I recently bought an MP3 player which attaches using a serial port cable. The box says is requires a: 'bi-directional parallel Port (Spp/ecp/epp)' when i hook it all up, the software says "could not detect player!". do u think this is because of the serial port settings/capabilites, or maybe the physical cable itself is broken? I am not sure if i have port type specified above, but i booted up to the bios settings screen, and i can have SPP, ECP & EPP separetly as a parallel port type, or ECP & EPP togther, but not SPP,ECP & EPP at once. But really I have no idea what i am doing at all...any suggestions? Any help would be greatly apriciated. Tegan.

Hi SPP is standard Parrell Port EPP (Enhanced Parallel Port) mode increases bi-directional transfer from the Centronics 150 Kbytes/sec to between 600 Kbytes/sec and 1.5 Mbytes/sec. Nibble and byte modes provide slower rates. ECP (Enhanced Capabilities Port) mode is designed for printers. It uses DMA channels, which reduces CPU overhead, and also provides a FIFO buffer. The peripheral driver determines which mode to use. Try EPP in Bios and be sure to install the driver before to connect the player.

G'day, There seems to be a little bit of confusion here. You stated that it connected via a "serial" cable, yet you say that it requires a bi-directional parallel cable. These are quite different beasts.. post back and tell us exactly what cable connection you have. If you have connected a serial cable and the software is looking for a parallel cable- then it will not work. regards, Elric