LPT goest to sleep

I just went from Windows ME to XP on a Dell Dimension
8100 desktop and now the LPT goes to sleep. The computer
says it's printing, but nothing prints. When I
reconfigure the LPT from LPT1 to LPT2 (or vice versa
because it does the same thing if the LPT is set up as
any other LPT) the LPT wakes up and I can print again ...
until it goes to sleep again.

This is a drag, never happened on ME. BTW, I did a
complete reformat, not an upgrade of ME - SO ME is gone.