PCI Card Install

  • Thread starter Thread starter Craig
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Craig

I have a Gateway Pentium III running Windows 2000 Pro SP4.
BIOS has latest upgrade from manufacturer. (Motherboard is
MSI, BIOS is AMI.) I am trying to install an Intek21 PCI
parallel port in this machine because the owner wants to
use an HP LaserJet4 printer - the computer came with 5 USB
ports as the only I/O available.

The PCI card installs properly via plug & play, and no
conflicts are reported by the device manager after
install - everything looks fine. The device driver for the
PCI card is the latest from Intek21's web site. I can not
get the printer to work. I have tried the Microsoft
supplied printer driver as well as both Win2K drivers on
HP's web site. The printer and cable are both fine - they
work properly with another computer running Win98.

I suspect the fact that the PCI device and parallel port
install at an odd address DCF0 through DCF7 hex may have
something to do with the problem. (Normal port should
start at 0378 hex and IRQ 7). The device manager reports
the port as LPT1 even with the bizarre addressing. The PCI
Card itself also reports an IRQ 9 (no conflict) which is
an IRQ that is used by other devices. I believe this is
due to APCI configuration.

The BIOS does not allow selection of "non-plug and play"
or "other" settings for OS. (In fact there are no BIOS
options to select OS at all!) There is also no BIOS option
to configure port settings. (Not unexpected because these
ports are PCI bus expansion, not motherboard resources).
The ability to change hardware resource settings via
device manager Change Settings button is grayed out - even
in Safe Mode. The LPT1 port is configured ECP/EPP by
default - the same mode as the port on the Win 98 machine
that works with this combination.

I can not print to the LaserJet4 from Windows or from a
command prompt. Within Windows, the printer icon appears
in the system tray as normal, then dissappears after time-
out as if the print job processed normally. No error
messages are generated, and a check of the printer status
via the printer control panel shows no jobs pending. The
output never gets to the printer.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to set this card to the
default address & IRQ for a standard LPT1? Should I try to
repair Windows 2000 and opt for a Standard PC HAL in lieu
of the APCI HAL? Or would I be better off doing a clean
install of Windows 2000 as a Standard PC? (Not a major
hardship - we are totally re-configuring the system
anyway.) Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
 
All well and good, but... I have tried all of the
suggestions in the card manufacturer's web site FAQ that
relate to the problem. Most suggest changing BIOS settings
that do not exist in my BIOS. The BIOS has the latest
flash update from Gateway's web site applied. Since the
settings don't exist, I can't change them, hence my
problem. (There are no options to select OS type or I/O
port configuration in this version BIOS).

One other thing I did notice: The Device Manager
recognizes the parallel port as "PCI Parallel Port LPT1"
the options in Windows to configure the printer recognize
the port as simply LPT1 - there is no mention of this
port as being PCI based it is simply listed as a generic
LPT1 printer port. In addition, the DOS based utility from
Intek21 to change port mode can't seem to find the PCI
card port either! I boot from a Win98 start-up disk per
manufacturer's instructions, but the mode setting utility
returns an error message stating that there is no PCI
device installed.
 
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