Vintage Computers — 10
With the K6-III+ system in the office, I wanted to resurrect an idle parallel port flat bed scanner. The scanner had only been used with Windows NT4 that remains installed on the K6-III+ system. Having a parallel port means the device never was supported with Linux.
I connected the scanner. I hoped I had not changed anything with the NT4 configuration.
I received an error message about not finding a device.
Somehow on the scanner the holding screws to the 12V wall wart power supply connection came loose. How does that happen sitting idle on a shelf? Yet Another Side Journey to repair that.
The scanner still did not function.
I scrounged the junk collection for the original Centronics printer cable. I connected the K6-III+ and HP LaserJet 4200 laser printer, which for the past many years has been connected to the network with a 620n JetDirect network card. In NT4 I configured a direct printer connection and successfully printed a test page. That ensured the parallel port on the computer was functioning.
I again tested the scanner. This time the Photo Editor software found the scanner. I successfully scanned a document. Perhaps previously I had not firmly connected the parallel port cable.
One more piece of old hardware resurrected from the grave of time.
More to come.
Posted: Category: Usability Tagged: General
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