Can USB print server damage a USB printer

[20vtguy]

I ran into a strange problem with a Linksys PSUS4 USB print server.
Its been connected to a Canon 6550 multifunction printer for months
and suddenly it stopped working after someone tried to print to the
Canon using the wrong printer driver. After going through the print
servers admin utliity to check its status I found everything to be
normal. It even claimed the printer was online and idle but when I
would try to print it would fail. Even the Test Page sent from the
print servers admin utility would fail. I tried resetting the printer
server using the little reset button. Also unplugged and plug the
Canons USB cable and power cord to reset it. Even reflashed the
firmware on the print server. Nothing helped though the admin utility
still showed all Status as fine. Finally resolved it by going into the
Canon printers own panel settings and found a USB port enable/disable
function , not sure why the hell Canon would even bother including
such as feature. Well it was enabled but I disabled it and then
reenabled it and suddenly the problem was fixed. Not sure if the
printer server caused this or not but has anyone heard of this
occuring with a USB print server. Can a print server corrupt a
printers USB port like that? Or can printing with the wrong driver
corrupt it? Anyone come across something like this before?

Thanks in advance,
Adam

 

[William R. Walsh]

Hi!

Finally resolved it by going into the Canon printers own panel settings
and found a USB port enable/disable function , not sure why the hell Canon
would even bother including such as feature.

Now you know.

I would say that it is very unlikely that the print server device did any
damage to the printer or anything wrong. Nearly all of these devices just
pass data over the printer as though it were locally attached to your
computer.

The use of the incorrect print driver could have either confused the Canon
printer badly enough to make it stop working, or perhaps it sent a command
sequence that would normally never be issued to the printer in day-to-day
usage. From there, the printer might have taken the errant command to mean
"don't listen to the USB port at all".

It is far more likely that the USB port's controlling logic in the printer
was just confused by the garbage sent from the wrong printer driver.

William