Re: re xylist and dual booting with Xp and either 98se or dos for xywrite.

["Patricia M. Godfrey" priscamg@xxxxxxxx]

Avrom Fischer wrote:
> as well as the keyboard and the mouse.
So long as they're PS/2 (round connector), that's not likely to be an
issue. Keyboards and mice have to be recognized to get into the BIOS
(hence the memory-hogging capability for even USB ones. Except that
there's a catch-22 there: you have to get into the BIOS to set the
BIOS to let the USB keyboard and mouse be recognized before Windows
loads. How the Hades does that work? I've never used a box with USB
keyboard and don't intend to.)
More important is making sure any built-in components have drivers.
Even something you mightn't need to USE under 98 (e.g., sound,
Network), if it's there and Windows cannot find the driver, it will
keep pestering you, (You CAN disable or remove it in Control Panel,
but I've found that doesn't always work.)
>  Is the problem curable with the equivalent of an io card with a parallel port, a pc2 port and
> mouse port.
Parallel port card, yes. Try CyberGuys or New Egg. I don't think I've
ever seen a ps/2 card though. (At the risk of sounding like a broken
record, I'll point our that the Asus/AsRock mobos I've bought recently
--for myself, and spec'd for the office--came with a full complement
of ports; even serial, which one doesn't need.)
I noticed that my logitech thumball mouses came with a usb coverter to
ps2. Do those converters solve the problem
Good question. Anybody know? I did use one once, but that was some
years ago, so cannot be sure it would still do so. And isn't that
converter designed to let you plug a USB mouse into an existing ps/2
port? Not vice versa?
> I have an hplj5 and an hpl4 both of which work fine and the toner cartridges for them are much
> cheaper per page to operate than more recent hp lazerjet printers per page for some unexplained
> reason.
The unexplained reason is that the printer manufacturers have realized
that they can make more money on ink than on printers.
 As I write I am trying to remember whether these two printers can
run in serial mode
Probably not, and you wouldn't want them to anyway. Serial printing is
s-l-o-w. Anyway, any PC that lacks a parallel port is not likely to
have a serial one. You can get a parallel port add-in card. Just make
sure the system has an open PCI slot.

--
Patricia M. Godfrey
PriscaMG@xxxxxxxx