Reading a peripheral data from Status Port

[Olakunle]

Dear sir,
I am trying to read a nibble into the status port.
The gateway laptop am using support output only, ecp, epp and bidirectional modes. I set the port to bidirectional mode.
I am doing a simple status port read of reading a latched data on a 74LS374 latch.control bits of 2 was sent to the control port bit 1 of the control port to be written to the latch enable of the 74LS374 .The problem is that the visual basic 2005 program sometimes reads a correct value on the latch, reads the old value when a new value is present or hang with a value of 255
and refuse to change the value until the system is restarted. what should I do to correct this problem. Thanks. Olakunle

[Jan Axelson]

If you're reading the status port, you can use output only mode, because the status port is always input.

Use a voltmeter or scope to verify the logic levels on the port pins.

Jan