On 11 Apr 99, at 0:35, Dave (Jones) wrote:

> I've just installed an HP 7100E parallel cd writer.  I have an
> Aptiva 2159 S90, P200 MMX 96 meg ram.  When I boot the system freezes
> for about 2 minutes then loads when the desktop appears I get a blue
> screen error with vpic.vxd, I hit return and nothing.  the only Way I
> have been able to get it to work (sometimes) is to disable the unit
> in the control panel then enable it after it boots, but not too often.
>   The system boots fine with the writer powered off or disabled.  Been
> to HP's site and installed the latest drivers/firmware and tried
> their troubleshooting steps.
>
> any ideas??

  I believe VPIC.VXD is the driver for the Programmable Interrupt
Controller, part of the motherboard chipset.  This suggests an
interrupt conflict might be involved.

  The parallel LPT1 port is normally assigned IRQ 7, but most printers
don't use it and so this has become a popular IRQ to use for othe
devices such as sound cards.  Parallel port devices such as your drive
typicllay require the port to be configured as an ECP or EPP port, and
typically *do* use the assigned IRQ, and so installation of such a
device may introduce a conflict where none was apparent before.


David G

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