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More computer help needed pretty please.....

  • Thread starter R2B2
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R

R2B2

Guest
I'm trying to sort a mates computer :bang: who is on a very tight budget due to big mortgage..... :violin: so his machine is a bit of a cobble job.

I can't get his printer to work. I get an error message saying "cannot communicate with printer - reconnect USB cable".... but the printer is connected with an ordinary printer cable. I've been into printer properties in control panel and found the options for choosing the printer port. I've tried changing it to LPT1, and Com1 (for Epson printers), but I get the same message about USB cable :dunno: (his printer is a Lexmark Z22 - there is no disc for it).

Also, in the Device Manager, I have found an exclamation mark in a yellow circle on the PCI card. Going into properties for PCI card says that no driver is installed. Windows can't find the driver on the hard drive and my mate has no internet connection. Anything I can, or should, do here?

Can this PCI Card fault have anything to do with the operation of the printer? (sorry, - I dunno what the PCI Card is!)

Any info greatly appreciated, as ever :bow: :bow:
 
derek kelly

derek kelly

The Deli lama
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Get someone to download the drivers and copy to cd. just type 'Download drivers lexmark' in the search engine then follow instructions.
 
R

R2B2

Guest
Cheers DK :beer:

Cheers Baz :beer: but could you check to see if your link works for you. It won't work for me..... :h

Ahh, but no worries. I can see the first part of the address now, so I'll just type it in manually and go from there. Thanks.

Anybody know what the PCI Card is ?
 
Jaws

Jaws

Corporal CockUp
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PCI .. Personal Computer Interface ( I believe :p )
 
Jaws

Jaws

Corporal CockUp
Staff member
Moderator
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Doh.. LOL !! You were not sposed to put that on here !
 
Pugwash

Pugwash

Registered User
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R2B2 said:
I've tried changing it to LPT1, and Com1 (for Epson printers), but I get the same message about USB cable :dunno: (his printer is a Lexmark Z22 - there is no disc for it).
Click to expand...

Once you get the right drivers, you'll find the port for a USB printer is more like "USB001 Virtual printer port for USB". It'll find this of it's own accord.
LPT1 is a big 25-wire ribbon cable, and I haven't seen a serial port (COM) printer for over 15 years!
 
DB on CBR1100XX

DB on CBR1100XX

Official BASH referee !
Rob............

You may have two issues here.

I'm assuming XP as the OS here.

If you're not using a USB lead for this printer, do it. It's much simpler and better. The drivers are available from the lexmark site.

The PCI card issue is completely different. This means there is a PCI card in the PC that is not being used as there is no driver installed or the card cannot be initialised. You should not get this because of a printer fault in this case unless you are, in fact, connecting via USB unknowingly and it's an add-on PCI USB card that ain't working.

If you're sure you're not using a USB cable plugged into an expansion card rather than a native USB socket, then you may have two unrelated issues, the second you've stumbled across in looking at the first ! LOL

What section is the card listed? If it's 'Other' then that's hard to diagnose without sitting in front - if it's listed in a named section then the 'borg collective' here can have a reasonable stab !!

Common problem cards are older PCI network cards that require a manual IRQ setting to be stored to flash via a dos utility [prob unlikely on a newer PC] or audio stuff for modems and soundcards - these cards commonly have more than one element to them in addition to their main function - so although the PC functions properly, these other elements are not installed but don't show any probs cos they ain't used.

I may have served only to cloud the issue further rather than help entirely.

Can you post a screen capture of devices ? can you get the device id from the device properties of the offending PCI card ? If you can, we can look it up. More easily, can you open the case and physically see what cards are fitted together with FCC ID tags for the unidentified cards?

Need more input !!! LOL

HTH ............................sort of !

DB
 
DB on CBR1100XX

DB on CBR1100XX

Official BASH referee !
Pugwash said:
................ I haven't seen a serial port (COM) printer for over 15 years!
Click to expand...

I have, Sir !! We use Zebra thermal card printers to print appointment cards. These are serial printers and current models, believe it or not.

The very latest ones, I concede, are USB/parallel..............but the serial ones ARE late, current models.


Yours pedantically, ............................... LOL
 
Pugwash

Pugwash

Registered User
Read Only
Heh, the only odd printers I saw recently that weren't USB were at a poster printing company. SCSI interfaces I tell you!
 
R

R2B2

Guest
DB on CBR1100XX said:
If you're sure you're not using a USB cable plugged into an expansion card rather than a native USB socket, then you may have two unrelated issues, the second you've stumbled across in looking at the first ! LOL
Click to expand...
Going through it all again I think that is exactly what has happened.

Thanks DB, I'm going around there again tonight to investigate further........ will prob come back for more help!!

:beer:
 
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