Cannot see local parallel printer

[Wayne Melia]

Recently changed up to XP home w/SP2 and now computer will not see my
printer connected to lpt1.
When I first upgraded, the printer showed in device manager with a yellow
flag; but I ignored it as I went about other tasks related to the upgrade in
OS, and I did not need the printer anyway.
Somewhere along the line it ceased to show in device manager at all.

Can xp/sp2 "learn" to ignore a device with time?!

Not too important to me at the moment, as I don't think there is an XP
compliant driver for the printer (Fargo Primera) anyway, but curious as to
what is going on, and wondering whether something is permanently fubar in
hardware or xp to prevent me from ever using lpt1.
Device manager shows lpt1 (and all devices) as healthy.
Do not have another parallel device to hook up to lpt1 to check with. Any
other tools to diagnose the port?
I did use regclean to remove reference to a defunct (previous) printer (HP
deskjet 610) prior to installing xp/sp2.

TIA for any help.

 

[Bob I]

Windows will "hide" non-functioning hardware. In device manager, View,
Show Hidden. As for the "removal" of the HP, using the HP uninstaller
would have been the proper method. In that you imply that the XP was and
"upgrade" and not a clean install, was it from a "DOS" version of
Windows(98 or ME). If so you may not have correct MB drivers for your
system.

 

[Wayne Melia]

Thanks Bob;
1. Yes, I do have "show hidden" checked in Device manager, as well as did
the registry tweak of adding: name=;"DEVMGR_SHOWNONPRESENT_DEVICES";
type=REG_SZ; value=1
to HKLM\SYSTEM\currentControlset\control\session
2. Can't remember for sure, but think I used HP uninstaller for removing old
HP
3. Yeah, I came from ME. I'll check to see if I can find newer drivers for
MB (Soyo SY-7VCA).
Everything else seems to work, tho - no suggested upgrades from Microsoft,
and it *did* see the printer at first (???) . Oh well.....
As I wrote ealier, I think the printer is doomed for XP anyway, as no
drivers available, but I was thinking of connecting up my old computer w/
Win95 by putting an ethernet card in it and installing another hard drive
for for backup (my current case is is full). If I did so, could I connect
the old printer to it (it has the proper drivers) and and print from my
current computer, or would I have to transfer the file to old computer, and
the physically go to old computer to print? I suppose I'ld have to also
install some remote control software on both machines....
Thanks again for your reply.

 

[Bob I]

A few things left
You could try setting the LPT port in BIOS to ECP or EPP
In Windows Device manager play with the LPT port settings.(Legacy, use
interupt etc.)
And as for the Win95 box, yes you can share and use printers (pretent
it's a print server), as it supports File and Print sharing. You just
have to have it running when you sent the print.

 

[Wayne Melia]

Thanks again
1. This old printer requires BIOS setting to be standard, not ECP or EPP
(found that out going from old W95 computer to current when I had ME on it)
2. Have played with LPT port settings, even uninstalled it in device mgr,
and let pnp rediscover and reinstall on reboot.
3. Thanks for confirming possibility of using old win95 box as print server.
Cheers