Print problem with Brother MFC3100

[TwoWolves]

I have a machine with problems printing to a Brother MFC 3100 (Color printer/multi-function center). The error message reads "There was an error found when printing (document name) to BMFC: Do you want to retry or cancel?" This is a new problem as there was no difficulty printing for the first month or so. As far as I know there are no problems scanning a document and processing it. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the driver and associated MFC software to no avail. I have checked to make sure printer cable is good (swapped in a spare cable)

The hardware/OS configuration is: AMD T-Bird 1.2 GHz, ASUS A7V133C MB, 512 MB PC-133 SDRAM (Micron), Maxtor 40GB HD, ATI Radeon 64 DDR video card, W2K w/SP2, VIA 4-in-1 driver, Office 97 and Lotus Smart Suite 97. The MFC is connected via a standard parallel printer cable, configured to use LPT1.

Any ideas?

 

[greg013]

I'd verify your parallel port settings in the BIOS. Is it set for bi-directional printing? Also, does the printer require a specific parallel port settings? Check the manual for the printer.

 

[TwoWolves]

The BIOS settings was one of the first things I checked to make sure that no one else using the machine had changed them. The parallel port is set for ECP+EPP. MY biggest worry is that another piece of software loaded on to the machine after I set it up and configured it may have bollixed a file or registry setting.

 

[greg013]

You should try connecting another printer that you know works, to try to determine if the problem is with the printer or the port/cable/software. Also, move this printer to another computer. Compare the results. You should be able to isolate the non-functional component.

 

[TwoWolves]

I've already moved it to another machine after loading the software and it works fine. I haven't been able to try another printer on the problem machine yet due to the lack of another printer. I'll scare one up somewhere and give it a go.