Printer Problems

[TCH-Rob]

I guess I will be the first to jump in here and get the ball running. I have a cannon S450 that will not print. I am running Win 2K on an AMD 2100. Whenever I try to print it will sit for about 2 minutes and give me an error trying to print failure.

 

The printer has a solid green light and I have the latest drivers installed. Sandra can recognize the printer fine and shows no errors. I did start having this issue when I installed the new motherboard and CPU. The motherboard has the K7S5a chipset and I have been in the BIOS to make sure the printer port was enabled.

 

I was thinking on getting a new cable to try and see if that was the problem. When I powercycle the printer it runs through its diagnostics fine. I can not even get a test page to print. Any sugestions? You'd think my silly little A+ I got some years ago would help me on this but I am out of ideas.

[leezard]

the cable is the first thing I would try, also take a look at the ends on your cable and make nothings bent,broken or damaged.

[Head Guru]

Just a quick ? is the printer usb?

[leezard]

thought of a couple more things to try, you may have already tried but here they are anyway.

 

1. make sure you dont have multiple printers (of the same printer) installed. Remove them from your printer control panel AND from device manager.

 

2. uninstall printer completely, hardware, software everything. reinstall see if that works.

 

3. if it worked before you installed the latest drivers, try using an older driver.

 

 

 

is there any activity at all when you try and print? harddrive noise, print heads aligning? if not it sounds most likely its a cable problem. Computer sees the printer but the printer isnt recieving any data.

 

scroll down to the bottom of the printer info window in sisoft sandra, are there any errors or tips?

 

I dont think its the mobo/CPU switch, those k7s5a boards are great!! (inexpensive and nice overclockers if you know where to get the right BIOS ) The only real issue with those boards is a bug that wont allow your computer to boot at front side bus speed greater than 150*2

[Head Guru]

egads a ECS board with printer problems.

 

That runs a SiS chipset so my thought of it being the old VIA USB Bug it out.

[TCH-Rob]

Bill, Printer has USB connection but it not using it.

 

Leezard, Can't count the number of times I have ripped the whole thing out of my system and reinstalled. Only one printer listed in CP but oddly enough I have nothing in the Device Manager at all that remotely looks like a printer, not even a ?.

 

It worked before I changed motherboards and reinstalled the OS on a new HD. No activity at all. Here is what Sandra gives me;

 

Tip T403 - generally you should use the EMF data format since it is faster and takes less space. Use RAW only if the printer (i.e. faxes) cannot use EMF, only RAW data format.

 

 

SiSoftware Sandra Help File

[leezard]

hmmm, if you connect the printer without drivers does Win2K detect it and ask for the driver disk?

 

If it doesnt detect it and ask for the driver disk, unhook the printer, install the drivers and then plug in the printer using the USB cable and see if it detects any new hardware.

 

If you have access to another PC can you try installing it on it? If it works at least we know it isnt the printer.

 

I still dont think it is the mobo, I have another pc here with the same mobo and a canon printer hooked up to it.

 

and just for a future reffrence kinda thing, heres a forum that is dedicated to the K7S5A motherboard, lots of useful info here. K7S5A forum I did a quick search for any printer issues on the forums and came up with 0. I'll keep thinking about it, maybe I'll come up with some more options to try.

[jweltz]

Another thing to check is the parallel port mode in the BIOS. I had 'issues', for lack of a better word, with my K7S5A and printers unless the port mode was set to ECP+EPP, and auto resources. In addition, I also had to disable COM2 (serial Port2) in order to get the computer to effectively communicate with the printer. Don't ask why, as there is no real reason COM2 should conflict with LPT1.

 

My ECS settings are:

Onboard parallel port: AUTO

Port Mode: ECP+EPP

IRQ: AUTO

DMA: AUTO

 

Any other settings than that and Win2K choked when trying to send a job to the printer. Like your problem, diagnostics could see and identify the printer, but 2-way communication could not establish, thus no print jobs were successfull.

 

If you can get an ECS board to configure, and maintain that configuration, it's a great board. If it won't cooperate, they are nothing but headaches. With all the issues I had with this board, it quickly became the new heart of my closet-mounted file/backup server.

[leezard]

Thanks for the info jweltz, I've never had a problem with the ECS board in my other computer, but I'll add that to my things to remember list

 

If it is in fact a BIOS issue that might be why mine works fine, I flashed the BIOS to a more recent version than what came on the board.

 

If you want to try a BIOS flash Critical Mass and are not sure how to go about doing it, let me know I'll put a guide together.

[TCH-Rob]

Looks like I have fun ahead of me. I will give it a shot later tonight and let you know.

[leezard]

Critical mass, if you determine its a BIOS issue, heres a walk through I threw together for flashing your BIOS in case you needed it. You can get the BIOS flash program and the most current BIOS from the ECS website.

 

 

First things first, what is a BIOS?

 

The BIOS, pronounced "bye-ose," is an acronym for basic input/output system. The BIOS is built-in software that determines what a computer can do without accessing programs from a disk. On PCs, the BIOS contains all the code required to control the keyboard, display screen, disk drives, serial communications and more. The BIOS is typically placed in a ROM chip inside the computer. This ensures that the BIOS will always be available and will not be damaged by disk failures. It also makes it possible for a computer to boot itself. Many modern PCs have a flash BIOS, which means that the BIOS has been recorded on a flash memory chip, which can be updated if necessary.

