Two USB printers on Windows 98 PC, one works one doesn't

[jfarena]

Hello,

I got a stumper here. A home office user of mine has a Compaq Windows 98 (Cyrix processor, 60MB RAM) PC.

She wanted me to setup an HP Laserjet 1012 (usb only) alongside their existing Lexmark x63 Multifunction (usb only). The HP works fine, but since the installation of the HP, the Lexmark has refused to print anything originating from the computer, although it will scan, copy and fax and the lexmark application opens on the computer if you initiate the scan from the printer itself, so I am confident that it is not a communication issue. The lexmark application displays a communication error when attempting to print.

I took the HP out of the picture by unplugging the usb cable but the lexmark still will not print. I swapped the usb jacks the printers are using and the lexmark still will not work.

Both printers are using two different usb ports and do not seem to have irq conflicts with anything else. I also reinstalled the lexmark application to see if it would start to work again and it does not.

I suspect there is something registry level going on here and I really have no idea what could be causing it at this time. I'm ready to format the computer (yeah, that solves everything ;-)), but the user doesn't back up her 'critical' data which is another story...

Any ideas? I plan putting a usb hub in the picture to see if this makes a difference the next time I go out there. I know that two usb printers will work together because I have read countless webpages that claim it does.

Thanks
Jon Arena
jon@arenabros.net

 

[jfarena]

I did solve my user's issue. This was a rather odd solution, but it worked.

I bought a USB hub and hooked it up to one of the existing USB ports on the computer. The other USB port had the laser printer and the USB hub had the lexmark plugged into it. The lexmark began printing properly. Since she had two usb printers (or maybe in your case two usb devices) there appeared to be a hidden conflict. It took some time to track this issue down but I found it by someone mentioning a problem with conflicting usb devices rather than printers so it may not be the printer but the early USB cards that came out circa 1997-1998.

Jon Arena
jon@arenabros.net