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[Sindi Keesan <keesan AT iamjlamb.com>]

I am no longer able to do a plip connection between two computers if one 
of them has in it a hard drive containing files copied from a 200MB test 
setup that got messed up somehow while trying to install Realplayer8.

nc: Connect:  Connection refused.

The original hard drive was in a Gateway and I could transfer files from a 
Compaq 500 to the Gateway via plip.  Now I cannot.  I deleted the linux 
partition and reinstalled and that did not help.  I copied these files to 
a 170MB drive, put that in the Gateway, reinstalled Linux, same connection 
problem.  I reformatted the 170MB hard drive and copied the original BL2 
files to it from the original BL2 floppy disks and BL2 always boots (into 
RAM) and I can install it to HD just fine, but I cannot get EITHER of 
these hard drives, in te Gateway where the first of them originall 
connected, to connect to the Compaq.

I could not get the P166 to connect to the PII 300 after putting the 200MB 
drive into the P166.  I then used DOS laplink pro to copy over to the PII 
300 (from the 200MB test drive)- xvesa, bl2-x, opera, cxxlibs, glibc6 
(from SW81), and rp8.  

rp8 installed okay to the 200MB drive when it was in the Gateway.  When 
the same drive was in the P166 or the P300 it gave me a long list of 
errors (see previous emails) and would not install.  When I put it back 
into the Gateway it gave the same list of errors, even though it had 
installed RP8 okay in the Gateway before I started moving it around.  It 
gave te same errors in another computer.  So something happened to it 
along the way, that seems to have been copied to the 170MB drive and to 
the PII 300 computer's 20G drive, which keeps linux from doing plip 
connections.

One possible problem - 200MB drive was set to Single and was then put into 
a computer where it should have been Master.  We then changed the jumpers.  
After this the ddrive was put into the PII 300 and wouldn ot even boot 
linux and cmoplained that something was not really a disk image (zimage).
The drive booted linux when put back into the Gateway where it was 
originally made.

We have reformatted the 170M drive and started all over and we still have 
a connect problem.  This is acting like mad cow disease - once some file 
from the original 200MB drive is copied to some other drive, you cannot 
ever do a plip connection to/from that drive again.  I tried both send and 
receive.  Same commands as the one time when it worked before I started 
moving drives around.  

So now I have become unable to do plip connections to my fastest computer 
with the largest drive.  I would like to get that one working again, at 
least.  The other two drives are disposable (170 and 200M).  

What might the files from the problematic 200MB drive have done to mess up 
plip?  Could they have affected CMOS somehow?  The P166 computer is 
apparently back to nromal (when I try to install rp8 I get 'segmentation 
fault' but no error messages'.  When I try to install rp8 using the 200MB 
or the 170MB drive I always get the long list of error messages (which I 
did NOT get the first time I had that drive in the Gateway).

Reformatting with Partition Magic did not help.  Deleting and remaking the 
linux partition with cfdisk did not help.

F-prot did not find any viruses.  

HELP!  We have run out of ideas on how to save the 20G drive so it will do
plip connections.  I think whatever went wrong is probably also keeping it
from installing RP8 since it is inn a cmoputer with an AMD K-6 300 and RP8
installed on 400 and 500 K-6's.