PCI Parrallel port issues

[brembo]

Okay here's the hardware:

Dell XPS 410, with Dell MB (known to be working perfectly, no issues whatsoever)

Toshiba e-studio 200 laser copier/printer

What happened;
Ancient HP tower fries a power supply, this machine was the print server for the Toshiba, hooked up via parallel.
So I junk the HP (not worth saving) and drop two new StarTech PCI parallel ports into the Dell 410 and hook an amazingly old HP DesignJet450 C color plotter and the Toshiba up to the Dell. I'm expecting huge issues with the 450C as it's generally just a PITA to deal with. However the plotter fires right up and all is well.

EXCEPT

the Toshiba will not, under any circumstance, play nicely with the new parallel ports. I have looked up every possible driver, patch, upgrade Toshiba has released for this e-studio series. I tried a USB to parallel cable (Toshiba looks for a 1284 Centronics comp driver, no worky), I tried legacy settings, I tried forced IRQ settings, I even went as far as to d/l a dev package and customize a driver. No love (granted my code skills are about as advanced as a monkey's with a sub-orbital lobotmy).

I think the issue is that the parallel port is on a PCI bus and the PnP is not allowing the IRQ to get locked into 7. The MB on the Dell is such that I can't force an IRQ (ACPI does that automatically). I need an ISA (I think) based parallel port to get this printer going.

Any ideas, am I developmetally challenged here somehow? I'd love to have this laser copier/printer available for my scale plans (does 11x17), it's fast and quiet and I can print huge batches without having to reload paper sizes like I do iun the plotter.

No, it does not have network interface, that "kit" from Toshiba is kinda spendy.

[YeOldeStonecat]

Had to setup a 450c design a few weeks ago...those old monster workhorses keep going and going and going..

So these PCI parallel cards are 2x separate ones...each one a single parallel port?

If I recall these, the drivers allow you to set legacy settings in them....old school LPT1 at IRQ1 and...IO of 0378 I think, and the second card would be set to LPT2 at IRQ 5 and IO of 0278

Also some of them allowed you to set the port mode, newer modes being ECP, and going back...EPP and finally SPP for the slowest oldest mode.

When changing any settings, generally a full reboot is required for them to kick in with the printer communications.

LPT2 used to sometimes be a pain to get going, as older...pre-APIC IRQ styles with the 15 IRQs we used to be limited to, and IRQ 5 was often used for sound cards and sometimes NICs. So I recall sometimes the LPT2 cards wouldn't work until I'd check what else was on IRQ5..and find a way to either disable it, or force it to another IRQ.

I don't recall having this problem on newer computers...generally those of upper P2 to early P3 vintage with much broader IRQs (24) with the APIC standard, allowing for much more freedom with IRQs and even sharing.

Just for giggles....tried flipping the printers on the ports? If the HP 450 worked on LPT1 and the Toshi not on LPT2..try changing them.

[brembo]

Oh I've flipped em, I've tried any and all combos. What REALLY is annoying is that with the USB to Parallel cable the comp sees the Tosh and says "hey, you just hooked up a Toshiba e-studio 200" and then I have no issues with loading drivers and sharing the printer. When I try to print I get a "1284 parallel port driver error".

The parallel ports I put in the XPS are indeed seperate cards. When they install on the machine I get 4 new entries in the hardware manager, two "multifunction I/O cards" and two "Com/LPT devices". I've dug around in all the potential settings within each entry on the hardware manager and ticked every legacy box I can find. This is somewhat frustrating.

[YeOldeStonecat]

Yeah I've had mixed results with those port bridging devices...I generally try to avoid them like the plague. Sometimes they work with some printers, sometimes not with other printers..and sometimes with a stubborn one if you try another brand adapter it will work. Just ends up being such a time consuming "trial and error".

End the misery, write off these adapters, and get an HP Jet Direct print server, slap it on a static LAN IP, change the printer port to that IP and call it a day.