Desktop

Ask something
Discussion Locked

LPT missing when I use Win 2k

0 helpful
3 replies

by spike

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.

Athlon 800Mhz
128MB
Gigabyte BX2000+ Mainboard
Dual boot Win ME ? Win2000
Mustek 1200 USB scanner
HP 840C inkjet printer

I have a dual boot system as shown, ME is in German, Win2000 is in English.

My computer had been working fine until afew days ago when I tried to print a document that I had just scanned. I received a printer error message. After a bit of investigation I found that I had no printer port installed, hence the error. The problem occurs only when I run Win2000, Win ME is unaffected. Both COM ports are working under both OS?s.

So far I have tried the following:

? Install new hardware ? None found
? Install LPT port manually ? Installs but wont connect to printer
? Install print driver (again & again) ? No change
? Remove scanner and install printer ? No change

Finally I reinstalled Win2000 and I have the same problem, even after a clean install on a newly formatted drive. Like before Win ME still runs fine.

Has anyone come across this before? If so how did you overcome it? I am quite an experienced computer hardware engineer and have never come across this before, any help is appreciated as it has me completely stumped.

Many thanks

3 replies

by paul d. masley

You did not say what type of printer that you are using, but try this in Win2000. Start up normally without printer hooked to serial port. Go to device manager and remove all references to the printer and lpt ports. Shut down. Connect printer. Turn on printer. Restart. It sound like you have a conflict. If this does not solve the problem, look at the IRQ settings. Win2000 is plug and play, but it is like ME. It has a mind of its own when it sets the IRQ's. Manually set the printer for IRQ7, Sound for IRQ5 and your modem/network card for IRQ3. You may have to move other devices around to set this this way. Also check your bios. and make sure that the IRQ'S are properly set. You may want to set the periphels manually.

Hope this helps. Win2000 is shy on drivers for printers as of this date. Most drivers for WIN98 will not work.

Paul

This discussion is closed to new replies.