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From: c60a-aj@danube.Berkeley.EDU (Charles Gousha)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Re: Mac IISi vs. HP DeskWriter = Fried Mac??
Keywords: Mac II, DeskWriter, serial port
Message-ID: <9686@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 12 Dec 90 09:11:57 GMT
References: <989@dvnspc1.Dev.Unisys.COM> <1990Dec8.122250.22698@rice.edu>
Sender: news@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU
Reply-To: c60a-aj@danube.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Charles Gousha)
Organization: UC Berkeley Experimental Computing Facility (XCF)
Lines: 26

In article <989@dvnspc1.Dev.Unisys.COM> frank@dvnspc1.Dev.Unisys.COM (Frank Piper) writes:
>I'm considering buying a IISi & DeskWriter, and heard scary things about
>the combination on AOL.  Apparently newer Mac IIs have a problem with
>resistance degradation (?) in their serial ports: over time resistance
>decreases.  The (AppleTalk-capable) DeskWriter sees this and goes into
>AppleTalk mode, which means it can't talk (directly) to the Mac any
>more.  HP & Apple have discussed the problem; a letter from HP was
>posted on AOL which said that Apple had agreed it was their problem.
>
>Frank Piper


Another possibility is using the modem port instead of the printer port.
Apparently, the offending circuitry is only involved when appletalk is
used, and the modem port doesn't support appletalk.  So, there should
never be any burnouts.

Great printer, the DeskWriter.  I've used one for over a year now, and
it's never treated me wrong.  Truly the death of the ImageWriter.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles Gousha                 |    "Yes, Star Trek IS a way of life"
c60a-aj@danube.berkeley.edu    |                 (myself)
All normal disclaimers apply, including some abnormal ones.