After 2 months of wrestling w/ the ridiculous 686B southbridge writing problem to Atapi Zip 100s, I finally gave up and ordered a host powered USB 250.
First the problem showed up on my Abit KT7A. When I bought the EPoX 8K7A I was hoping the problem would go away but it didn't.
Finally yeseterday, I found that response from Iomega acknowledging that the all but one ROM version in the Atapi Zip 100s are not compatible w/ the 686B southbridge.
It doesn't end there, there's more. When I found out exactly which ROM version would work, I checked all the Zips in my office and actually found the one w/ the ROM version that is immune to the 686B southbridge.
Bing!!! lightbulb goes off in my head telling me to swap the Zip for the one I have at home. I spent 2 hours trying to hide from everyone at work so they wouldn't know what the heck I was doing, trying to take out the Zip drive that would work and putting in another one.
That dang Zip was a pain in the neck. When I stuck in other Zips, the computer wouldn't start. I tried every dang jumper and cable configuration and it just wouldn't work. Only the Zip that I wanted to take home would work in that computer. Being that this computer was in the office next to me, I couldn't just leave it Zipless. And since the computer in that office is not the same as the one in my office, I couldn't just swap computer either.
It's as if that dang Zip was saying to me "don't you dare take me out of this computer." Not to mention I bloodied up my fingers in that dang Gateway computer case that doesn't have rounded edges.
So I went to the Iomega website and was surprised to find that they have a upgrade program going on. Buy a Zip 250, send back you Zip 100, and you get a discount. So I bought the host powered USB Zip 250 for $135 which included 2nd day air shipping. The cheapest I could buy it locally is $179.
If I didn't need the Zip so much, I'd just yank it out of my puter at home but I'm always taking home work files and I need the Zip. Presently, I have been carrying around a billion floppy disks to work around the problem.
The Zip at home can READ just fine. I cannot write to it though. So I take home files on the Zip, work on them, save them to 1.44mb floppy, take them back to work, and put them back on the Zip again. It's a big pain in the butt but it's the only work around I've found so far. For a while I was emailing the files back and forth. Fortunately the largest file I'm using right now is about 1.3mb.
Now I need to go find me a broken Zip drive lying around the office. I'm not about to send back a perfectly good Zip drive that will work in any other computer w/ the exception of 686B southbridge puters.
One other thing, last night I thought I've give this problem one last try and I loaded the VIA miniport drivers on my 8K7A, BAD MOVE!!! I couldn't remove the miniport driver no matter what I did and it kept freezing my system and eventually had to reformat C: drive and restore Win backup.
First the problem showed up on my Abit KT7A. When I bought the EPoX 8K7A I was hoping the problem would go away but it didn't.
Finally yeseterday, I found that response from Iomega acknowledging that the all but one ROM version in the Atapi Zip 100s are not compatible w/ the 686B southbridge.
It doesn't end there, there's more. When I found out exactly which ROM version would work, I checked all the Zips in my office and actually found the one w/ the ROM version that is immune to the 686B southbridge.
Bing!!! lightbulb goes off in my head telling me to swap the Zip for the one I have at home. I spent 2 hours trying to hide from everyone at work so they wouldn't know what the heck I was doing, trying to take out the Zip drive that would work and putting in another one.
That dang Zip was a pain in the neck. When I stuck in other Zips, the computer wouldn't start. I tried every dang jumper and cable configuration and it just wouldn't work. Only the Zip that I wanted to take home would work in that computer. Being that this computer was in the office next to me, I couldn't just leave it Zipless. And since the computer in that office is not the same as the one in my office, I couldn't just swap computer either.
It's as if that dang Zip was saying to me "don't you dare take me out of this computer." Not to mention I bloodied up my fingers in that dang Gateway computer case that doesn't have rounded edges.
So I went to the Iomega website and was surprised to find that they have a upgrade program going on. Buy a Zip 250, send back you Zip 100, and you get a discount. So I bought the host powered USB Zip 250 for $135 which included 2nd day air shipping. The cheapest I could buy it locally is $179.
If I didn't need the Zip so much, I'd just yank it out of my puter at home but I'm always taking home work files and I need the Zip. Presently, I have been carrying around a billion floppy disks to work around the problem.
The Zip at home can READ just fine. I cannot write to it though. So I take home files on the Zip, work on them, save them to 1.44mb floppy, take them back to work, and put them back on the Zip again. It's a big pain in the butt but it's the only work around I've found so far. For a while I was emailing the files back and forth. Fortunately the largest file I'm using right now is about 1.3mb.
Now I need to go find me a broken Zip drive lying around the office. I'm not about to send back a perfectly good Zip drive that will work in any other computer w/ the exception of 686B southbridge puters.
One other thing, last night I thought I've give this problem one last try and I loaded the VIA miniport drivers on my 8K7A, BAD MOVE!!! I couldn't remove the miniport driver no matter what I did and it kept freezing my system and eventually had to reformat C: drive and restore Win backup.
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