[q_lil_grl]

Hi, I have had my hp deskjet 5550 color printer for about 3-4 years, and no problems until now. The last time I successfully printed something was sometime in the last week. I tried printing something last night but I got this error: "Error - Printing" in the status queue.

I ran the troubleshooter and got it to investigate. It discovered that my port could be malfunctioning. It gave me a set of instructions, the first one was "open Device Manager and double-click Ports". I opened DM but could not find any "Ports" file. So I opened the printer status queue, clicked on "Properties" under "Files", and then the "Ports" tab. I highlighted the printer port (LPT1) and clicked "Delete", but got a message stating that my "request was not supported". I don't know what to do about the port malfunction.

I then uninstalled the printer using the CD, and halfway through the reinstallation (after I had everything plugged back in), a message said: "printer not detected". Then I followed its further instructions to double-check everything, and to uninstall and reinstall with the CD. The second time I tried reinstalling---after I had restarted the computer---I got the same message, "printer not detected".

I use a parallel rather than a USB cord, and the other cord is the power cord. This printer is the only printer connected to this computer, and I have 2 other printers connected to 2 other computers as well.

Computer stats:

System: Microsoft Windows XP, Home Edition, Version 2002, Service Pack 2
Manufactured and supported by: Sony Electronics Inc., VAIO Computer, Intel®, Pentium® 4 CPU 2.80GHz, 2.79GHz, 504 MB of RAM
Internet: Mozilla Firefox

I have no idea what to do next...please help!

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Try and boot the computer with out the printer connected and uninstalled.

Now go into the device manager and try and uninstall the Printer Port (lpt1).

Now connect the printer see if the computer reconizes the printer automaticly.
If not, install the printer manually. I would not install all the program but enter the disk and let the xp find the driver onits own. Have it search the cd if you dont know what file it is in.

You may have a problem with the lpt then you should try and connect the printer to a usb to see if the printer is ok.

[vally]

Try and boot the computer with out the printer connected and uninstalled.

Now go into the device manager and try and uninstall the Printer Port (lpt1).

Now connect the printer see if the computer reconizes the printer automaticly.
If not, install the printer manually. I would not install all the program but enter the disk and let the xp find the driver onits own. Have it search the cd if you dont know what file it is in.

You may have a problem with the lpt then you should try and connect the printer to a usb to see if the printer is ok.

[q_lil_grl]

Hey, thanks for replying.

So far I've uninstalled and unplugged all the printer cords and then restarted the computer. I opened Device Manager to try to uninstall LPT1 but I don't see it anywhere. Is it under a different name? The ones I see listed are:
+Computer
+Disk Drives
+Display adapters
+DVD/CD-ROM drives
+Floppy disk controllers
+Floppy disk drives
+IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers
+IEEE 1394 Bus host controllers
+Keyboards
+Mice and other pointing devices
+Modems
+Monitors
+Network adapters
+Processors
+Sound, video and game controllers
+System devices
+Universal Serial Bus controllers

I also clicked on each of them but none of what that listed were "Printer Port (LPT1)" or even anywhere close to it.

[vally]

Go into the bios hit F2 or del when the computer boots.
Now there is a list of peripheral devices,and there is either lpt or parallel port settings try and change it to epp+ecp or bi-directional from one to the other. Now boot into windows. If windows does not list it now or at least recognize it, it could be that the lpt on the mother board is finished.
By the way, why don't you connect the printer via usb?

[q_lil_grl]

Hey, I went into BIOS and under "Advanced" there was "Onboard Devices Configuration". Under that was "Parallel Port Address" and next to it stated "Disabled". I clicked on the options for that and found:
Disabled
378
278
3BC
I left it as is. Is that the problem? I didn't see anything else that had to do with lpt or parallel port settings.
I'm not the one who set up this printer, so I don't think I have the USB cord for it (unless if the USB comes with the printer package, then it's probably lying around somewhere in the garage).

[vally]

The lpt printer port should be 378. This is the fist address that is saved for the lpt .

You can purchase a usb printer cable I checked the prices on the net and it is about 2-3$

Basically you plug in the printer enter the cd and it installs by itself.

BTW my father in-law has a similar HP model and at some point the parallel port stopped to work like you described and now he uses the usb and does not have any problems.

[q_lil_grl]

Hi, I changed the address to 378 and then to bi-directional. I opened Device Manager and saw that printer port was listed, and then I reinstalled the printer and now it works wonderfully!

Thank you so much for all your help!!

[vally]

Glad to be able to help out