Problems continue and don't know what to do

[Crazy L]

Thanks Leadhead, I still may take you up on that offer, just trying to exhaust all my variables and knowledge, not to mention my patience before I do so, hahaha.

Rob, I notice your printer port is labelled as an ECP printer port, mine simply says printer port. Is there a reason for this?

Also, now might be a good time to volunteer the information that the tower I'm using has the dreaded vista. Now, when I went to newfangled solutions or whatever they're called website, there was a vista specific version, so I downloaded that and that is what Is installed.

I am currently also trying to find out how to partition the drive to install XP as so far, the pin settings have unfortunately not worked. Windows version and the printer port name are the only other things I can think of that are different, so I wish to eliminate them.

When I clicked on the "automatic setting" button in the "ports n pins" menu, I selected estop and hit said button, it registered on mach, so communication is there, but that's pretty much the only one I succeeded with.

[Crazy L]

Well, I managed to partition the drive, but ******* vista wont let me install XP on the partition as it's:"an older version than what is on the computer". I changed the bios to boot from the cd, but to no avail.

Leadhead, I may be asking for help.

What I'll do though at the weekend also, depending on what you guys tell me here between now and the weekend, is do a continuity test on the cable, just to rule that out.

I bet there's one thing I'm missing somewhere, just one, and it's stopping the whole thing from working. that would be my luck.