Can't Print-"Port In Use"

Hey,

Just installed 98 to play with all that 98SESP2.0RC1 and 982ME stuff going on at the MSDN forum!

Before or after doing any of that unauthorized stuff, my Apollo 2600USB printer is behaving badly. I tried spanking it by uninstalling it, using the "Clean up" program on the cd, and reinstalling.

At the end of the installation it asks you to test the printer and this always works fine. Then I reboot properly and all the drivers and software says everything is hunky-dory.

But I can't print anything!

As soon as I click to print something (let's say a notepad file), a printer icon shows up in the systray. I know, this is normal but not for this printer! It has its own little systray icon that handles everything. It's just supposed to print. What happens is that icon sits there and a box eventually pops up saying the printer couldn't print because the port is in use by another program, and to close the other programs so the printer can use the port. There is no other program accessing as far as I know. I even uninstalled Quicklink III fax software so as to have the Apollo as the only printer on the system. This changed nothing.

After a printing attempt, the Apollo printer dissapears from the printer folder, and I must either reboot or turn the printer on and off for it to come back. I really have to reboot because the system is unstable after a failed print.

I can access the printer's properties pages, but when I try opening the Apollo software's Toolbox from the systray icon it appears, then freezes and I need to reset the machine.

I've already reinstalled the thing twice. It all looks good except if I need to use it, or access the software.

What in the world could be interferring with it?

The only different thing I installed was all the language files from Windows Update (so I would get words instead of question marks when looking at a few web pages in other languages). I thought this might be interferring, as for a while there was a language selection icon that would appear in the systray when I opened an explorer window or IE. This icon no longer appears after installing that guy's 982ME batch file. Anyway, I uninstalled all the languages and this also changed nothing.

If I can't figure this out, I guess I'll be returning to XP. Jeez, you mean my new super duper computer can't run 98? I was looking forward to messing around with DOS again with my SBLive card!

 

First off. What in the world is this ?

Next;
It would be helpful to know how the printer is attached to the PC.

Is it USB, Parallel or what ?

When you uninstalled did you do a search for the Printer folder on the HD and DELETE it ? Many, Many uninstalls leave this behind and create problems for the next install.

Also you may need to get something like RegSeeker to run after removing the folder to clean up the Registry.

But right off the top of my head I anm thinking DRIVER problem. Even due to a bad install/uninstall.

BillyBob

 

This answer may be too late but if not u mite try this: Start/settings/control panel/rt.click printer type/properties/details/ then check that the port setting coincides with the correct printer.

 

So Sorry For Delay-I'm Back

BillyBob and wetcoast,

My goodness has it been a long road back. I've been fighting a flu and computer problems but now finally (I hope) have a setup that'll keep me happy for a while. (Though the flu is still here.)

It's a USB printer. The conflict with it was my Saitek GamePad P-880 drivers on Windows 98. On XP their drivers work fine, but I recall having problems with the Saitek joystick control panel's About tab freezing Windows 98 whenever I clicked it to open the tab. Apparently the driver also messes with other USB devices. Remove the pad and driver and the printer works. I've returned to my trusty old Sidewinder. I only got the Saitek so I could play MVP Baseball 2004. I didn't even like it. I made a new roster for my old Microsoft Baseball 2001 and that and Baseball Mogul fill all my baseball gaming needs.

I had given up and installed XP, only to find that some new files that Microsoft has on it, or something deficient in the latest Audigy 2 ZS Creative driver, makes the Announcer and background music in Baseball 2001 be muted. No way to fix it (at least with the latest Creative driver). I tried all the lowering the hardware acceleration all the different notches down and there wasn't any difference. I can't play that game without the announcer and stuff (I want the whole experience.) I wanted to try to not let 98 beat me anyway so I erased again and reinstalled 98 with my old SBLive 5.1.

The 98SE2ME and Windows98SESP2.0RC1 are projects being undertaken by folks trying to keep 98 alive and up to date.

http://www.mdgx.com/98-5.htm#KRM9S is a link to the 98SE2ME info. It is also being discussed on the MSFN boards. http://www.msfn.org/board/?showtopic=37302 is a link to where it is being discussed.
http://exuberant.ms11.net/98sesp.html is the web page for the 2nd Edition service pack. It's basically all the Microsoft updates all rolled into one installation file. Then, you just go to Windows Update for any new ones for this month. He includes optional memory optimizations, and it'll install TweakUI and ASPI4.61 if you check it in setup. The Windows 2000 Color scheme is nice.

