Is there any way to get a printer to tell me where it is?

Fand

Mending a friend's computer tonight, the only problem left was the laser printer, a Brother LH-1250 (I think that was the name).

Anyway, the Brother site didn't have any drivers for it. So I loaded up an LH-12* driver of some sort and tried to print, but no dice.

I was wondering if the problem might be that it's daisychained with the scanner...

Anyway, i changed the ports a couple of times, but no luck, and I was wondering if there's any way to get the printer to tell you what port it's set to in the first place.

Oh, and if anyone knows where to find a *full* list of Brother printer drivers (who makes up these support webpages? 18-year-olds on a career break?) that would be handy too.

PhilipMarlowe

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Anyway, the Brother site didn't have any drivers for it....</font>

Go here if its a HL-1250
http://solutions.brother.com/hl1200/download/drivers1250.html

_CreeD_

Sooo, you did unlug the scanner and try it directly on the parallel port right?
Most printers cannot be told what port to use, it's just down to the cable you connect (ie. Serial/Parallel)

Fand

No, Creed, I didn't. I only noticed the scanner as I gave up - this was a longish session that began with repeated loops into Safe Mode. Poor little puter's getting ould.

Gerry

erm, the scanners printer port is just a passthrough. It is actually the exact same as the port on the back of the computer! So unless a cable is busted, I don't think there is any problem with your connection. And of course try the printer plugged directly into the computer, as creed said, to eliminate the scanner as a potential problem.

Fand

The owners unplugged the scanner and plugged the printer in directly this morning, but didn't get a stim out of the printer.

I'm not there now, and can only help them by mobile phone; I told them to use Add New Hardware to remove both printer and scanner, with both unplugged, then shut down, plug everything in, leave it a while to calm down and start up with fingers crossed, and with luck it should autodetect both scanner and printer. Hope I'm right!

_CreeD_

Okey doke, more elmination:

Try the self-test on the printer, check the manual but it's usually something like holding down the Sheet-Feed while powering on. If that fails the printer's shagged.
Otherwise.
Go to a clean dos prompt (F8 at starting Windows 9x, and Safe Mode Command Prompt Only). Then type DIR>LPT1, this should print the directory you happen to be in. If you dont get a peep then there's something wrong with the cable or the printer port.
Enter the BIOS and go to the Peripheral's section. Make sure the parallel port is enabled and set it to bidirectional or compatible to start with (ECP and EPP are faster modes, but only turn them on later if this works). If it isnt set it and exit, if it is then look for an option to reset Configuration data and use it. Then try the DOS test again.

If you get it working in DOS. remove all printer drivers from windows and load GENERIC/GENERIC TEXT ONLY to LPT1. Try printing a quick test from Notepad or something (Very basic). If that works then try the correct printer drivers.
If it fails, then open CTRL-Panel/System/Device manager and remove the LPT port. reboot and it will redetect. Try the test again. Still failing? Re-Extract LPT.VXD from the Windows CD and put it into Windows\System. Reboot......
If it's still not working try disabling every startup component in windows (especially anything to do with the scanner as it may lock the port).

After that, a nice reinstall might be the best thing.

Illkillya

i thought you were asking if you could get a printer to tell you where it was on your network
theres about 10 printers at work and i don't know where most of them are so when i use differnet comps for printing i don't know which printer i used. would be handy if you could press a key to make the printer sound an alarm or something

_CreeD_

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Illkillya:
i thought you were asking if you could get a printer to tell you where it was on your network
theres about 10 printers at work and i don't know where most of them are so when i use differnet comps for printing i don't know which printer i used. would be handy if you could press a key to make the printer sound an alarm or something </font>

Just get your IT folks to do it properly and put the location into the COMMENT field for the printer on the server.

Fand

Creed, this is a one-man office. As a friend, I *am* the IT folks! What's this comment field you're talking about? Could you explain, please?

_CreeD_

Er, fand I was replying yo IllKillya not you, no offense intended by it - it's just something an IT dept. should be doing in a larger office as standard.
FYI anyway you have a comment field on the Printer Properties (At the server), this is viewable by anyone who connects to it across the LAN. It's good practice to put the location and basic description of it in here.

Fand

Aha. I'd deleted the ports and let them reinstall, but had to go and work somewhere else for a couple of days - apparently my friends did this a couple more times and something shifted - they now have a working printer.

Thanks for the help. CreeD, I've printed out your delicious series of horrors for future ref.