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  1. Member
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    My Samsung ML-2510 printer connected via parallel cable to LPT1 port worked well for many years but problems started about 2 months ago when I upgraded my motherboard. Since the upgrade the printer is not detected 90% plus of the time in WinXP, and I'm only very rarely able to print anything from it. I've tried power off and on, disconnect and reconnect parallel cable and tried a different parallel cable all of which did not help. After trying all this, my suspicion is either the parallel cable connection to printer has gone bad or the LPT1 port on the motherboard is bad. Has anybody had this type problem or know how to fix it? Is it worth trying to fix, or should I connect the printer with a USB cable since it also has a USB connection and forget the parallel connection?
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  2. Connect via USB connection
    LPT its so 90's
    also with USB connection, printing more faster
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    Originally Posted by bevills1 View Post
    My Samsung ML-2510 printer connected via parallel cable to LPT1 port worked well for many years but problems started about 2 months ago when I upgraded my motherboard. Since the upgrade the printer is not detected 90% plus of the time in WinXP, and I'm only very rarely able to print anything from it. I've tried power off and on, disconnect and reconnect parallel cable and tried a different parallel cable all of which did not help. After trying all this, my suspicion is either the parallel cable connection to printer has gone bad or the LPT1 port on the motherboard is bad. Has anybody had this type problem or know how to fix it? Is it worth trying to fix, or should I connect the printer with a USB cable since it also has a USB connection and forget the parallel connection?
    Have you checked to make sure the parallel port is enabled in your BIOS settings? If it already is enabled or there is no such setting then try the USB connection to see if that works better. I would agree that USB 2.0 is faster.
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  4. Mod Neophyte Super Moderator redwudz's Avatar
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    I would closely check your parallel cable. That type of setup rarely has a problem. I would also make sure the PC print software always selects your LPT1 port by default.

    But that printer does seem to have a USB port and I would agree that's a bit easier to set up and use.
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  5. Better to use USB, generally.

    Check the BIOS for "extended" lpt specs, ept, eps, something or other. Change to more generic or just different settings. These sometimes cause compatibility problems.

    Did you do a completely fresh install Winxp after the board replacement, or at least delete ALL previously detected hardware components and re-install the new ones? This is the type of thing that can go wrong if you don't.

    I would go to some effort to determine the exact cause of the problem, because a brand-new motherboard with a faulty port would tend to develop other problems, as well. If it was very cheap, or free, then just go USB and don't worry about it.
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    Parallel port is enabled in BIOS, and a repair install was done after motherboard upgrade. It seems from several posts here it may be better to switch to USB connection.
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  7. Member
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    Originally Posted by Nelson37 View Post
    Better to use USB, generally.

    Check the BIOS for "extended" lpt specs, ept, eps, something or other. Change to more generic or just different settings. These sometimes cause compatibility problems.
    Thanks to that suggestion I rechecked BIOS to find LPT set to ECP and EPP 1.9, but it has option to set it to ECP and EPP 1.7 to which I changed the setting. There were still some problems upon restart, but uninstalling followed by reinstalling the printer fixed problems. It now prints normally with the LPT1 connection to the printer after several restarts.
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  8. You should never, EVER, do a repair install with a mobo upgrade, UNLESS you go into device manager FIRST, and delete all pre-existing mobo hardware. Otherwise, you have a butt-load of installed drivers that are no longer needed, and these will occasionally conflict with the new drivers.

    If the old board craps out, you can repair install to get it working with the new one, then delete all mobo drivers in device manager, then re-boot and install only the needed ones.

    Not doing this won't always create a major problem, but a significant percentage of mobo replacements will result in minor to severe problems if you don't. That's one of those crapshoots I just don't take.
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    Very good point indeed. I think I need to delete all mobo drivers in device manager, then re-boot and install only the needed ones. Thanks for the helpful suggestion.
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