Brother Printer Causing Shutdown of pc

[gatechguy]

I have a small Windows XP network (Ethernet with all nodes running Cat 5 cable at 100 mps, with the exception of a laptop that is connected via wireless NIC) with 5 attached pcs (two are Windows XP Professional, one is Windows 98, and two are Windows ME). Work over the network is primarily conducted via two pcs that are both loaded with the Windows XP Professional, Version 5.1.2600 operating system.

One of the two Windows XP Pro systems has been connected to a Brother 5040 printer with a new bi-directional Belkin cable parallel. The printer is shared on the network as a network printer. After working just fine for a month or two, the XP Pro system that is directly connected to the Brother 5040 printer starting having problems printing.

The problem manifests itself one of two ways:

1) When I print to the Brother printer from the pc that is physically connected to the printer, the print action activates the printer (it begins to warm up) and then the pc shuts off (actually powers down) and the printer may print perhaps 1/5 of the printable material and then ejects the paper.

2) Whenever I print to the printer from the other XP Pro pc that is connected to the printer only via the network, the print action activates the printer (it begins to warm up) and then the other pc that is connected to the printer shuts off (actually powers down) and the printer may print perhaps 1/5 of the printable material and then ejects the paper.

Does anybody have any suggestions? I have tried removing the printer and then downloading a new driver from Brother. The problem seems to initially be related to printing from an application that is working on the Internet:

1)Internet Explorer browser version 6.0.2800.1106.xpsp2.030422-1633), or

2)Outlook 2002 (10.4712.4219) SP-2.

From that point forward, until I do a factory reset of the printer (which is the only thing I could get out of Brother's Tech Support staff) printing from any application from either of the XP pcs - mostly MS Office products - fails and shuts off the physically connected pc.

Has anyone else had a similar problem?

Thanks!

 

[etarhan]

This is a very extraordinary problem.

How did you connect the power cable of your printer? If you have connected it to the output of a UPS (same one with the PC) or a surge suppressor strip, take it out and plug directly to the wall. Maybe you're using an extension outlet on the PC power supply (an unforgivable sin)?

I hope this helps.

 

[wmccall]

I'm not sure why you think the problem is application dependent? Are you able to print from some applications ok? You don't actually say that. As your other reply indicates, I would suspect a power related issue. My two steps to troubleshoot this, given what we know, would be to move the printer to a different pc long enough to see if the problem is still there or cured. That would tell me if the problem is the parallel port of the PC the printer is on, or if it could be the printer or cable. If the problem moves with the printer and cable, try a different cable.

 

[bcastner]

Plug it into a different electrical outlet than the computer. I think you are browning out the computer when the printer starts its warmup cycle.

 

[bcastner]

On this same vein:

1. A small UPS for the computer would help a lot. These are not expensive. You need something to ride out the short startup sequence, particularly the first 10 seconds or so.

2. I had something very similar: In an office building that had gone through many remodelling changes over time, the earth grounds were differently sourced depending on the outlet.

So if the computer plugged into outlet #1, with earth ground #1 had a connection that carried equipment frame ground to a printer connection to an outlet with earth ground #2, the difference in potential would lead to some very strange behavior by both printer and computer.