Parallel Port Driver

So, here's the problem. I turned my parallel port on the other day to try to troubleshoot a printer problem I was having. Initially I had the parallel port off when I installed XP, and I have since turned it off. Since then, I get the following error in the event viewer:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7000
Date: 3/1/2002
Time: 11:27:20 PM
User: N/A
Computer: AA
Description:
The Parallel port driver service failed to start due to the following error:
The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it.

How the heck do I stop WindowsXP from trying to start the parallel port after I've disabled it in the BIOS? I've already tried reenabling it and then deleting it from the Device Manager and I didnt have any luck.

Some tips would be appreciated.

Arch

Ok, This may be really hard to understand, and it could take you a large amount of time and energy to get thru this. But, after all the work, and after hours of in-depth research, myself and our highly qualified technical support team believe that you'll no longer see that error. Follow these instructions very carefully:

1) Shutdown
2) Enable printer port in bios
3) Enjoy

Hey, thanks a lot wise ***. If I wanted the parallel port on I would have left it on, but I'd free up the IRQ for some other device. I appreciate your totally stupid post and you've just confirmed that you have little to no intelligence at all.

Thanks for nothing,

Arch

First of all, you're running XP...freeing up IRQ's is not the big deal you're making it to be. XP can use the same IRQ for just about every card in your PCI bus...without even the slightest resource issue.

Now granted, some cards will pose a problem. SCSI cards don't work very nicely while sharing with onboard ATA100/Raid controllers, and SB Audigy/Live cards which don't share very well at all. Your AGP slot shares with slot 1, so putting anything other than an NIC in slot 1 is not recommended. So it all depends on what cards your using. With that said, what cards and how many do you have in your system that are causing you such grief ??

Also, just because you free up the printer-port IRQ doesn't mean that XP will even use it. In fact, it probably won't...unless you assign it manually. Assigning a card a manual IRQ will most likely cause you more trouble than just letting XP assign it automatically.

Even with both serial ports enabled, and your printer port enabled, there is more than enough IRQ's to go around.....Even if everyone of your PCI slots is stuffed with a card. If you're having conflicts, just swap the cards around.

I wasn't trying to be a smarta*s. I was simply trying to be humerous while showing you that freeing up your printer-port or serial-port IRQ's is NOT going to give you even the slightest performance increase.

Cheers...

When I installed WindowsXP I made sure I had the ACPI turned off so I wouldnt have to deal with any IRQ issues.

The main reason why I want to know how to stop it from starting the parallel port is because I had it off in the first place and I would prefer to get it turned off again. I wasnt expecting a performance increase, I just prefer to keep off the devices that I dont ever use, that being the parallel and the serial ports.

As far as the devices sharing IRQs, I happen to have all the hardware you mentioned below. I have an Adaptec 39160 SCSI card which demands 2 IRQs, one for each channel. A Sound Blaster Live 5.1 which doesnt really jive when it has to try and play nice with others. My NIC doesnt care neither does my video card.

Arch

Ok...What motherboard is this ?? Or how many slots does it have ??

If you haven't already done so, read this post and follow what it says about where to put your SB card....which might help you out.

Search your registry for parport or parallel ...You might find a setting in there to disable your parallel port driver from trying to load, but I don't remember what it is for sure.

Also, Did you try to renable it the bios and let windows find it again. After that, then disable it in the bios. I didn't quite understand what you meant, but I think you tryed that already.

Good luck...

I found the driver causing the problem, ParVDM, listed in the Device Manager after "show hidden devices". I disabled it on start up and everything is back to normal.

Arch

You're a f**king genius 'Arch'.

I had the same problem as you did. I was alse not able to see this god damm device that was unavailable.

But, you made me discover another thing, of this OS configuration. "Show hidden devices" is what we needed. I did the same as you did, and BINGO, no more error.

I'm like you. I prefer turning off unused/unecessary devices. I don't no, maybe to avoid some useless electron round-trip. ;-))

Thank to have dig this problem for me.

Look! I was reading this and I couldn't believe what I was
reading.
this is 2008 not 1978,you must be about 50 or so
and stuck in the 80's of bios's
screw the irq's and the Printer port ,just leave it enabled
it's XP M$ figured out irqs by now
sorry ,but I couldn't help myself,bigcid1