Abit VH6 LPT problems

Well... I'm going to use my last resort...this newsgroup. I just upgraded my
dad's box to Windows XP. I did a clean install (Formatted HDD and fresh copy
of XP Pro). Now everything works except the printer. He has an Apollo P-2200
printer using a parallel cable (This printer does not support USB). The
printer was not discovered during the initial install. When I try to install
the printer manually (Drivers are part of XP), the printer seems to install
OK but when I try to print it says "Document failed to print". I plugged my
laptop and was able to print just fine. My laptop was even able to find the
printer during PnP discovery. That leaves the box as the culprit. I tried
everything I could think of. I flashed the latest BIOS, installed all the
latest XP updates, tried all different BIOS settings but nothing. At this
point I suspect that the LPT port on my mainboard is bad. My dad mentioned
that the printer was not working very well even before the upgrade. Any
ideas? I'm I missing something here?

Thanks,

Francis

Well, it sounds as if the parallel port on the box is bad. If you can print
from another PC you know it's not the printer. You can pickup a card that
will add parallel ports to the pc, just takes up a pci slot.

latest XP updates, tried all different BIOS settings but nothing. At this
point I suspect that the LPT port on my mainboard is bad. My dad mentioned
that the printer was not working very well even before the upgrade. Any
ideas? I'm I missing something here?

Only a guess, but have you made sure that the port is enabled in the BIOS?

On Sat, 3 Jan 2004 14:38:54 -0400, "Jose Ortiz"
wrote:

Well... I'm going to use my last resort...this newsgroup. I just upgraded my
dad's box to Windows XP. I did a clean install (Formatted HDD and fresh copy
of XP Pro). Now everything works except the printer. He has an Apollo P-2200
printer using a parallel cable (This printer does not support USB). The
printer was not discovered during the initial install. When I try to install
the printer manually (Drivers are part of XP), the printer seems to install
OK but when I try to print it says "Document failed to print". I plugged my
laptop and was able to print just fine. My laptop was even able to find the
printer during PnP discovery. That leaves the box as the culprit. I tried
everything I could think of. I flashed the latest BIOS, installed all the
latest XP updates, tried all different BIOS settings but nothing. At this
point I suspect that the LPT port on my mainboard is bad. My dad mentioned
that the printer was not working very well even before the upgrade. Any
ideas? I'm I missing something here?

Thanks,

Francis

Is the port enabled in the BIOS? I expect it "was", but did you need
to clear the CMOS for any reason, or change some bios settings?
What is the parallel port mode set to in the bios?
Is the port visible in Device Manager?
Have you tried using the printer properties to print a test page, and
what was the result?

Am I understanding correctly that previously the system had an older
version of windows, with which the printer worked fine? If so, it's
very unlikely your parallel port decided to fail, now... more likely
an OS or bios setting.


Dave