cam and forces it to close.
It is an older plasma table with an older style controller than I’ve used before with probably the original software.

Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated.

[rdj357]

I'm not familiar with the old, old models - sorry. It sounds like you might have the old 98-Z model?

[Tehdanzig]

Yes it is a 98-Z

[Joka]

What error is it displaying?

[robertspark]

have you gone into the bios and changed the printer port type?

ok, I am not saying you have done this on purpose or by accident... just take a moment to understand what may be the problem (nope I don't own nor have ever nor will I ever own a pcam (too expensive for me) but the underlying architecture is still nice)

back in the good old days of pcs when they came with parallel ports.... there are two different types.... and they could be Servia the bios to be a standard LPT port (where pins 2-9 are outputs) or an ECPP .... where pins 2-9 are bidirectional pins...... they could be changed from input to output.....

if it were me I'd go into the bios and have a look for the printer port settings and have a play around with the settings..... you could start off by setting all settings to default and see if it sorts out the comms issue.


also I am not sure how smart or dumb plasmacam is.... sometimes you use to be able to set the I/o irqs for all ports..... plasma am may be looking for a standard lpt port on a specific IRQ when it starts up..... and says no and shuts down if it does not communicate with its yellow box

just something to consider until someone with more specific ideas comes along than I

good luck