problems installing HP printer on Windows XP machine

[nikko]

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine gave me a printer her office was getting rid of. It's an HP LaserJet 6 MP, FWIW. It doesn't have a USB port so, using a printer cable, I've connected it to my motherboard's built-in parallel port. I installed it using Win XP's Add A Printer feature. When it came time to print the test page, I got a "Document failed to print" error message. Just for kicks, I tried using HP.com's auto-detection tool and it gave me a message saying that no HP devices were found.

Is this a port problem? I haven't used a parallel port in so long, I can't remember if there's something I need to do to enable it. I checked in Device Manager and under Ports, only COM1 and COM2 were listed. Does that indicate a problem?

Thanks in advance for any trouble-shooting ideas you can provide.

 

[eplebnista]

You could check to make sure the parallel port is enabled in the computer's BIOS, and also make sure it is set to eihter EPP or ECP mode.

 

[shortylickens]

Restart your computer.

Of course, if you check you BIOS settings then that will take care of itself.

 

[wseyller]

in the bios lpt1 should be set to 0378 address