The port does need to be set to EPP or even BI-Directional in the BIOS. Windows should be seeing the same port mode as the BIOS.
It really sounds more like a compatibility problem between the unit and Windows XP. There is limited support built in for some of the older printers, but not all. When you get into trying to interface some of the older units there is a grey area on whether it will really interface, even tho there is supposed to be built in drivers in Windows XP.
To put it blutly, this is a good case for dumping the old printer and replace it with something that is 100% Windows XP compatible. The "old reliable" printer may work fine on older Operating Systems, however, Windows XP is a new "ballgame". New XP printers do not use the Parallell port, they are all USB port connected and the Parallel (Printer) port is a thing of the past as is DOS, etc. Windows XP has specific hardware and software requirements and the newer hardware is designed around the Windows XP specifications. There is some backward compatibility but the compatibility is not 100%. That printer, being 10 years old, was designed for DOS and Windows 3.1 (which was nothing more than DOS with some graphical interface). Windows XP is not DOS based and only offers limited DOS emulation. I had one of those Panasonic printers and dumped it after Win95 came out.
Sorry to dance around your specific interface problem, but the cold reality is the printer is obsolete in the Windows XP world.
Thanks for the feedback. Yes, I realize that the printer is a bit dated. I was a bit surprised that XP came with a driver for it.
Having said that, I am still puzzled. Device Manager insists that the parallel port is an ECP, regardless of how it is set in the BIOS; i.e., they do not match. I have tried uninstalling LPT1 from Device Manager with no effect. In fact, when I uninstall LPT1 its entry still appears in Device Manager. According to Microsoft, this happens because the port is in use ... but no program is suppose to be using it.
I notice there are some additional port setting options in the Windows Device Manager listing for the Printer Port. Have you tried any of these, including the Legacy Plug and Play setting? You may want to try that and see what happens. As far as listing it as ECP, that may be a Windows bug that it just lists it as ECP even tho it's set to something else.
Another thing you can do is try a reset on the BIOS (restore the "default" settings) restart and then restart again and set the port to EPP.
Ultimately, regardless of the port settings or what Windows says the port is set at, it comes down to the old hardware and the fact you have a 50/50 chance of it working or working correctly, even if Windows does have some basic function support. I really suspect you could hook that printer to a different new Windows XP machine - even one made by some other PC vendor - and it would do the exact same thing. There has been a lot of posts here on the forum and elsewhere about USB interface (I/O) problems with Lexmark printers (and all in one units) and the loss of communicatons between the PC and the unit or sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. At one point everyone was saying it was a Dell problem. As it turns out it's not a Dell problem, the same interface problems are happening on other makes of PC's and even other Operating Systems. I do part-time computer support and I have one customer that bought a new Gateway PC, With Windows XP, and a Lexmark all in one unit and he had the exact same problems and I have another customer with an older Win98 Compaq laptop that bought a Lexmark all in one unit and that customer is also having the interface problems.
Well, I found the answer for my printer. Deep breath ...
The MS Knowledge Base note on deleted ports not disappearing because they are in use was the hint. I went looking for processes that might be using the LPT port, and found that the repeated polling of pin 16 stopped when I terminated "mpservic.exe". Google fingered this as part of Canon's MultiPass server, which is used to communicate with some Canon devices attached to LPT ports ... such as my C5500. One of the machines on my local network has a C5500, and so I installed the C5500 printer when I got my new Dell. I did not knowingly install MultiPass server, and on the W95 machine hosting the C5500 you have to manually start the MultiPass server (which then puts an icon in the system tray). In any event, a quick check of add/remove programs showed two items: "Canon MultiPass Desktop Manager" and "Canon MultiPass ODBC interface". Uninstalling them removed "mpservic.exe" and stopped the polling of pin 16. My KXP1124 now works perfectly! (OK, it's a bit noisy ... but it always was.)
What lessons to I take away from this? Well, clearly XP handles background tasks differently from 95 & 98; I had no indication that MultiPass was running. I also should have suspected something odd in my software configuration when my problem didn't pop up when Googled ... I'm not cutting-edge enough to be the first to discover generic issues.
I am a bit disappointed with Canon. mpservic.exe was a real resource hog, and several things (such as DVDs) run faster now that it has been removed. Google shows that it has been fingered before as a resource problem.
This still leaves me with my BIOS/Device Manager mismatch; Device Manager lists LPT as an ECP, irrespective of how it is set in the BIOS. I vaguely recall running across this issue in my early LPT search, but I didn't think it was important at the time. I'll have to go looking again.
fireberd
9 Legend
•
33.4K Posts
0
November 14th, 2003 09:00
The port does need to be set to EPP or even BI-Directional in the BIOS. Windows should be seeing the same port mode as the BIOS.
