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Will this work for my printer ?

Looks like it will work, remember it says it is a PCIe card so make sure you have a slot for it as it is different from a standard PCI card. I am surprised that you have a older printer like this. Hopefully you can still get the drivers for it. I know XP and Vista/Win 7 will most likely not support this printer but if you are using DOS....I almost forgot about DOS...I even have some DOS Disks somewhere......
 
I have DOS disks for it. Hmmm the PCIe thing I didn't realize. Gotta check that out. It is about 5000$ for new software not to mention re entering years worth of data So new software is out of the question for now even If I have to scrounge ebay and build an older machine. Not to mention the software is rock solid and I can get the whole program+ data onto 2 floppys.
 
Set up a LAN (local area network) with two PCs: #1 new mobo PC and #2 older mobo PC to which the HP Deskjet is connected via parallel cable. Save yourself connectivity headaches and install a stripped down version of XP Home on the #2 PC (I'll post a list of what you'll need in XP if you're interested). The #2 PC can be an old Pentium or Celeron 466 MHz with 256 MB or more of RAM.

Basically, #2 PC will be set up as a print server: parallel-attached printer will be "shared" with other "users" (#1 PC) on the LAN. There are Ethernet connected HP JetDirect Print Servers with parallel ports out there for around $45 but they don't work too well or at all with HP DeskJet printers.

If you have broadband (cable, DSL, FIOS, etc.), you, most probably, already have a router/hub. If not, a hub/switch can be had for $35.

Regards,
Franko
 
well I bought the card before I saw this and installed it. The printet works fine if I print from windows but won't print from my DOS program. It just locks up or does nothing. I have tried in the past to use the network. This software for whatever reason can only use/see the LPT1 port on the computer it's installed on which this computer may not be using for the parallel. IDK this stuff is beyond my abilty. I think I'm screwed and just have to keep an older machine around and just copy the software and data tot hat machine when I want to print reports. I don't see any other way to do it.
 
OK I think I know what the problem is, but I don't know how to fix it. The parallel port that I installed is assigned to LPT3. I need it on LPT1. I tried changing the printer to LPT1 but then it would not print at all. Here is a snap shot of the com and LPT ports in my machine. I think something else is using the LPT1 port ??? I'm outta my league here.
 

Attachments

  • screen shot LPT1.doc
    68 KB · Views: 5
From that picture there is already a printer port that is label LPT1. You don't think you might have overlooked something do you? If you right click on the LPT1 and select prooperties it would describe more info as to hardware location, you might even be able to change it. Change the LPT1 to LPT4, and then change LPT3 to LPT1
 
Boot up the PC into the BIOS.
Disable the onboard LPT port.
Disable any other I/O port you do not use (LPT, COM1, COM2, etc.)
Save the BIOS settings.
Reboot the PC.

See if the Device Manager screen displays what you want to see... post a pic like before and let's take it from there.

I'm going to dig up some old notes I have for DOS printing...

Regards,
Franko
 
Whooo Hooo....:D
I got it. I disabled the ecp in the Bios and then went back in through windows and assigned the priter port to LPT2 which freed up LTP1 and then I assigned the Parallel port from the installed card to LPT1 and Bingo. I can print from DOS.
Thanks guys.
 
Acesneights1 said:
Whooo Hooo....:D
I got it. I disabled the ecp in the Bios and then went back in through windows and assigned the priter port to LPT2 which freed up LTP1 and then I assigned the Parallel port from the installed card to LPT1 and Bingo. I can print from DOS.
Thanks guys.
Click to expand...

When you, initially, installed the I/O card, it assigned LPT3 to the I/O card's LPTx/printer port because specific resources (e.g., IRQ, I/O address) were already allocated to the onboard LPT1/printer port. The I/O card's LPTx/printer port is, most probably, jumpered by default to the same IRQ which would assign it as either LPT1 (if available) or LPT3 (if LPT1 is not available).

When you disabled the onboard LPT1/parallel port in the BIOS, the resources were freed up to be used by the add-on I/O card's ports.

I, generally, disable in the BIOS the onboard I/O ports the PC does not use (LPT, COM, modem which uses COM, and soundcard) to help speed up the system. Remember, IRQ stands for "Interrupt ReQuest" which means the processor will "look into" the interrupt request if triggered, e.g., a keyboard stroke (IRQ1) ranks second highest to the system board timing (IRQ0)... LPT ports use IRQ7 and IRQ5, COM ports use IRQ3 and IRQ4...

Great to hear it worked out.

Regards,
Franko
 
I forgot about all that Franko, geez that is some old DOS stuff and actually Win 3.0 had the same issues
 
Hahaha! Dated myself there, didn't I? IMHO, DOS was EXTREMELY more stable than Win3.x but less flexible even with Win3.x' early clumsiness.

Let's say you have a legacy parallel-printer attached to an older PC that runs a DOS program and you want to print to another printer on the network(maybe at higher resolution, laser instead of inkjet, color instead of B&W, etc.). You can install WinXP on the older PC, run the DOS program in compatilibity mode and redirect or "capture" LPT1 output (default for many/most DOS applications) to the other shared/network printer by using the net.exe command:

Start / Run
CMD
NET USE LPT1: \\[Computer Name]\Printer

You can add "/PERSISTENT:YES" to the above command if you want the DOS program to always print to the other shared/network printer (other options are :NO and :DELETE).

The net.exe command is quite powerful...

Regards,
Franko
 
Ah.. what a great thread. Sorry I missed this one. Hmm.. the days of having to worry with jumper settings on system boards to set your CPU speeds, having to know your IRQ's, DMA channels, upper and lower memory, free conventional memory, config.sys autoexec.bat, having to load things in a certain order, having to place cards in a certain order on the system board if other cards existed...

oh - does anybody remember LANtastic? LOL
 
No but I remember booting up my 386 and Norton Anti virus warning me that there are 700 known viruses...:rofl:
We went "Office Space" on that pc.
 
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