Hi Aurangzeb,

"In fact one has to go to go to Lahore to get them. The price ratios are approx. 1:11.
I will try some more before abondoning this route."

Yes I can understand your predicament fully. More than the cost it is the trouble of locating it.

Though I do not recommend nor endorse the view of building ones own programmer, in certain situations that may be the only option left, and so why not try ?

I just looked at the site where details of this programmer is posted. I in fact found it quite nicely done with plenty of practical tips - and if in case it does not work with you, then I am afraid you are in for a long session of debugging starting from the software in the PC, connectors, cables and the final hardware. I do hope that your PC parallel port is up and kicking ;-) Best is to suspect everything and work around ways to confirm that it is not the suspect.

I do know that this advice does not solve your problem directly - but all I can say is " It is too EARLY to give up "

Raghu