Semi-OT: PC won't start with USB-LPT plugged in

On Thu, 3 Mar 2016 11:40:47 +1100, Sylvia Else Gave us:

He said that but he likely means "wont finish booting windows".

You might have to work hard to find the right drivers for old ones.

Does it work to boot up OK if you interpose a powered USB hub between the adapter and the PC? If so it could be startup current draw.

Try one of the generic USB device ID mapper to see whats going on

My money would be on the more modern PCs PSU being a bit wimpy in its standby mode and the initial USB load from the printer port dragging it down. Older PCs were a lot more hefty PSU. I have had problems with PCs of all vintages with USB device non recovery from standby rather than cold boot. (this is invariably a dodgy device driver issue)

IOW Not really a Win7 fault as such.

Trying standby and hibernate modes might also shed some light.

At what point will you have spent more money (not to mention time) faffing around trying to get the ancient printer to work on a modern PC, than it would have cost you to simply buy a new printer? It is environmentally unfriendly to throw out perfectly good working systems, but sometimes it makes most economic sense.

But rather than USB to parallel port adaptors - none of which have ever been known to work well - why not go for a JetDirect or similar Ethernet to printer port box?

A parallel printer to Ethernet interface would be my choice too - then any PC on the network can share the old printer. My remaining ancient printer is a 132 character wide dot matrix printer on a Centronics port.

It still works and is sometimes useful so I hang onto it.

On Thu, 3 Mar 2016 13:56:09 +0000, Martin Brown Gave us:

You can even find wireless print server adapters.

Amazon has several

Strangely it happened with two Windows 7 PCs and none of the Windows XP PCs. Some of them from the same manufacturer (Dell) on both sides.

It might work, or not. I've had Ethernet stuff that Windows 7 did not like at all. Windows 7 is IMHO quite botched and XP was "last known good".

It is automatic, powers itself up when something comes in to print. It does not even have a power switch. Also, with XP none of this matters, it always works.

Intially they refused to refund. So I twisted the merchant's arm. If that hadn't worked I'd have made the manufacturer replace the computer three times for free and then return the last one for refund claiming the California Lemon Law. Then they'd sit on three computers they can no longer sell instead of one. Some folks at corporations aren't particularly smart.

It does not turn on at all. Neither did another Win 7 PC. All XP computers did.

Well, not it works. I just have to connect that USB line after the PC starts.

My experience with Windows 7 in conjunction with older Ethernet hardware is also not entirely positive.

I had one of those until a month ago. Windows 7 did not like it and refuse to print through it :-)

Only wy to print through that was set that very printer to share on an XP machine, send print job to that machine via Etehrnet, XP machine send it back over Ethernet to the LAN-LPT device. Pathetic, but that's how I did it. Recently the power supply in that device when PHUT.

Well, it now installs the driver alright but now the computer won't start with it plugged in.

Those were all brand new and supposely compatible with Win 7 and 8.

I'll have to try but that requires some surgery on the lab bench to extrictate the large powered hub there.

Good idea but likely won't help with the refusal to power up.

Did that. Strangely the hub had the same problem on two different Win 7 PCs (didn't power up when it was plugged in) but on none of the three XP machines (they always powered up with it plugged in).

Heck, I can even leave my almost empty bicycle light Li-Ion in there which draws a lot of current immediately upon applying power yet with that the Win 7 PCs always powered up nicely. I can't imagine a simple USB-Parallel port drawing more than half an amp. It doesn't even get warm.

Powered hubs are cheap...

...Jim Thompson

On Thu, 03 Mar 2016 06:47:07 -0800, Joerg Gave us:

They do NOT attach to your PC dumbass.

They attach to your printer and the printer to the network which then becomes a networked printer.

Duh!

I've seen some crap USB devices that break the design rules.... specifically the on board reservoir caps on the 5V line. I think the spec says no more that 10uF. This thing had 470uF and was a real pain until it went into a powered hub.Similar problems to Joerg

Hmm. I'm inclined to blame hardware rather than software particularly if it really won't boot. Can you get into the BIOS at boot time?

It hints that the supply needed to detect the power on switch state isn't enough to meet the requirements. My guess is a Win7 install on older hardware would work OK.

I suspect it is because older PC PSUs standby mode was heftier.

I agree it is odd.

Yep. No one follows the "standards". Joerg probably bought a machine that sees that in-rush as a short and balks at powering up.

I had a similar problem with a KVMP switch... it didn't stall the PC, it just didn't initialize. A powered hub solved the problem. ...Jim Thompson