I've been trying to install an hp laserjet 4L. The device manager lists lpt1
but the add printer wizard doesn't.

The automatic printer installation fails with the error message that there
was a problem
with the port.

I created the lpt1 port using the add printer wizard and the printer is
installed
to it and functions, but each time I boot the plug and play detection finds
the printer
and keeps trying to install it and fails.

Help appreciated.

zirath wrote:
The HP LaserJet 4L is a parallel port printer, and you don't have a parallel
port, do you? Most newer computers don't have them anymore.

<Bill in Co.>wrote:
A USB to parallel adapter cable is available:
http://www.softchoice.com/catalog/pr...R=U94785_US_EN

--
Regards, Yokenny
Change is inevitable except from a vending machine.

YoKenny wrote:
But I don't think he can use the "lpt1" port anymore by using that. He's
got to have a USB driver that works with that printer, I think And I
don't think there is such a driver available for that old model.

That's an old printer. Do you have the latest software and drivers. The
model was updated to the 5L before XP was released.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


zirath wrote:

Bill

I had a HP Laserjet 4L and it was a good printer. As I recall the paper
feed was from a flat tray rather than a vertical feed adopted by the 5L
and 6L successors. A flat feed is far less prone to paper jams. The
print rate would be slow by today's standards (up to 4ppm) but if speed
was not an issue it's a good workhorse. However, buying a modern
eqivalent is now a lot cheaper than when I bought my 4L.

As you said it requires a Bio-Tronics parallel interface. The model
became obsolete in 1995 and support ceased in 2000. Cartridges may be
still available but I would be surprised if parts to repair are still
obtainable.
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport...ectID=bpl02078

I am currently awaiting delivery of an HP Laserjet P2014 Printer, which
including cartridge is costing £120 (US$240). A cartridge costs about
£50 (US$100) if bought from the right source i.e. not a big store like
Staples. The print rate is 23 ppm and the monthly duty cycle is 10,000
pages. An HP Laserjet P1005 can be bought for £58 (US$116) including
cartridge which gives 14 ppm and a monthly duty cycle of 5,000 page.

--
Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bill in Co. wrote:

"Bill in Co." <not_really_here@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:OjUEePb2IHA.5512@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
We have a parallel port on the computer. We had no trouble with it until
upgrading to windows xp.

This post may help

I had a similar problem with my HP LJ 4L after upgrading to XP. Turns
out the problem was corrected by changing the BIOS setting for the
parrell port on my Dell. The setting was ECP. The problem with the
printer was corrected by changing the value to EPP.
Source: Hockley http://www.forum.miraplacid.com/topic.pl?topic_id=146


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

zirath wrote:

Gerry wrote:
Yup. I did too. Got rid of it some time ago since I bought a newer
printer.

Exactly! And that 4 ppm was SLOW! Plus it was designed for a parallel
port.

And they are a bit expensive (I think their cartridges are going up in
price)

10,000 pages on one cartridge? That is impressive!

Gerry, I recently bought a HP Laserjet 1018 to replace my old HP4L critter.
It cost me a bit over $100 US dollars (guess that would be a bit over £50),
and seems to work out fine here. Nothing really fancy. Not sure how it
compares to the P1005. Mine is probably more comparable to the HP 1020.

I purchased that (slightly) older HP model (1018 instead of 1020) since it
still had W98SE drivers that would allow it to work as a USB port printer
with my other (Win98SE) computer AND my new WinXP computer. The newer
model 1020 apparently doesn't have Win98SE compatible USB print drivers (so
even if you did get that special USB to parallel cable adapter, it would
still be a "no go", as I recall).

Well, I must be misrembering something if you were able to get that HP4L to
actually work with a newer WinXP computer without a parallel port
(regardless of any so called USB to parallel port (or vice versa) adapter
cables)

Gerry wrote:

Bill

That is a post I found and not something I have tried. It is for
getting a parallel port to work with XP. It has nothing to do with using
a USB port. The whole thread is in the link.

--
Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bill in Co. wrote:

Bill

You probably can buy HP printers in the US for a bit less than I have
quoted. I have merely converted £Sterling to US$ at the rate of $2 to
the £.

The next machine after the HP Laserjet P2014 Printer is the P2015 cost
£170 (US$340) giving up to 26 ppm and a monthly duty cycle of 15000.
This was more than I was prepared to pay.

--
Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bill in Co. wrote:

OK. I've probably confused myself already too, at this point. :-)

Gerry wrote:

Bill

It was a good catch by you to pick up on the relevance of the parallel
port as that was not something I would have picked up on.


--
Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bill in Co. wrote:

Here's a link to a procedure that may be of help to you:

Problematic parallel printer port fix for Windows XP
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com...1-1056133.html

"zirath" <zirath_m.x@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:%23RHGC6g2IHA.4476@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...

"zirath" <zirath_m.x@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:ud$l7Va2IHA.1768@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
Believe Bill is on the right course regarding bios configuration of the LPT1
(parallel) port. Don't remember what printer it was, but fix was same. My
conclusion was that XP doesn't view ECP the same as previous versions of
windows as WinME worked fine configured that way. So, you have to use EPP
in bios configuration for XP regarding the printer.
--
Dave

We have a right to choose.
Choices have consequences,
for both self, and others.
You probably considered yourself.

On Jun 29, 2:58 pm, "Gerry" <ge...@nospam.com> wrote:
Thanks to everyone for your help.

Don't know why the LPT1 port doesn't show up in the "Add New Printer" wizard
but does show up in the Device Manager. The wizard kept trying to use LPT2.

I originally created LPT1 in the printer wizard and the printer functioned,
but each time I booted the machine the wizard would find the printer and try
to add it and give an error about the port.

Finally, I switched the port in the Device Manager from LPT1 to LPT2 and
that solved the problem. The bios for the parallel port is set to "enable",
and "bi-directional".

By the way, alot of these posts are not showing up on the microsoft server
but I found them on google.