Win2K, USB or Printer error?

[Ken Litwak]

I have a Canon BJC 2100 printer (no big deal, but it works better
than the HP I had before). It has worked fine for at least a year,
happily using USB01. The last week or so, however, I've started having
intermittent problems. I occasionally get a printer error, telling me
there is something wrong with printing to USB01. (The Canon error is
5200, which basically says the same thing and tells e I should make sure
the printer is plugged i and that the computer connection is solid,
which it is on both counts). Each time this has happened, I have found
that shutting down Windows, turning off everything (turning off the
surge protector that has everything plugged into it), unplugging the USB
cable of the printer, plugging it back in and then restarting Windows
solves he problem for a while. Tonight, unfortunately, I can't solve
the problem this way.

I did the above procedure, but it didn't help.
I went to device manager and asked it about the three USB ports, one
with a mouse, one entitle "USB Printer Support" and one called USB
Robot. The printer support one said that the device is working properly
and it knows what printer is attached to it.

If Win2K is telling the truth, and the USB port the printer is on is
okay, and the printer itself is getting power (I can tell by the sounds
it makes at start-up), what could be wrong? It's true that if I jiggle
he USB cable a bit that there is a tiny bit of play where it plugs into
the computer but that's true of the mouse port as well, and the mouse is
working fine.

What could be wrong? Please don't suggest that I get anew
motherboard. I can just see Win2K balking at a new, faster motherboard
and ot working at all. I need to get this resume out tomorrow for a
job, so I don't have time to go buy a new motherboard anyway. Is Win2K
wrong about the USB port or is Win2K itself broken and not communicating
with the printer properly? What would make this intermittent? Thanks.


Ken

 

[Steve Parry [MVP]]

In

I have a Canon BJC 2100 printer (no big deal, but it works better
than the HP I had before). It has worked fine for at least a year,
happily using USB01. The last week or so, however, I've started
having intermittent problems. I occasionally get a printer error,
telling me there is something wrong with printing to USB01. (The
Canon error is 5200, which basically says the same thing and tells e
I should make sure the printer is plugged i and that the computer
connection is solid, which it is on both counts). Each time this has
happened, I have found that shutting down Windows, turning off
everything (turning off the surge protector that has everything
plugged into it), unplugging the USB cable of the printer, plugging
it back in and then restarting Windows solves he problem for a while.
Tonight, unfortunately, I can't solve the problem this way.

I did the above procedure, but it didn't help.
I went to device manager and asked it about the three USB ports, one
with a mouse, one entitle "USB Printer Support" and one called USB
Robot. The printer support one said that the device is working
properly and it knows what printer is attached to it.

If Win2K is telling the truth, and the USB port the printer is on is
okay, and the printer itself is getting power (I can tell by the
sounds it makes at start-up), what could be wrong? It's true that if
I jiggle he USB cable a bit that there is a tiny bit of play where it
plugs into the computer but that's true of the mouse port as well,
and the mouse is working fine.

What could be wrong? Please don't suggest that I get anew
motherboard. I can just see Win2K balking at a new, faster
motherboard and ot working at all. I need to get this resume out
tomorrow for a job, so I don't have time to go buy a new motherboard
anyway. Is Win2K wrong about the USB port or is Win2K itself broken
and not communicating with the printer properly? What would make
this intermittent? Thanks.


Ken

you could always try getting a USB Hub, they're very inexpensive,
and attaching it to a known good port instantly extends that port
.... ie if you buy a 4 port hub your one good port becomes 4 good
ones ;o)

 

[Ken Litwak]

Thanks for the suggestion Steve. I have a question, however. A port
is not a moving part. It doesn't do anything but provide a place to
connect something else to. How could a port possibly go bad? That's
like a mechanic telling me that my windshield failed.. Since windshields
have no moving parts, that's nonsensical. I don't mean this personally
towards you Steve. I'm just trying to understand how a non-moving pin
hole (literally) could fail all of a sudden. I've never written code
that all of sudden inserted an error. If it had an error, it was there
from t he beginning. Thanks.

Ken

 

[Steve Parry [MVP]]

In

Thanks for the suggestion Steve. I have a question, however. A
port is not a moving part. It doesn't do anything but provide a place
to connect something else to. How could a port possibly go bad?
That's like a mechanic telling me that my windshield failed.. Since
windshields have no moving parts, that's nonsensical. I don't mean
this personally towards you Steve. I'm just trying to understand how
a non-moving pin hole (literally) could fail all of a sudden. I've
never written code that all of sudden inserted an error. If it had
an error, it was there from t he beginning. Thanks.

Ken

Hi Ken

Although the port is non moving there's plenty of activity in the
electrical components with all those electrons whizzing around
far faster than your windscreen ... car will ever go ). A pin
hole has nothing controlling it so is not a good analogy.

The software drivers control the data flow and the device so if
there's a badly written/incompatible or damaged driver it will
inevitably fail.