speakup uncommunicative with dectalk synth

[<jaffar@jeffstudio.net>]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1583 bytes --]

Hi Friends.  I have tried on numerous occasions within the last few hours to install fc3.  I won't say that I've had no success because on hitting the enter key or the space bar, there is definitely disk activity.  The problem i am getting is that Speakup will not effectively communicate with my external dectalk synth.

Just as a precautionary measure, I type in the usual command to get speakup to talk through my dectalk external synth and add the serial port info which is the default com port 1 to the command so speakup can look for the port onto which my dectalk express is connected:
text speakup_synth=dectlk speakup_ser=0
but each time i try booting up fedora, my dectalk express refuses to speak.  On occasions, I get a smattering of speach, some garble i don't understand, and that was when I've given more than one minute for dectalk to start speaking.  And this garble comes up when i hit the space bar after the time frame in which dectalk is supposed to speak passes.  There is no speech after that garble, but there is definitely disk activity.  There was once when I hit the tab key afew times and pressed enter, the disk was ejected from my system, which goes to show that the installation process did indeed take place.  SSo i am at my wit's end and need help and advice here.  Just as a note, i downloaded the most current version of fedora, and all files seem to be in place.  I can't do an md5 sum check with windows though as I neither have the program nor the knowledge to do so.  Also, I did try booting fedora using the boot.iso disk as well.  Cheers!

[-- Attachment #2: "AVG certification" --]
[-- Type: text/plain, Size: 140 bytes --]

No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.11.2 - Release Date: 5/2/2005