Hi All,

I work on IBM ThnkPad 570's extensively, but lately there has been a
phenomenon occurring with parallel devices and the floppy drive that baffles
me. I have Senior Technical Support status with IBM in North Carolina, so I
called them up and even they haven't heard of this one - so I figured I'd
put it to you.

Whenever software is installed that utilizes the parallel port, the floppy
drive no longer reads floppies within the operating system.

Environment: Windows NT 4.0, SP 4.

Side Notes:

A. If I install an Iomega Zip Drive, the zip drive only works 50% of the
time. Sometimes I have to force the system to recognize the drive because
it's not seen on boot-up.

B. If I connect any of the parallel devices, the floppy drive works about
50% of the time. Once the device is disconcerted and someone takes the
laptop, the floppy no longer works.

C. The floppy drive works if I boot up with a system disk and work in a DOS
environment.

D. I already updated the BIOS.

Looking forward to you assistance,
____________________________
Guido S. Piraino
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]
Facsimile:(705)949-4283
____________________________

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