Can you have 2 printer ports (LPT1 & LPT2)?

[OuTpaTienT]

If so, how is it usually done?

With one parallel port (LPT1) on the motherboard, would I need a card (PCI) for the 2nd parallel port?

Reason for this question is, I have a friend that bought a 2nd printer and wants to be able to use both of his printers (laser & color inkjet). Well, along with his new printer he bought a $50 A/B switchbox. I just can't believe spending 50 bucks is the best solution to this problem.

Thanks for the help.

[rrick31]

yes you can,i thinkyou can have as many as you have empty slots.imy friend has 3 on his office computer.i have never tried to use a switch box for 2 printers only 2 computers.hope this helps.

[Ed_S]

Easy. All you need is a secondary parallel card, they're available in either ISA or PCI. Some can be had that have both LPT2 & LPT3 onboard, although I haven't had any luck with those.

Another cheap & easy way is to use an old ISA I/O card and just disable everything but the PP, then reset the MB bios so that it's port becomes LPT2, leaving LPT1 on the card.

Ed

[Brangwen]

Your only snag will be having enough resources. I had to spend a few minutes configuring 2 printer ports in terms IRQ (resource / interrupt) juggling. Otherwise, no problem. I agree with the above posts.


Brangwen http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/wink.gif

[This message has been edited by Brangwen (edited 07-04-2000).]

[DrCorvette]

2 years ago I got a Kouwell 408-e parallel port for my HP ottoman. It worked great, it did NOT grab a IRQ and worked fine. For the i/o address, I went into system information and with the choices from the card, I grabbed a i/o there and set the jumpers for it and away it went.. This card cost $14 , and , it's a ecp card, bi-directional. lotsa luck, ps , no bios changes for me either.. DrVette

[OuTpaTienT]

Thanks guys for a fast response (it was needed cause I'm going to Fry's in a few hours and debating whether I should return the A/B box).

Especially thanks to you Ed_S, that sounds like the best solution of all...a free one. I'm sure I have at least a couple I/O cards around.

Plus, I use this guy's computer more than he does and I only stop by once or twice a week for an hour or so. It just didn't seem right for him to blow 50 bucks on something so completely unnecessary.

And BTW, you can thank the salesman at Fry's Electronics for convincing him that he needed it. I told him from now on don't ever go to Fry's without me or someone equivalent to handle the salespeople.

How do I handle them? One simple phrase said very sternly, "I know exactly what I want and I know exactly where it is. Thank you. Good day."

[nvksmt]

Or a good thing to do to salespeople. Start talking really fast about something computer related and really complicated that you KNOW they won't understand. They leave you alone right away!

Hey just want to second that 'get an old i/o card' idea. I did that when i had a quickcam and printer using the LPT port not liking each other. I had a trashed old 486 i took the card from, used the jumpers to kill the 2 com ports, the hd 'port, the floppy 'port, the game port, and left just the printer port, assigned resources, and the motherboard saw it like it was it's own.

If you don't have many resources left it may be a problem, but nothing a little messing around can't fix!

[Fingers]

ISA printer cards require a free IRQ and usually some manual setup, but work great after initial setup. PCI printer cards are usually Plug-n-Play and don't require a free IRQ because PCI devices can share interupts. But we all know that PNP doesn't always work as advertised.
Buy ISA if you've got free resources(and a free ISA slot), PCI if your tight on IRQ's.

Hope I'm not too late with this response.

[Win_98]

IRQ is so limited it is difficult to
add a second parallel port and it is picky
either 5 or 7
I had to disable my sound card
or set them both to IRQ 7
But only one parallel port can be used at
a time or they will conflict and cause malfunction.

[BC]

Also there are some a/b switches that are automatic ones. They take some configuring from what i understand about them. However a PCI PP card is about $30 @ compusa or there abouts. And are easy to do. You do know how to put a PCI card in a computer right out? If not just put another post here in this forum http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif j/k
I am sure you will do the right thing. And just give the box to the fry guy, then get yo money and run!!

[Fingers]

I've got my default printer on the standard printer port, and a second printer on a Siig Cyber PCI PNP parallel card. On more than one occassion, I've had both printers printing different documents at the same time, sometimes even with the same app (AutoCad).

[OuTpaTienT]

Well, they didn't want to take the a/b box back because it had been something like 45 days since the purchase date and they have a 15 day return policy. So I just started making a scene about how my client is completely unknowledgeable about computers and how the salesperson obviously took advantage of this to tack on another $50 to what he was already spending.

Needless to say a manager soon came over and made everything ok. I then purchased a 2nd printer port for $18. (I didn't have any I/O cards lying around.)

Thanks for the assistance everyone.