[ultrafloss]

Hi,

I have a (canadian) toshiba satellite 5200 notebook. It has a built-in NIC, intel 10/100VE. I also have a (UK) hp deskjet 5550 printer, connecting by a USB 2.0 port, also built-in to the notebook.

For a long time I used this setup at a UK university dormroom, the printer was always plugged in and there was never a problem with the NIC ethernet connection to the uni network.

Now I am in an apartment in Switzerland, grounded adapter for the printer, adapter for the notebook. I connect to the internet through the ethernet NIC cable to an ADSL router (zyxel). Ever since I came here I have had the problem that a few seconds after the USB from the printer is plugged in the computer stops communicating with the router and therefore with the internet. The XP connections dialogue claims everything is normal, but the only way to restore the connectoin seems to be to physically unplug and replug the ethernet cable. then it works okay.

from looking at the device manager, it seems that both the NIC and the USB ports are on the same PCI bus.

This has stumped me for ages. Anyone have any ideas ?!?!?

thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

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Delete your NIC from the device manager and reboot. It may force it to a differnet IRQ. How old is the computer and have you change the BIOS (motherboard) battery in the last two years?

[acklan]

Delete your NIC from the device manager and reboot. It may force it to a differnet IRQ. How old is the computer and have you change the BIOS (motherboard) battery in the last two years?

[ultrafloss]

I tried your suggestion; it reinstalled to the same IRQ it was on before. The problem also was unchanged.

The computer is 3 years old. I haven't had to replace the motherboard battery.

I note that the green and orange lights on the back of the computer, by the ethernet port, are both active while this problem is occurring. Plus the router i use here is the only substantial system change since the previous adsl i had (in France) and ethernet (in UK).

Is it possible that a printer could somehow interfere with a router even if the two are not directly connected?

thanks for your ideas!