usb printer, boot hang problem

T

Todd

Hi All,

I delivered a new XP computer to a customer yesterday. I noticed
that it hung on boot at the part with the four blue blocks going
back and forth. It did boot into safe mode.

As it transpired, boot would hand whenever I had her HP Photosmart
6210 printer's USB cable plugged in. This before I even installed
the print drivers. Unplug the cable, press the one fingered reset
and XP boots without a problem.

After it booted up, I plugged in the USB cable, downloaded and installed
the HP6210 print drivers. Prints fine. Still hangs
on reboot, unless your pull the cable out till XP is booted up.

I have an extra PCI slot. I was thinking of installing a PCI
four port USB adapter and plugging the printer into that.
The idea being that the drivers won't kick in till XP is
further along in the boot. Otherwise, I think it is time for
a new printer.

What do you all think?

Many thanks,
-T
 
G

Good Guy

Hi All,

I delivered a new XP computer to a customer yesterday. I noticed
that it hung on boot at the part with the four blue blocks going
back and forth. It did boot into safe mode.

As it transpired, boot would hand whenever I had her HP Photosmart
6210 printer's USB cable plugged in. This before I even installed
the print drivers. Unplug the cable, press the one fingered reset
and XP boots without a problem.

After it booted up, I plugged in the USB cable, downloaded and installed
the HP6210 print drivers. Prints fine. Still hangs
on reboot, unless your pull the cable out till XP is booted up.

I have an extra PCI slot. I was thinking of installing a PCI
four port USB adapter and plugging the printer into that.
The idea being that the drivers won't kick in till XP is
further along in the boot. Otherwise, I think it is time for
a new printer.

What do you all think?

Many thanks,
-T
Click to expand...

It looks like the boot sequence needs to be changed. Go into your bios
and make HD as the first drive to boot from.

The USB ports these days on all new machines are capable of hosting
bootable drives like flash drives so you need to be make sure the boot
sequence is correct.

Hope this helps but post back if this didn,t solve anything.



--
Good Guy
Website: http://mytaxsite.co.uk
Website: http://html-css.co.uk
Forums: http://mytaxsite.boardhost.com
Email: http://mytaxsite.co.uk/contact-us
 
T

Todd

It looks like the boot sequence needs to be changed. Go into your bios
and make HD as the first drive to boot from.

The USB ports these days on all new machines are capable of hosting
bootable drives like flash drives so you need to be make sure the boot
sequence is correct.

Hope this helps but post back if this didn,t solve anything.
Click to expand...

I "usually" set the bios to boot CD first, then HD. Turn all
other boots off. But ... I will double check.

Thank you,
-T
 
T

Todd

It looks like the boot sequence needs to be changed. Go into your bios
and make HD as the first drive to boot from.
Click to expand...

Wait a minute. This is not a boot sequence issue. XP hangs in the
middle of its boot, meaning bios booted into the hard drive. If
this were a boot sequence issue, XP would have never started.

I kept scratching my head thinking something was wrong.

Anyway, I really appreciate your help! Thank you.

-T
 
P

Paul

Todd said:
Wait a minute. This is not a boot sequence issue. XP hangs in the
middle of its boot, meaning bios booted into the hard drive. If
this were a boot sequence issue, XP would have never started.

I kept scratching my head thinking something was wrong.

Anyway, I really appreciate your help! Thank you.

-T
Click to expand...

If the printer has a "media port", like room for an SD card or
the like, the OS can think the printer is actually a disk drive.

And perhaps your USB card will help that, not really sure though.

WinXP could still fire up the PCI USB, see the device on the printer,
and hang. As a test, perhaps you could disable the printer and whatever
it's presenting in Device Manager, try a reboot, and see if it still
gets stuck. Maybe you can figure out what part of it is a source
of irritation.

Paul
 
T

Todd

Most USB printers I have had dealings with require the drivers/CD to be
installed before the printer is plugged in. During install a dialogue
box asks you to turn on/plug in the printer and then it is "found".
It may be worth uninstalling the drivers and then trying the "drivers
first" approach.
Click to expand...

XP would not even complete its boot until I unplugged the
printer. I did not plug it in again until I installed
the print driver and the installer requested I plug it in.
 
T

Todd

G

Good Guy

Hi Ben,

It is removed from the boot sequence. Also,
since XP has already started to boot, the bios has
already picked the hard drive to boot from. Some
unintended property of the USB connection to the printer
is freezing XP's boot sequence half way through XP's
boot up.

Thank you for the help,
-T
Click to expand...

So this problem is still not resolved so try this:

1) Disconnect the printer from the USB port;
2) Insert/connect a flash drive to your USB port (this can be a blank
one - it doesn't matter for this test);
3) Restart your computer;
4) Let us know if it still freezes;

This should tell us if your boot sequence is still looking at USB
attached drives to boot from before looking for c: drive or your CD-drive.



--
Good Guy
Website: http://mytaxsite.co.uk
Website: http://html-css.co.uk
Forums: http://mytaxsite.boardhost.com
Email: http://mytaxsite.co.uk/contact-us
 
T

Todd

Disconnect the printer, start the computer, then run the setup CD that came with
the printer.

Ben
Click to expand...

Hi Ben,

Did that. still won't reboot with the printer's USB cable plugged in.

-T
 
T

Todd

Running the Set up CD again may not have the same effect if the drivers
are already installed, that's why I suggested uninstalling the drivers
first (then rebooting) before running set up CD again (with printer
unplugged).

However, you say you have tried that.

If the boot sequence is set to CD/Hard drive first then the computer
shouldn't be looking to boot from a USB. It may be that the printer is
not set as the "default" device. Have you checked that?
Click to expand...


Yes. If you think about it, since the freeze happens half way through
XP's boot up, the bios has already made the decision to boot from
the hard drive.

I set the bios to boot DC first, hard drive second, everything else
disabled.

Thank you for the suggestions,
-T
 
T

Todd

What about checking if the printer:

a. Shows up in Start>Settings>Printers and Faxes and
Click to expand...

Yes, it prints and faxes just fine. Although you have
to leave its USB cable unplugged when XP boots up.
After XP is done booting, plug the USB cable in and the
printer works fine
b. Is set as the default printer (right click for options)?
Click to expand...

Yes
 
T

Todd

Came across this article with user having similar problems:

http://www.petri.co.il/forums/showthread.php?t=5800

May be worth checking to see if USB Emulation is turned on in BIOS. The
poster turned it off and fixed the problem.
Click to expand...


Hi Smirnoff,

You called it. I logged into BIOS and did not find "Legacy
USB Support" but did find "USB Emulation". Figuring it was the
same thing, I turned it off. And, now the customer can boot
with the printer plugged in. Happy camping has returned.

I stand on the shoulders of giants! Thank you!

-T
 

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