Psycho_Wolf Posted January 31, 2001 Share Posted January 31, 2001 This doesnt really have anything to do with the pro's, but Iv been going here for about a year and most of you seem very knowlegeable. I am on a emachine, with Win 98 S.E. and I recently hooked up a new HP printer. Everything worked fine for about a week then all of a sudden the printer port stopped working. I have gone through windows help and its no help. The parallel port is enabled in the bios, and in the device manager everything is fine. I have uninstalled it and let windows detect the printer port again and it still wont print. I tried hooking up my scanner straight to it and it wont work either. I have hooked both the printer and scanner to my laptop and they work fine. Does anyone have any idea what could be causing the printer port to not respond? I appreciate any help, thanks, Psycho_Wolf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gunrock Posted February 1, 2001 Share Posted February 1, 2001 Ok, I am assuming you tried reinstalling print drivers and that your cables are ok..Plus i assume you tried hooking up printer minus the scanner too...go back to BIOS and take a look at the settings for your parallel port...they may have been changed it can cause the port not to respond it is the Pararllel mode. I can't remember which one it is so you will have to experiment..Choices should be ECP, EEP, ECP/EEP. Like i said, try each choice under parallel mode..make the selection, then do a print test until you find the one that allows you to print....otherwise get a loopback plug..you may have a bad motherboard too...it's an e-machine so it wouldn't surprise me...If that don't work let me know, I will send you some more commands/actions to try and determine if the port is bad for sure or not. Later jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psycho_Wolf Posted February 1, 2001 Author Share Posted February 1, 2001 In the bios I believe the choices were ecp and epp like you said, and I tried both, and neither worked. It also had just the regular 'bi-directional' setting which doesnt work either. Yes I did try hooking up the printer minus the scanner, 2 printers actually, and different printer cords. It worked fine for about a week (just got the scanner and printer used) and now neither of those nor my old lexmark will print. Under each of those settings I never once got any kind of error or exclamation point in the device manager. Bad motherboard perhaps, but why would it just stop working after over a year of it working with the lexmark and then a week with the hp? This is my friends computer and I am at home so the next time im there (probably tomorrow) ill give any info you might need as to try to troubleshoot the problem. Thanks for the reply, Psycho_Wolf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Windstorm Posted February 2, 2001 Share Posted February 2, 2001 To eliminate a problem with your windoze configuration, boot your PC from a boot disk or into DOS mode (boot disk is probably better), then at the dos prompt type "dir > lpt1" assuming lpt1 is your printer port, you can also replace "dir" with any command that produces text output. See if that prints. I would also clear the bios. If that doesn't help its probably a hardware prob, call them and ***** until you get a new mobo. ------------------ ---------- Caring is the first step toward disappointment. ---------- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gunrock Posted February 2, 2001 Share Posted February 2, 2001 Hey thanks Windstorm, took the words right out of my mouth... jim WAIT A MINUTE! BEFORE WE REPLACE THAT MOTHERBOARD WE ARE GONNA HAVE TO DO A FULL RESTORE! hehe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YoDude Posted February 2, 2001 Share Posted February 2, 2001 Try this: 1. Redirect printer output to the promedias by opening a DOS window and typing: mode = Klipsch 2. Print next from any Windows application and select the Klipsch Printer (the icon looks like a subwoofer with a halo over it) 3. If everything is working, whatever you print will be translated into speech by the speakers (with a Brooklyn accent though) and accompanied by polka tunes. It's wild!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Windstorm Posted February 2, 2001 Share Posted February 2, 2001 Hehehe Gunrock I used to work for C****q tech support, that full restore coment sure brings back memories! ------------------ ---------- Caring is the first step toward disappointment. ---------- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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