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How to flash your BIOS

 

The first thing you need is a DOS boot disk.

 

If you are using Windows 95 or 98:

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Put a blank disk in your floppy drive, click on start, click on run and type in command then press enter.

 

This will pop up a DOS window, type a: and press enter. now you'll have something that looks like A:> with a flashing cursor next to it, type format a: /s and press enter.

 

If you are using Windows NT, ME, 2000 or Linux:

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Theres no built in option for making a boot disk with these OS's but you still have a few choices.

 

If your using Windows 2000 and have your windows 2000 CD, put a formatted floppy disk in your disk drive, and the Windows 2000 CD in your CD drive.

 

Double click on my computer right click on your CD rom drive that has the windows 2000 CD in it and click on explore. Browse to VALUEADDRDPARTY\CA_ANTIV in the CA_ANTIV you'll see MAKEDISK.BAT. Double click on MAKEDISK and it will create a bootable floppy.

 

you can also go to www.bootdisk.com and download a Win9X bootdisk image that will self extract to a floppy disk.

 

If you are using Windows XP:

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Put a blank floppy in your drive, right-click the floppy icon in explorer, choose "format" and choose "create a MS-DOS startup disk".

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Once you have your boot disk, you need to make sure theres no un needed files on it. with the disk in your floppy drive double click on my computer and then double click on 3.5 floppy a:

 

Delete everything you see except for

command.com

io.sys

msdos.sys

 

Make sure you have show hidden files checked so that you dont miss any files.

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Now you need to download the BIOS flash program and your BIOS ROM, There are two types of BIOS flash programs AMI and AWflash, the one you need is determined by the type of motherboard you have. You can usually get the flash utility that your board needs from your motherboard manufacturers website, thats also where you will get the most current bios ROM. These files usually come as a .zip file so you will need something like winzip or winrar to unzip them to your boot disk you made earlier.

 

Once you have everything unzipped to your boot disk double click on my computer again and then double click your a drive, you should see something like this on your disk (it will be a little different depending on the BIOS flash program you are using and the name of the BIOS ROM)

 

020206.rom

aminf329.exe

command.com

io.sys

msdos.sys

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Now, with the floppy disk in the drive shut the computer down and restart it, your computer should boot up off of the floppy disk and you will get a black screen with an a prompt A:\

 

At the A prompt type in the name of the BIOS flash program, in this example it is aminf329 press space then type in the name of the ROM, in this example its 020206.rom (you wont type this exactly as I have it, I'm just using the same file names as above as an example)

 

so you should have something like this

aminf329 020206.rom

press enter

 

The computer will perform a few checks, if you have the wrong BIOS it will let you know and nothing will change, if you have the correct BIOS it will install and ask you to reboot.

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Clearing the CMOS

After you reboot you will probably get an error message, dont worry thats normal. If you get an option to enter setup, press what ever key it specifies and go into your BIOS and make sure all the settings are correct, save and exit. That should fix the error message you recieved.

 

If it doesnt you will need to clear your CMOS, this is usually done by a jumper setting on your mother board. Determine where the jumper is either by consulting your mother board manual, or from the manufacturers website. CMOS jumpers normally have 4 pins numbered 1-4 in most clases to clear your CMOS you first power off the computer and unplug the power cord, switch the jumpers to whatever two pins it wasnt on before and leave it there for about 2 seconds. Replace the jumper back to its original position, plug the power in and start up your computer. Again, you will need to go into your BIOS and make sure everything is correct, time, date etc.

 

Thats it, keep in mind, we live in a World where Murphy's law runs rampant. I have never had a bad bios flash but it CAN happen. If your computer boots up after a BIOS flash but doesnt display anything dont panic, clear the CMOS again and repeat the flash. Like I said it's rare that a flash goes bad, but it can happen.

[SEO]

OK... Mr. leezard you have now posted what I believe is the longest post! [kw or lianna can confirm this]

 

Now I believe that Ms. Beth and myself had been the ones known for being what others might call 'wordy'.... well, welcome to the club

 

Beth: get a load of this guy.... he makes you look like a one liner!

 

 

P.S. I assume it is good information too, not my turf.

[TCH-JimE]

Hi,

 

If you have a mate with a computer, go around there, with the latest drivers and your normal print cable and install it. Then try printing. If it does work, its your mobo. If it don't work, swap the printer cable over. If that works, its the cable. If that don't work, we know its your printer, in which case, you would need to get it looked at.

 

Here in the uk, if the printer goes wrong and its one of the sub £200 ones, its cheaper to buy a brand new printer then get it replaced.

 

Jim

[TCH-Rob]

Ok, I have disabled COM2 and changed my ECS settings to;

 

Onboard parallel port: AUTO

Port Mode: ECP+EPP

IRQ: AUTO

DMA: AUTO

 

No dice.

 

Jim, my only mates are my wife and kids. I am going to try a new cable in the morning and I could use a BIOS flash as it is. If all else fails I only paid about $50 US for it so it will not be a huge loss if I have to get a new one.

[leezard]

Heres a direct link to the bios page at ECS, they have the flash utility there also.

 

ECS BIOS page

Edited May 28, 2003 by leezard

[TCH-Rob]

Well I fixed it. We were at the 99 cent store and I saw a USB cable. I figured what the hey it's only a dollar. I attached the cable and it found the printer and printed a test page just fine. I think it was the best dollar I have spent.

[leezard]

right on! So it was the cable all along. glad to hear you got it working.