parallel port printing problem - all printers

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.print_fax (More info?)

I was printing fine in XP pro (no service pack yet) on my new Acer Laptop.
All of a sudden (after about a month) I can no longer print from the parallel
port. I see the printer icon in the tray- it looks like the system has sent
the document to the printer- the icon disappears as if the document printed
- then nothing happens and there is no error message.

Microsoft has an article about this - but I tried all the suggestions,
including deleting and re-installing the printer and the port and changing
some BIOS settings.

I know the problem is not the printer - it prints a test page offline and I
have the same problem with another printer that I can print from when using
the USB port.

But the printer I want to use is an old HP 4P - works great - but has no USB
port.

Any help would be very much appreciated.