parallel scanner trouble---please help! urgent!!

im building a computer and including a s/h scanner but its not working. its an old parallel scanner and originally came with an interface card which i dont know what it is (but maybe just an extra parallel port which i dont need). it says 'scanner link fail' every time, with and without the card plugged in. it always worked with a friends pc but never with mine so i dont think theres anythin wrong with it. ne ideas?? nethin? btw it doesnt use a 25-36 pin printer cable, it has a 25 pin male to 25 pin female connector but it IS a parallel scanner. its a Umax 1220P and ive just downloaded the newest drivers for XP. thanks loads. slystav@hotmail.com

Have you tried a new cable? Is the bios set to ECP/EPP option for the parallel port?

yes the cable i think is fine because it always used to work on my friends pc. i have tried spp, ecp and epp and all combinations but no luck. if it helps my friends system ran win95 (maybe 98 too but im not sure) and i couldnt get it to work on my old win98 or xp pro.
thanks

who is the mobo maker

its currently being used on a gigabyte pentium 3 dual bios board (dont have the model number to hand). if you think this makes a difference i can try it on my soltek sl75drv5. also i have an asus a7a266e but im not sure if it worked on that or not.
thanks

i had a parallel port prob with this mobo until i upped the bios
no parallel ports worked
now its fine