Shared printer does not work when screensaver kicks in. Why?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Spare Brain
  • Start date Start date
S

Spare Brain

Hi,

I have a printer connected to one of the computers on my home LAN. This PC
runs WinXP (Home Media Edition). I can access the printer fine from other
computers - but the printer (and the computer) becomes "unavailable" as soon
as the screen-saver kicks in on this computer attached to the printer!!

I have tried changing the screensaver to a simple one (like starfield, et
al), but that does not change this behavior.

Any solutions? Fixes?

[Currently, I'm resorting to using no screensavers and turning the power off
on the monitor for this PC, but that'd probably not be the most optimum
thing to do.]

Thanks!
SB
 
Look at the powersaving options instead of the screensaver. Change it
that won't go on Stand-by or Hibernate.
 
spare_brain said:
Only the monitor is set to turn off. All others are set to "Never".
Click to expand...

Is the printer on the network or attached directly (parallel or USB)? If
it's on the network check the power management property of the network card
in device manager and make sure "Allow the computer to turn off this device
to save power" is unchecked. If directly attached - check similar properties
under the USB hub.
 
I have a printer connected to one of the computers on my home LAN. This PC
runs WinXP (Home Media Edition). I can access the printer fine from other
computers - but the printer (and the computer) becomes "unavailable" as
soon as the screen-saver kicks in on this computer attached to the
printer!!
Click to expand...

Note that the *COMPUTER* become unavailable, so this problem has nothing
whatsoever to do with printing and everything to do with keeping the
computer (and its network connection) *on* when it's in the screensaver.

DS
 
spare_brain said:
Only the monitor is set to turn off. All others are set to "Never".
Click to expand...

May be somebody else might know this. I always wondered about the power
saving settings in the BIOS setup of motherboards. Does Windows take
full control or are these settings still playing a role? If they still
play a role, you could check and make sure they are set to "always on".

I know one thing, that waking up from stand-by not always restores the
network. I personally experience DNS problems when I wake my machine
from stand-by (see my issue in microsoft.public.win2000.networking)

As far as I know a screensaver can be a kind of a program, which can or
not respects the power saving settings of Windows. Did you try to use
another (simpler) screensaver to see if it relates to the kind of
screensaver you use?

René
 
David Schwartz said:
Note that the *COMPUTER* become unavailable, so this problem has
nothing whatsoever to do with printing and everything to do with keeping
the computer (and its network connection) *on* when it's in the
screensaver.

DS
Click to expand...

I think I agree with David. However, my question is to do with "computer
becoming unavailable" - why should that happen when the screen-saver kicks
in?? It is not in a hibernate mode; it is not in any powersave mode (all
those options are turned off). Simply having the the screensaver kick in
disables the entire PC?! All I have to do when printing is to walk up to the
PC and move the mouse so that the screensaver goes away, and the printer
starts to entertains any print job from any of the other computers on the
LAN. I have tried this with any of the screensavers (like simple starfield
to complex aquarium) with same results. :-(

BTW, the printer is directly connected to the the parallel port of the
computer - not to a network card or anything.

Thanks
SB
 
Try log off the PC but leave it run. and see if you can still print, or
the printer "goes away"
 
I think I agree with David. However, my question is to do with "computer
becoming unavailable" - why should that happen when the screen-saver kicks
in?? It is not in a hibernate mode; it is not in any powersave mode (all
those options are turned off). Simply having the the screensaver kick in
disables the entire PC?! All I have to do when printing is to walk up to
the PC and move the mouse so that the screensaver goes away, and the
printer starts to entertains any print job from any of the other computers
on the LAN. I have tried this with any of the screensavers (like simple
starfield to complex aquarium) with same results. :-(

BTW, the printer is directly connected to the the parallel port of the
computer - not to a network card or anything.
Click to expand...

Why does it matter what the printer is connected to? Didn't we establish
it's the computer that becomes unavailable? Perhaps the computer is powering
down its LAN card to save power. This would render the computer unavailable
to the network.

DS
 
Check in the properties of your LAN card that it is set up to wake up on
demand. The exact location of this feature will depend on the manufacture of
your card. You should also be able to find this in the properties of My
Computer, and in the Hardware set-up. Go to the properties for your LAN
card.

In some computers, you may have to also toggle this setting in the BIOS
set-up.

My preference is to not use any screen saver, and simply have the monitor
power down after 45 minutes. Screen savers use resources from the computer,
and have been known to cause some types of problems.

--

JANA
_____


Hi,

I have a printer connected to one of the computers on my home LAN. This PC
runs WinXP (Home Media Edition). I can access the printer fine from other
computers - but the printer (and the computer) becomes "unavailable" as soon
as the screen-saver kicks in on this computer attached to the printer!!

I have tried changing the screensaver to a simple one (like starfield, et
al), but that does not change this behavior.

Any solutions? Fixes?

[Currently, I'm resorting to using no screensavers and turning the power off
on the monitor for this PC, but that'd probably not be the most optimum
thing to do.]

Thanks!
SB
 
JANA said:
Screen savers use resources from
the computer, and have been known to cause some types of problems.
Click to expand...

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA! You ****ing useless JANATARD.
 
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