It really sounds more like a compatibility problem between the unit and Windows XP. There is limited support built in for some of the older printers, but not all. When you get into trying to interface some of the older units there is a grey area on whether it will really interface, even tho there is supposed to be built in drivers in Windows XP.
To put it blutly, this is a good case for dumping the old printer and replace it with something that is 100% Windows XP compatible. The "old reliable" printer may work fine on older Operating Systems, however, Windows XP is a new "ballgame". New XP printers do not use the Parallell port, they are all USB port connected and the Parallel (Printer) port is a thing of the past as is DOS, etc. Windows XP has specific hardware and software requirements and the newer hardware is designed around the Windows XP specifications. There is some backward compatibility but the compatibility is not 100%. That printer, being 10 years old, was designed for DOS and Windows 3.1 (which was nothing more than DOS with some graphical interface). Windows XP is not DOS based and only offers limited DOS emulation. I had one of those Panasonic printers and dumped it after Win95 came out.
Sorry to dance around your specific interface problem, but the cold reality is the printer is obsolete in the Windows XP world.
PJ-in-NetLand
3 Posts
0
November 15th, 2003 02:00
Thanks for the feedback. Yes, I realize that the printer is a bit dated. I was a bit surprised that XP came with a driver for it.
Having said that, I am still puzzled. Device Manager insists that the parallel port is an ECP, regardless of how it is set in the BIOS; i.e., they do not match. I have tried uninstalling LPT1 from Device Manager with no effect. In fact, when I uninstall LPT1 its entry still appears in Device Manager. According to Microsoft, this happens because the port is in use ... but no program is suppose to be using it.
Thoughts/suggestions?
fireberd
9 Legend
•
33.4K Posts
0
November 15th, 2003 09:00
I notice there are some additional port setting options in the Windows Device Manager listing for the Printer Port. Have you tried any of these, including the Legacy Plug and Play setting? You may want to try that and see what happens. As far as listing it as ECP, that may be a Windows bug that it just lists it as ECP even tho it's set to something else.
Another thing you can do is try a reset on the BIOS (restore the "default" settings) restart and then restart again and set the port to EPP.
Ultimately, regardless of the port settings or what Windows says the port is set at, it comes down to the old hardware and the fact you have a 50/50 chance of it working or working correctly, even if Windows does have some basic function support. I really suspect you could hook that printer to a different new Windows XP machine - even one made by some other PC vendor - and it would do the exact same thing. There has been a lot of posts here on the forum and elsewhere about USB interface (I/O) problems with Lexmark printers (and all in one units) and the loss of communicatons between the PC and the unit or sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. At one point everyone was saying it was a Dell problem. As it turns out it's not a Dell problem, the same interface problems are happening on other makes of PC's and even other Operating Systems. I do part-time computer support and I have one customer that bought a new Gateway PC, With Windows XP, and a Lexmark all in one unit and he had the exact same problems and I have another customer with an older Win98 Compaq laptop that bought a Lexmark all in one unit and that customer is also having the interface problems.
PJ-in-NetLand
3 Posts
0
November 15th, 2003 23:00
Well, I found the answer for my printer. Deep breath ...
The MS Knowledge Base note on deleted ports not disappearing because they are in use was the hint. I went looking for processes that might be using the LPT port, and found that the repeated polling of pin 16 stopped when I terminated "mpservic.exe". Google fingered this as part of Canon's MultiPass server, which is used to communicate with some Canon devices attached to LPT ports ... such as my C5500. One of the machines on my local network has a C5500, and so I installed the C5500 printer when I got my new Dell. I did not knowingly install MultiPass server, and on the W95 machine hosting the C5500 you have to manually start the MultiPass server (which then puts an icon in the system tray). In any event, a quick check of add/remove programs showed two items: "Canon MultiPass Desktop Manager" and "Canon MultiPass ODBC interface". Uninstalling them removed "mpservic.exe" and stopped the polling of pin 16. My KXP1124 now works perfectly! (OK, it's a bit noisy ... but it always was.)
What lessons to I take away from this? Well, clearly XP handles background tasks differently from 95 & 98; I had no indication that MultiPass was running. I also should have suspected something odd in my software configuration when my problem didn't pop up when Googled ... I'm not cutting-edge enough to be the first to discover generic issues.
I am a bit disappointed with Canon. mpservic.exe was a real resource hog, and several things (such as DVDs) run faster now that it has been removed. Google shows that it has been fingered before as a resource problem.
This still leaves me with my BIOS/Device Manager mismatch; Device Manager lists LPT as an ECP, irrespective of how it is set in the BIOS. I vaguely recall running across this issue in my early LPT search, but I didn't think it was important at the time. I'll have to go looking again.
Thanks for the help.