LPT 1 disappears

Gary,

Man, I thought the feeling of being ignored would be the other way around!
LOL And the only reason I'm writing this reply at this time of the night, or
morning actually, is I can't get back to sleep!!!

This problem in no way affects me in any important way. I've fiddled with
the problem off and on for the last 6 months before writing the original post.

So don't worry about an immediate response. If you get to it Sat., OK, or
sun. is OK, or Mon. is OK, or........ :-)

No pressure from my end.

Ken

"Gary S. Terhune" wrote:

Ken,

I don't want you to think I'm ignoring you, but when it gets to this time of
night, I have to put certain posts off until the a.m. in order to be sure I give
it the attention it deserves. It's been a long day, and your issue deserves
better from me than I can provide right now. I promise I'll get back to this
tomorrow, whether early or late, I don't know.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User

"Ken Springer" wrote in message
...
Hi, Gary,

I have to apologize for taking a week to reply. Work's been a bear, and
when I get home, the last thing I want to mess with is a computer. :-)

I checked the device manager in Safe Mode tonight. One com port and one LPT
port is all that's listed.

I was unsure after many rereads of you post as to whether you wanted LPT 1
removed if it WAS the only LPT port installed. So I left the system
unchanged.

As for the 2nd parallel port card, it accompanied the Epson scanner, and was
made by Seiko Epson. There was no softwar disks that came with the scanner
and parallel card listed as being for the parallel card. But I still have
the original software disk somewhere for the scanner, I never throw that
stuff out. And since the original installaton wasn't on an MS OS computer
system, I never used the disk. And then when I did hook the scanner to and
MS OS computer system, I went to Epson's website and downloaded the latest
driver available.

OK, boss, what do you want me to check/do next? :-0

Ken


"Gary S. Terhune" wrote:

Well, the first thing that comes to mind is to review Device Manager in Safe
Mode. Some explanation: When you start Windows in Normal Mode, the list of
devices you see in Device Manager includes only those devices which were
loaded. When you look at Device Manager in Safe Mode, you see the list of
all devices that have been installed. In many cases in Win9x, you'll find
duplicated entries in the Safe Mode list--more than one entry for the same
device. If there really are more than one instances of the device, this is
all right and proper. But if there are three entries for your hard drive
when you only have one, then you have problems.

Imagine a squad of paratroops that, as they are headed for the plane, pass
by a table and grab their respective backpacks. Each backpack is customized
for each paratroop, and you don't want anyone grabbing the wrong pack, so
they have big name tags. However, over time, perhaps one or more of the
paratroops changed (body weight, mission/duty requirements, etc.) and he
needs a new backpack--or something in the automatic safety checks noted that
the backpack was deficient and replaced it. Or perhaps the paratrooper dies
or was otherwise lost from the team. His backpack is no longer needed. But
the crew chief is a bit sloppy, and those obsolete backpacks don't get
removed from the table. No problem for the backpacks that belonged to
paratroops who are not present--except, of course, that clutter on the table
can create confusion. It's the obsolete pack that was once used by a
remaining paratrooper that's dangerous. They both look the same, the old
pack and the new one, and the guy usually gets the right one because it's
usually closer to the front of the table--but not always.

In the above, the list of names the crew chief can read off the backpacks is
Device Manager in Normal (loaded) Mode. The table of backpacks is Device
Manager in Safe Mode. Windows is the crew chief.

(Well, that was fun, and I hope you will forgive the creative writing--I
have to satisfy my muse somehow! But that analogy falls apart very quickly,
so let's move on.)

In this case, I would (as always) look for duplicated entries in Safe Mode.
Some of them are proper so, just make a list of those items for which more
than one entry exists and how many of each one. Post the list here for
review.

But mostly, I want to know what Device Manager in Safe Mode shows for Ports.
Or, more to the point, I want you to remove them so that they will get
reinstalled (but I'm still interested in what was there before you deleted
them.) Just the LPT ports, to start with. This, alone, may fix your problem.
If not, it points to other possibilities.

You can't find any info on the LPT card itself that would identify it?

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User



"Ken Springer" wrote in message
...
Hi, Gary,

My apologies for the tardiness, but I spaced out my posts, and am now out
of
town.

The LPT card was part of the original scanner package, and no
documentation
accompanied the card. As I was not installing the scanner on an
MS/windows/Intel based PC, I could have cared less at the time. :-) I
was
after a SCSI scanner, and the Epson scanner has both parallel and SCSI
ports.

Documentation----- Another pet peeve of the modern computing world, it's
not included. I know one of the common reasons given for this is the cost
of
producing the documentation, but I'd rather pay a little more and have a
good
book when I open the box.

As the process worked seemlessly a few years ago, and I've installed no
new
software for years (no spiffy digital camera, video titling, none of the
new
contempary things) I have to think that some MS security update or similar
to
Windows has broken the system.

You wouldn't have an idea where a person might look, such as the registry
as
an example off the top of my head, for before and after changes that could
be
manually editted to fix the problem, would you?

Mind you, I'm no techhie, never want to be. But as I started out with
computers that are now long gone, I've ended up knowing more than the
average
user. :-)

Thanks.

Ken

"Gary S. Terhune" wrote:

There probably is, but it sounds to me like your LPT card is somehow
automatically disabling the onboard LPT port. I can't recall any BIOS
that
allow for this possibility or that have any control over it. Certain
other,
slightly similar situations involving onboard sound, video, etc., *do*
sometimes have such settings, but...

I can only think that the LPT card manufacturer should have documentation
to
cover this issue.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User

"Ken Springer" wrote in message
...
Don,

:-)

I didn't have to the first time, why would I try it the second time?

When I cold boot this machine later, I'll try to remember to check, but
having been in the BIOS a few times, I don't ever remember seeing a
place
to
enable/disable the printer ports.

Ken

"Don Phillipson" wrote:

"Ken Springer" wrote in
message
...

Back to the LPT, question..... Now, when I attempt to install the
2nd
parallel port card, LPT 1 simply disappears, and is not available.
Anyone know why? Anyone know how to fix it?

You did not mention adjusting the BIOS to
enable two LPT ports.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

Hey Gary,

You still here?

Ken




"Gary S. Terhune" wrote:

Ken,

I don't want you to think I'm ignoring you, but when it gets to this time of
night, I have to put certain posts off until the a.m. in order to be sure I give
it the attention it deserves. It's been a long day, and your issue deserves
better from me than I can provide right now. I promise I'll get back to this
tomorrow, whether early or late, I don't know.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User