Windows 7: Must manually change port settings on Parallel Card after every reboot

RESOLVED
Cause of the fix is Unknown

Due to the mystery of why the problem fixed itself I am leaving the thread open for future discussion in hopes of finding the true cause of the problem in case it surfaces on a later date, as well as the possibility of current and future feedback helping out anyone who has the same or similar problem.

The problem was:

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Recently, about a week ago, in the office that I work we had some lightning which fried the parallel-to-usb chord connected to our Dot Matrix printer. Not a problem since we had a PCI Express Parallel Card sitting around waiting to be used and also a couple parallel-to-parallel chords. I installed it in the computer and it worked perfectly; however, after every reboot of the computer the printer is then viewed as "Offline" and the only fix I have found is to go into Device Manager, go to the card's Properties, go to the Port Settings Tab and, with 3 LPT ports available in a dropdown, change it from LPTX to LPTY (X being whatever port it was set on before the reboot and Y being one of the other two ports available to choose from in the dropdown menu).

Again the port settings that I am altering are in the Parallel Card's Properties menu, not the Printer's Port Settings. If anyone has an answer for me or any information on it please let me know as soon as you can. Even though it isn't an emergency type problem it does get a tad annoying to have to go through the trouble of changing the LPT setting on the card every morning.



----===Updated Details===----

Card Make: Rosewill
Card Model: RC-302E

Computer has no On-Board Parallel Port



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Unfortunately it remains unresolved, though I had a theory about not powering down the printer before closing up the office. We left it on over night and this morning when the computer was powered up the printer was "Ready" and printed fine.

I'm not entirely sure if this helped, but the circumstantial evidence seems to be leaning that way.
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The make and model number of the card should help. Does the computer in which you have installed this card not have a parallel port onboard?

The make and model: Rosewill RC-302E, and no the computer does not have a on-board parallel port.


-updated original post-

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I do have an update on the situation.

Unfortunately it remains unresolved, though I had a theory about not powering down the printer before closing up the office. We left it on over night and this morning when the computer was powered up the printer was "Ready" and printed fine.

I'm not entirely sure if this helped, but the circumstantial evidence seems to be leaning that way.

Even though this is a possibility for a "premanent" fix, I know my boss won't like that it is left on 24/7. I still would greatly appreciate some feedback on this problem from any of you that has an idea of what could be causing it.

-updated original post-

Some ideas to follow up on.

How many PCI-e slots do you have? Try the one furthest from the cpu.

There are two versions of the card: 1.0 and 1.0.0.6. Can you see a version stamp on the card? If not, look in Device Manager under the Details tab & change the dropdown to Hardware ID to see if that helps. Also, in the Resources tab, is "Never use an interupt" selected?

I would download both drivers from Rosewill, unzip them into separate folders and update Driver in Device Manager starting with the 1.0.0.6

Edit: You slipped in an update while I was typing. With old legacy stuff, you need the printer to be on powering down the pc and before powering up. As to leaving it on overnight, it's only consuming a trickle of current; maybe 15 cents worth?

Thanks pscowboy, everything you suggested is as you stated and I did not have to alter anything, but I do greatly appreciate the input.

Somehow though, it seems the problem has resolved itself or I somehow accidentally fixed it when switching the port settings. The printer no longer goes "Offline" when the computer is rebooted and the printer appears to no longer need to be left on 24/7 for it to stay "Ready".

The only thing I can theorize is that it's because I put it on LPT3 rather than 1 or 2, and that since 1 and 2 have defaulted IRQ numbers that something else was trying to share one or both of those numbers; however, I am pretty sure I had it set to LPT3 another time and still had the problem occur, though I could be mistaken I suppose.

In any case, the problem has been resolved for the moment.

I do wish I knew exactly what the problem was if my theory is incorrect. That being the case I will leave this thread open for any future discussion on this problem in case it surfaces again at a later date, and perhaps what has been posted here and any future posts later on will help other individuals with the same issues.

On a final note on the matter, I appreciate the input from those of you who have replied. Thank you.

-updated original post-