[H-GEN] Replacing a cable - advice wanted

Geoff Shang geoff at hitsandpieces.net
Mon Sep 19 11:05:53 EDT 2005


Hi all,

I guess it seems I only ever write when I'm faced with a crysis.Here's the 
latest.

My flat mate is, like myself, blind.  Unlike me, however, the machine she 
uses as a workstation has an external speech output device connected to it, 
whereas mine is an ISA card (yes, there's going to be a day of reckoning 
sometime soon).  Anyway, her speech synth plugs into a serial port on the 
PC and is hard-wired at the other end.

Unfortunately, this cable is giving out.  Several times today, speech 
output has stopped, with the computer reporting a timeout.  The lead 
programmer on Speakup, the screenreader software we use, suggests this is 
because CTS isn't being raised.  We initially thought this might be a dodgy 
port, so we moved it.  But it's just struck again on the other port after I 
examined the cable for an unrelated reason, and fixed itself again when I 
moved it again.

What I want to know is, what are my chances of being able to replace the 
cable on this thing?  We bought it second-hand 4 years ago for $250, so 
buying a whole new device is not trivial and I'd much prefer to be able to 
replace or repair the cable which will almost certainly be infinitely 
cheaper.

This issue has already caused considerable angst and will only continue to 
do so, and it's not helped by the fact that I'm off overseas for a month in 
2 weeks, so any help at all will be appreciated.

Oh and while on the subject of help, I'm in need of the services of a pair 
of eyes to do some computer setup stuff that I can't do on my own. some of 
this is CMOS, but be warned that some will be dealing with a certain 
operating system installation which I wont mention on list.  If anyone is 
up for lending a hand, feel free to drop me a line off list or call.

Thanks,
Geoff.


-- 
Geoff Shang <geoff at hitsandpieces.net>
Phone: +61-418-96-5590
MSN: geoff at acbradio.org

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