USB Printer + Boot Problems

Modeps

Lifer
Oct 24, 2000
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My father-in-law's printer died. It was an older Lexmark so he went and bought a new Lexmark X3470 for use with his fairly new HP Media Center PC. He's got it installed correctly, however if the printer is connected via USB when you power on, the computer freezes right away... it wont even allow me to get into the BIOS screen. If the cord is unplugged, it boots just fine and after XP starts up, we can reattach the cable and printing works just fine. I thought it may be the cable, so we tried a different one to no avail.

A few google searches shows that some other people have also had this issue. Do any of you know an easy way to resolve this or should I have him bring back this printer?
 

LiLithTecH

Diamond Member
Jul 28, 2002
3,105
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Is the printer connected to a USB hub? (specifically, a powered USB hub)

If not, you may want to try that option.
 

Modeps

Lifer
Oct 24, 2000
17,254
44
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Originally posted by: LiLithTecH
Is the printer connected to a USB hub? (specifically, a powered USB hub)

If not, you may want to try that option.
No its directly connected to the PC. I see where you are going but I'd rather not have him buy anything else. Do you think its a problem with the printer or the PC? I'm almost thinking that this will happen with every USB printer he tries, simply because it happens even when the printer power is off...

 

Modeps

Lifer
Oct 24, 2000
17,254
44
91
Originally posted by: LiLithTecH
Is the printer connected to a USB hub? (specifically, a powered USB hub)

If not, you may want to try that option.
No its directly connected to the PC. I see where you are going but I'd rather not have him buy anything else. Do you think its a problem with the printer or the PC? I'm almost thinking that this will happen with every USB printer he tries, simply because it happens even when the printer power is off...

 

LiLithTecH

Diamond Member
Jul 28, 2002
3,105
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0
You can purchase a power USB hub for less than $10, so it is not an expensive test.

Even if the printer is off the signal is sent to the port on boot for detection of peripherals.
It knows there is something attached, just not powered on.
 

Modeps

Lifer
Oct 24, 2000
17,254
44
91
Alirght, I'll see if we can find him one cheap. Thanks for the advice.
 

Modeps

Lifer
Oct 24, 2000
17,254
44
91
Ok, we tried the powered USB Hub method, and it's still doing the same thing.
 

Modeps

Lifer
Oct 24, 2000
17,254
44
91
I just wanna know, will getting a new printer help, or is this a problem with the computer itself?
 

Dirt Guy

Junior Member
Aug 13, 2006
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Does the printer have a memory card slot? My post times are really slow with an HP USB AIO printer (like maybe 1-2 minuites) as it scans the usb port and tries to determine what is there. I switched the PnP operating system option to off in the bios and that seems to have fixed things.