Printer Problems

[Alfie]

System: Pentium II 400mhz,standard setup.
Problem is when you connect a printer to this system and startup, system freezes at windows screen.
Have enabled parallel port in bios and have assigned an ecp port,this seems to check out okay,but as I said,as soon as you connect a cable and device, system freezes at 1st windows screen,it will operate in safemode
and operates fine without anything connected to parallel port
Any ideas?Thanks in advance

[Jorden]

What kind of printer is it?? Maybe it only runs on EPP or on ECP+EPP.

Is the printer on when you start the PC? Try booting with the printer off, some HP's have the tendency to check the LPT:1 port when you boot the PC.

Otherwise, check the cable, use another one, maybe there's a short-circuit in it.

Jorden.

[Alfie]

Jorden
Thanks for replying,thougt I had offended someone!
Matrox users will love this one,problem was not with printer (hp,forget model#)but rather with voodoo banshee video card!
Windows didn't like it and refused to load it.Why this affected the printer port is beyond me,I mean no irq conflicts,nor any other visible conflicts.
Had already tried other cables,4 to be exact,and as soon as a device was connected to printer port,windows froze at 1st screen!
I will attempt to update drivers for voodoo,once I track down the manufacturer,that is and if this fails will advise friend to get a matrox card and end this nightmare once and for all!

[Jorden]

hmmm, had a conflict like that today with another Voodoo card as well, this one hung at the scanner ... Maybe this Banshee needs some system resources (IRQ, memory, I/O, DMA) used by the Printer-port or the printer-drivers.

You did check Port LPT:1 being at 0378 in the BIOS of the mobo?

Jorden.

[Alfie]

Jorden,
Didn't check that out,will give it a go.
Thing is this is the 2nd voodoo banshee in the system.The 1st,which was the original,the oem could not get to work,hence replaced it.It worked until my friend hooked up a printer and system froze.
Windows refuses to load voodoo card.
exclamation on device in system manager and a message from windows stating it will never load this device again!
I'm surprised it didn't add I want a Matrox
I personally have a amd 350mhz g200 and 64 megs dram.These things are meant to happen on my system,not a pentium!
Will get back on progress,have advised to trade the banshee in for another type card from the oem who put it in.Tired of fooling with it!

[Jorden]

Alfie, what kind of Windows is he running?? 9x I know, but 95A, B or C?? 98?? FE or SE??

Yes, it makes a difference

Jorden.

[Alfie]

Jorden,
It's windows 98se.
And I feel a little stupid.Didn't check the system configuration.
I assumed the oem who had done the work on the computer knew what they were doing!In the pci slot right next to the agp port sat the modem.This is what may have caused the original problems,mind you this is the same oem,who built a computer with ag400 dual head,at my suggestion,for another friend and never assigned an irq.
Before I realized the pci-agp setup,my friend took the voodoo banshee back and exchanged it for another card (creative labs blaster I think it was.Installed that,moved the modem and reassigned the irq's via bios.Now,the only problem being the usb port follows the modem like a puppy dog,and it's irq will not change!Tried irq 9,usb moved with it,tried irq 3,usb moved there as well!But at least the main crisis is over video works,printer works,and now I just hope I'll get the scanner to work