zakezuke wrote:
Re: BIOS setting. Mine is set to ECP, IRQ 7 (of course) and DMA 3 for
the parallel port.

I did try another cable, but that didn't work.

After using the contact cleaner, I worked the Centronics AND DB-25
connectors in and out of their jacks several times. Even checked for
bent pins, which sometimes do happen. Again, no joy.

I agree that a failure of an internal port is VERY unusual--never had it
happen before. The mobo is an Abit BX6Rev.2, and it has been rock solid
since 1999, with a Celery Stick 466. But, we are talking 7 years of
fairly constant use. The only reason I hang with it is that I LIKE
Windows 98. With the HP and Panny printers, I can do DOS printing.
And, since I am a programmer, I do a lot of source program listings.
The Panny, running in Draft mode, runs rings around the HP; and using
continuous form paper, I can eke out a few more lines per page over
using something like Notepad or Wordpad, with their top/bottom margins.
True, the i850 running in Draft mode is pretty darn fast; but, the
cost of a Panny ribbon is a lot less than tanks of BCI3e Black!

If I have to move to a new system (likely an AMD 64), everything will be
XP; and, I'll not likely be able to find drivers to run the newer
integrated sound and video devices. So, I keep limping along with my
W98 system.

Thanks again to all for your help (and sympathy!).

LS

Burt,
You should know by now that according to the resident moron troll, that your
system isn't any good since it came from a small storefront shop and not a
major retailer charging exorbitant prices for mass produced systems of
unknown lineage. Besides any system problems you may have had will surely be
diagnosed by the troll as having been caused by using third party ink.
--
Ron

"Burt" <sfbjgNOSPAM@pacbell.net> wrote in message
news:WjLPf.27058$2O6.872@newssvr12.news.prodigy.co m...

"drc023" <d+r+c+0+2+3@sbcXXXglobalYYY.ZZZnet> wrote in message
news:XIPPf.21245$rL5.8298@newssvr27.news.prodigy.n et...
Magenta no-name, unbranded, unprofessional vendor,
they-didn't-tell-me-what-was-in-it, mislabeled ink into my unbranded,
reasonably priced, custom built, better-than-an-off-the-shelf CPU a few
weeks ago. I can assure you the the troll is dead wrong. My CPU still
works perfectly with no clogs. In fact, I'm looking forward to refilling it
again when it finally empties out. Absolutely not messy, either.

Well... to isolate the issue.... i'm not certain whether this series of
canons will print directly plain text. But, one "can" print to a file
and then... I imagine... go into good old dos, copy file to lpt1: and
see if the sucker prints... assuming you have a copy of the win98se cd
rom handy or boot disks. Note i've not tried this on my ip3000 as
simply put it's usb only.

Also, for some reason I think this generation of printer may operate in
SPP mode as well.

Unfortunatly I have little troubleshooting info on this issue... even
the microsoft pages say if you have an issue with the parallel port
use USB.

The Abit BX6 unfortunatly only has two USBs onboard. I "imagine" one
could get a dirt cheap ISA parallel port.

zakezuke wrote:
Never been able to do direct printing via redirection--->lpt1. But, as
you say, one can do so to a file, then print in Windows. It works,
but....prefer the old DOS way!

May give that a try.

Very true about the Abit. Saw a cheapie USB 2.0 card at Wally World
today, which had 4 ports AND a firewire port; also, 4 port hubs are
under $10. As for the parallel port ISA card, I could give that a try;
but, since I can't use the Canon like an old DOS printer, doubt that
there's any need to. The USB port seems to work fine. Also, Windows 98
First Edition really doesn't support USB all that well. Guess I'll just
hang in there with USB printing since it DOES work.

That's exactly what I mean... go into dos via the win98se self booting
CD-ROM, and either attempt to print a file generated in windows which
should contain all the data the printer needs to print something.
Since you do have a working printer except for the parallel port it
would help to isolate if it's software or hardware, which booting
directly to dos and seeing if data is even getting to the printer would
help to that end, or you can give up as usb works.

Thought you were hip to the idea of upgrading to a higher class system
rather than investing in a USB card, hince reccomending one of those
ISA cards that go for squat as no one can use them anymore, but if you
are hip to spending $10.00 great... problem solved.

I agree there isn't much use for the parallel port. They are nice in
the fact that it's just a simple port with direct communication that
for the most part is more reliable due to it's very simple nature, but
aside from that USB does the job just wonderfuly.