LCD trouble Plz help?

[OlDrunk]

Wondering if some one could help me, I have some LCDs I was trying to get them to work with a PICmicro and no go so I'm trying LCD Smartie now and still will not work have re checked my connects a dozen times and not sure what to do I have six of the same LCDs and have tryed two and both are the same I just get a row of back boxes across the top, here is the datasheet for my LCDs if some one could please take a look at it maybe I'm doing something wrong I don't know , I'm banging my head against the wall
http://www.goldentek.com/english/pdf/Do ... L1B%20.pdf

I have my LTP port settings to EPP and I have tryed $378 in the settings and checked in the BIOS it is 378/IRQ7 and I have installed port95nt and rebooted before trying LCD Smartie.

Thank you for any help please!

[caesar]

Black bar on the top row means that the display is powered up and awaits commands. It's a good thing.
Please try this as startup parameter: LPT1,5
5 is there as a timing multiplier, KS0066 display needed that setting to work for me and some extra delays when used with a PIC (compared to a HD44780).

Other than that:
are they new? known as good and working?
can you try the other ones too?
long cables (over 1m) don't work good or don't work at all.

[OlDrunk]

Tried adding 5 before i read it in the FAQ and that didn't work, but did get it to work, I had it set-up on breadboard and I tried soldering the wires direct to the LCD pins and it worked fine after that same with thing with the PIC put the whole thing on proto board and then it worked, go figure, I tested the breadboard and not sure why it don't work maybe to much resistance from the material the contacts are made from as a guess.
But thank you for the reply!

[caesar]

Maybe the contacts had cold soldering points or the material wasn't making contact.

Glad you sorted it out.