anyone here old as dirt? need to be to answer this

[shmoes]

ok, my sister has an old IBM thinkpad 720 (model 9552-308)
got no cdrom ... dos and win 3.11 are installed on it .. now i want to connect her laptop to my computer however it just doesn't seem to be working, i've connected the computers using the lpt1 port, which i know works for the printer. however i've tried using a few serial connection programs and none see the other computer ... also i have a portable CDROM which i tried connecting to that port which it won't detect even (with dos drivers installed) ..
so being that the printer port works, i have to assume that this port is not meant for this use ... but alas .. the only other ports are small ones they both look like com1 ports for the old serial mouse. however ones male and ones female .. any ideas? ..

 

[Guest]

Not sure whether any of this will help. Right off the bat, lpt1 is your parallel port. Do any of your software programs support parallel transfers? I know that years ago, Laplink would easily do this.

I don't know that laptop, but you may be able to go into the BIOS and change the protocol of the parallel port to EPP/ECP or something that is required for your cd-rom or data transfer program. Is mscdex.exe with the appropriate switches/drive designation loading from config.sys so your cd-rom will be recognized (I don't remember whether is necessary/mandatory for DOS use...)?

I don't know whether that cd-rom will actually work even if everything is set up correctly.

Of the two small connectors, the male should be your comm port (9 pins) and the female is probably to hook up an external monitor (9 or 15 pins, depending on how old this thing is).

Mike

 

[oldschool]

I also seem to recall problems between old 'slow' ports and high speed ones.

But I( might be making that up.

Also, if you have a one way serial cable, it could be causing problems.

 

[Guest]

You need a null modem cable to connect computers together via the serial ports. Ordinary serial cables will not work.

 

[shmoes]

sweet! .. that sounds familiar now!! .. gonna check that out! =)