Zip, Buz, Splat! More Iomega Trouble

With its Zip drive click-and-die troubles barely behind it, Iomega has new product glitches and defects to contend with. First, the newer Zip Plus drive, which boasts the ability to connect to either a parallel or a SCSI port, may eat your data when connected to some SCSI bus configurations. Meanwhile, the company's popular Buz multimedia editing system turns out to be incompatible with quite a few computer systems and video boards; early models contain a defective chip; and that ain't all.

Zip Plus SCSI SNAFU In theory, you can connect the Zip Plus drive to your computer's high-speed SCSI bus. Though the packaging and documentation don't say so, you'd better not connect the drive using anything other than the included 25-pin AutoDetect cable. Don't use the drive in a daisy chain with other SCSI devices, or with SCSI cable adapters either. Otherwise, the company's Web site says, you'll "compromise the integrity of your data."

So if your SCSI controller has the common 50-pin (SCSI 2) connector, or you use a PC Card SCSI controller in your laptop, connecting the Zip Plus to the SCSI bus could scramble your data. And according to Iomega, no error message will alert you to the data corruption. Likewise, if you have another external SCSI drive or a scanner connected in a daisy chain, you'll have to connect the Zip Plus drive to the computer's slower parallel port instead.

Early Buz, Bad Cuts Initial versions of Iomega's Buz Multimedia Producer system that debuted this spring contain a faulty chip that can prevent your system from booting up. Iomega says only a few early units contained the faulty chip, and it offers to replace your bad Buz for a good one (just call tech support).

That's not the only problem plaguing Buz buyers, however. A "known issues" page on the company's Web site lists many common systems and video boards Buz doesn't like, resulting in poor audio and video quality and even system lockups. Incompatible systems include all IBM Aptivas built before August 1997, Compaq's Presario 4850 and Deskpro XL 6150, Packard Bell's 869 CD and Platinum, Hewlett-Packard's Pavilion 7000 series and Vectra XA, and Gateway's P5-100. Iomega says Buz won't work at all with video boards based on the Cirrus Logic CL-GD5430 chip set, and remarks that "you may consider upgrading" boards based on the CL-GD5434, CL-GD5440, Trident 9440, Weitek P9001, Alliance Promotion, and ATI Mach64 chip sets.

The software that shipped with initial Buz boxes had problems, too. Video captured at 720 by 480 resolution displayed noticeable "jitter" during playback, and Buz couldn't capture SECAM-format (French) video signals, or still frames in RGB format. Appropriately, Windows 95's Device Manager reported the Buz driver version as "Beta Release 1." The 273KB Buz Drivers 1.2 update (ftp.iomega.com/pub/buzupdat.exe) rectifies all of these buglets. Be sure to read the important installation instructions first.

.

Bugged?

Found a hardware or software bug? Tell us about it via e-mail at bugs@pcworld.com.