Upgraded a machine from W98SE to XP home. The printer will not print now. Tried all the basic troubleshooting no results. It appears that the ports (tried both) are not functioning. Any suggestions, clues?

Is this a USB Printer?

Try removing all the software and drivers from the computer
Unplug the printer from the computer
Reinstall the printer drivers and software
Restart your computer

Plug in the priter

Nada, it's an older HP 4plus laserjet. I know that it's functional in an XP environment because I've used it with my Laptop(XP). My Laptop printer port is identified as an ECP Printer port in device manager. The port in this computer is identified as just LPT1. I found one blog that discussed changing the printer BIOS to ECP. I'm not sure what they mean by that. I've messed with the port settings with no luck. Dang thing aint much good with out the printer!

No that setting is in the BIOS

Restart your computer and press the Del key to get into the CMOS Setup Utility

Go to Advanced System Settings

Find Integrated Peripherals

Select LPT Extended Mode.

If it has it, choose the ECP (Extended Capabilities Port) + EPP (Enhanced Parallel Port) option, otherwise use the EPP option

Press ESC

Now choose the Save and Exit Option

Now try the printer

Tried that, changed port setting to ECP in set-up. No luck. Upgraded System Bios from Dell. No luck. Went out and bought a new parallel interface card, installed it, no luck ( gotta love Comp USA's 14 day money back policy).I haven't been able to find anything in the MS knowledge base, (Dell support is worthless, 4th step is always reformat the hardrive!). Anyone got a clue, I sure don't.

dont reformat just because printer wouldn't print. Ask your friend's XP home edi PC and plug your printer into his/her computer to see it works or not.

Already tried that, didn't mention it though. Tried 2 other printers in the office, both of which work fine in XP environment. Believe me, reformat is not an option!. Thanks for the thought, I'm trying just about anything I can get my cranky old fingers on.

Can I ask the question, is the printer seen in Start | Printers?

Putasolutions: Not sure what you mean by that last post. It is present when I go into the control panel. it is not in the start programs. Another person I spoke with mentioned that the Dos Shell program that was on this may have buggered things in the upgrade. It's an older accounting program (Datawrite) that requires a laserjet printer. The HP 4 plus was the default printer. Otherwise I would just plug in a USB printer and say to heck with it. I also considered getting a USB/Parallel adapter, but I'm not sure I can direct the printer in Datawrite to a USB port. Please don't suggest a new accounting program. That's more difficult than it sounds like. I unistalled the printer, went into safe mode and manually deleted the HP drivers (yes they were still there). I'm not sure if there are other DOS drivers, in another directory, that I missed. Tried installing the printer again. No luck. He's ready to buy a new computer, but that's not neccessarily an easy fix either (different issues). I don't like giving up. Persistance, determination and a little help from your friends almost always wins out. I appreciate your continueing on this thread.

Don't know whether you've been to the HP web site or obtained a new driver (I might have read that but missed it). The latest drivers for the HP LaserJet 4 Plus for Windows XP are on HP's web site here:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport...2&swEnvOID=228

By the way, I know what you mean about accounting software. Our office is standardising on Windows 2000 but the accounts department are still on Windows 95 just so that we don't have to change the accounts software!