CANNOT PRINT FROM DOCKING STATION

[isibee]

Please help, I gotta fix this. I bought a Targus universal usb docking station for this new laptop. On it there is a printer port. Everything was detected with the drivers but no printer is detected!

I cannot print anything from windows or office and the user needs it to print from Unix. I looked up for some updated drivers from the web site and nothing...

Does anybody have any idea what the heck is going on?

thanks

thanks,
Josée Parent

http://www.pbase.com/isibee

(photo gallery)


"There is no 'patch' for stupidity!"

 

[franklin97355]

The ones I see don't have a printer port. Which model do you have?

The answer is "42"

 

[isibee]

Targus ACP45CA, even tried talking with the Targus people but to no success...they are only level one support...

thanks,
Josée Parent

http://www.pbase.com/isibee

(photo gallery)


"There is no 'patch' for stupidity!"

 

[wahnula]

Well, for emergency's sake, you can always plug the printer directly into the laptop and get 'er done. Honestly I have moved away from docking stations in general and USB docking stations in particular. The only ones I have found reliable are the OEM ones where there is a base that the laptop slides along with a locking handle to drive the multi-pin connection home...a la Dell.

I tried a similar Targus model to the one you are using...ended up on eBay. To have to plug in docking station, power, video & modem every time was almost as hard as connecting everything...plus the Targus did not have a Gigabit NIC, which the laptop did.

The all-in-one ASUS docking station that went with the laptop was truly an all-in-one, but its finicky multi-pin connector went sour over the years.

Now I just unplug & re-plug everything, takes a few more seconds but a lot less frustration. A USB hub alone could help with # of connections.

Remember this is a third-party device and they could not care less how it works with YOUR machine, just the average machine. If you want the right docking station, spend the $$$ and get one made for that machine.

Preaching done. I noticed in the specs it comes with a unit driver, I am sure that's installed, but it also mentions (2) powered USB ports and (2) standard ports, maybe try swapping.

If parallel printer just hook it up to the laptop

 

[isibee]

I bought the docking station partly because the laptop did not come with a printer port...

thanks,
Josée Parent

http://www.pbase.com/isibee

(photo gallery)


"There is no 'patch' for stupidity!"

 

[wahnula]

Make sure your parallel ports are enabled in BIOS. Enable all the COM ports & USB ports while you're in there. I know it should not matter but what the hey. Some laptops have infrared that needs to be enabled in BIOS, then you can buy a iRda-to-parallel adapter for the printer if all else fails:

http://cgi.ebay.com/hp-Infrared-Ada...with-case_W0QQitemZ230069245903QQcmdZViewItem

My gut feels it's a printer driver issue, have you downloaded and installed the latest drivers from the printer's website? Some drivers need to be installed BEFORE the printer is connected, others after.

Tony

 

[hexOffender]

I have seen issues with docking stations that cannot use the parallel port in Bi-directional mode. Check in the BIOS if the parallel port is Bi-Directional. If is change the mode to simple or uni-directional. Might work, i dunno.