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Adding PCI Parallel port card to PC which shipped with no port does not print.

Anonymous
2010-04-09T04:04:43+00:00

I've recently received some new PCs which were shipped with Windows 7 Professional. I overlooked that they did not ship with a parallel port.

These PCs are for use in a point of sale application, which requires a dot matrix printer. I first tried USB to Parallel to connect the printer, however, this does not work, since the printer isn't smart enough to identify itself, it will not appear as a printer.

My next solution was to add parallel ports via PCI card adapters. The card installs okay, and Windows 7 finds drivers for it and installs them. No errors appear in the device manager, however a couple of odd things happen.

  1. Device manager gets the parallel port(s) under Ports (COM & LPT) however it also gets a "multifunction adapter" in a different section (Not sitting at the PC now, so I don't recall which.) Both devices appear to be fine and report that they are working properly.
  2. Under "Printers and Devices" I get 1 (Or in the case of a dual parallel port card, 2) "Microsoft aw Port" devices.

I then install the driver for the printer, and add the printer to "LPT3" which is the parallel port device added in device manager. Print the test page, and... Nothing. Open the print queue, and it's empty. Try printing another test page, and it appears briefly in the queue and vanishes, just like it would if the print job had succeeded. If I try a different device, it (as expected) reports an error that the device does not exist.

Though this does not directly apply, the knowledge base article at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/883253 seems to describe some similar cirumstances, enough so that I wonder if there may be a connection. Perhaps the parallel port arbitrator is not installed in Windows 7 by default if the PC did not have one? If this is the case, how do I install it?

If this is a wild goose chase... Well, that's why I'm asking the question.

Help!

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-04-13T22:50:18+00:00

    Okay, call this wierd...

    I found a different USB to Parallel adapter, instead of trying to directly convert the printer it installs itself as a USB IEEE1284 adapter. (So it's a USB parallel port.) This also shows up in the "ports and devices" but as a 1284 adapter. Try the printer. Bingo.

    Here's the wierd part. After Windows 7 installed the drivers for this device, I then unplugged it, and plugged the printer back into the PCI parallel port. I changed the printer that I installed (On the USB001 device) to the LPT3 device, and bingo. It still prints. It continues to work even with the USB adapter unplugged.

    So I strongly suspect that there was some sort of missing driver for a parallel port missing, which Windows 7 didn't think that it needed for a PCI parallel port card but it knew that it needed for a USB to parallel adapter. I only wish that I knew precisely what driver that it was. Maybe this will provide some clue so that the people who know Windows 7 better might be able to figure it out. I'm more than willing to answer questions if someone wants to figure out what's actually happened here.

    For the record, the sequence which I went through was: I tried the printer (Installed using the manufacturer drivers for Windows 7, 32 bit) installed to the LPT3 device which Windows 7 recognised the parallel port card as. Verified symptoms as I laid out earlier. Print job appears to complete, but the printer does nothing. Uninstalled printer. Plugged in USB to parallel adapter, waited for Windows 7 to recognise the device and install drivers. Plugged it into the printer (No PnP response.) Installed the printer using the same drivers as before, but using the USB001 device. Printer worked. Unplugged the printer from the USB adapter and plugged it back into the parallel port card. Changed the printer to use the LPT3 device under the Ports configuration tab. Printed. This time it worked.

    For repeatability, I did the same thing with the other PCI parallel port card and a similar printer on another identical workstation. This install started with installing the PCI parallel port card first, then followed the same sequence, with the same results.

    So, my problem is solved, but I think that it's unreasonable to plug in a USB adapter to make a PCI card work.

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-04-09T15:26:32+00:00

    Hi. Thanks so far.

    There is no parallel port on the motherboard, so there is no option to do anything at all with it in the BIOS. The machines shipped with no port with Win7Pro pre-installed.

    I'm not sure that it's a driver issue, since I did find Windows 7 drivers for the card (Not in the box, but on-line) and when attempting to install them, Windows reports that the latest driver is already installed, which leads me to believe that it is otherwise working.

    Also, the print system accepts the port, but no data is transmitted. (Card/printer works with XP straight out of the box, so port type should not be the problem.)

    I'm convinced that this "Microsoft Raw Port" is symptomatic of the problem.

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-04-09T06:23:31+00:00

    Check that the parallel port type is set in the BIOS to the type the printer requires.

    Options are usually SPP, EPP, ECP, ECP+EPP, Normal.

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-04-09T04:36:16+00:00

    Not a problem, forum moderator will move it.

    Now one thing you can check is the BIOS to see what options you have available for both parallel ports and 'Plug and Play'.

    Also: http://www.perle.com/products/pci-express-parallel-card/SPEEDLE1P-Express-1-port-parallel-pci-express-card.shtml

    This card comes with it own Win7 drivers.

    JS

    http://www.pagestart.com

    Never be afraid to ask. This forum has some of the best people in the world available to help.

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-04-09T04:09:27+00:00

    My apologies, I'm generally more careful about things like this, I thought that I was entering this in the Hardware and Drivers section, not Install, Upgrade...

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