Scanner Mysteries

[Basie]

Anybody have a clue as to why when I hook up the printer using a parallel cable the printer works but not the scanner ( Epox 8K3A+ )
motherboard. When I swap
computers the parallel cable works on the scanner and printer both ( MSI BX Master ) I know that these are both ancient Motherboards
but I can't understand why the scanner won't work on the 8K3A +. The printer had no problems. Both HP. Scanjet 5370c and
Printjet 5550

 

[corkyg]

Probably one mobo can autoswitch the parallel link and the other cannot. In the old days we used a parallel A-B switch box for that. I can remember having to set LPT1, LPT2, etc. LPT port mode also needs to be in sync as Peter suggests.

 

[Peter]

More likely, the scanner needs a certain LPT port mode to work, and one of the boards happens to be configured this way while the other isn't.

Check the scanner manual for the required mode - there's Standard, Bidirectional, EPP and ECP.

 

[Zepper]

Peter probably has it. The scanner needs the printer port to be set (using the BIOS setup) to one of the advanced modes while the printer can get along without it.

.bh.