I've got both projects installed. It's kind of neat to open up My Computer's right click properties page and see my OS is Windows Me. It's not, and System info shows it as 98SE properly. I just have about 700 Windows Me system files installed, having replaced older and buggier 98SE versions. He took the good files from Me and left out the poor memory management and other Windows Me annoyances. I didn't like his notepad replacement. You can choose to optionally install goodies like Programmers File Editor to replace Notepad, and the SpaceCadet Pinball and Spider Solitaire games. I put back the regular notepad. I've got Word 2002 so I don't need Notepad to be as fancy.

Anyway, I've always preferred 98 for many reasons and am glad folks are working on keeping it modern. The 982ME fella has even released a beta guide to installing WMP10 on 98. That's really beta, unlike the 2nd Ed service pack (which are 99% Windows Updates + a few optional goodies) and 982ME which actually is pretty flawless. Stuff just runs better with the updated file versions. I'll let them work out the kinks before installing a bunch of XP system files on 98 just to get the fancier MediaPlayer. (9 is fine.)

I'm all for taking advantage of modern designs such as the NTFS stability of XP, but I'm not buying new games when I like the old ones better anyway. (Whenever I get a new one I discover the older one was more fun. Yeah, the players in MVP look like I'm watching TV but there's too many buttons and the game kept killing me. That's not fun. Give me the old NES and up, down, left, right, A, B, Start, Select. That's enough for my spastic fingers!)

 

Tagged - Cause this Franken Version W98 has intrigued me.

 

Ha, Ha. Yeah, it's a little like Frankenstein! But it's purring like a kitten. I mean, there's no Explorer freezing when opening folders with lots of sub-folders and files like happens with Windows Me (and sometimes 98, especially with the My Documents folder). I can have zillions of things running, and, since I only need to worry about the GDI resources and not old, buggy 98 system files causing the system to use memory poorly, I'm not getting any freeze ups. It's really a hybrid of the best of Windows Me added to the better memory management of 98. It's wacky to see the system restore sliders and the option to turn system restore off! If I made adjustments they wouldn't do anything since there is no system restore installed! But, the references are there.

The Windows 98SE Service Pack 2.0 Release Candidate 1 also installs many of the hotfixes that Windows Update doesn't provide, but Microsoft supplies if you call them on the phone and request them. For example, security updates that they release for XP but not 98.

The stability I'm getting with ton's of programs installed, where with just a plain updated 98 or Me installed would produce blue screens, freezes, and improper shutdown's, proves that 9x had a future if Microsoft had been able to continue development on it. Because of all the competative lawsuit fighting and other complications, I guess they needed to get almost everyone to buy new operating systems so they could make the money to finance all the **** they have to deal with.

But this Frankenthing is running great! Another strange thing is, just like on Windows Me, you can't format a floppy with system files! At least automatically. You can still put the files on there manually. And Dos Mode is rather useless for using the SBLive dos driver or running games in it. The dos memory is some weird hybrid as well (kind of like Windows Me, but even weirder), and reserves a ton of conventional memory so there's no room for the SBLive driver to initiate properly. But the dos within Windows runs fine, but I find that I'm using the Dosbox program for the games (like I do on XP). So, I'm not limited to using the SBLive (which was the best for doing Dos Mode sound for dos games using a PCI soundcard). Well, it's installed and sounds fine so I'm not messing with it for now. Creative soundcards don't like to be uninstalled (unless you're formatting).

If I really missed the Luna theme I could install WindowBlinds, but I don't want to chance how Stardock stuff would get along with the Frankenstein nature of my system files! When I'm in the mood to play again and wouldn't mind formatting, I'll install it (I'm an Object Desktop subscriber) and see what happens. Nothing wrong with the Classic Theme though.

 

Heh, heh.

I put back XP because I missed some of the cool Plus! Digital Media Edition toys! Plus, this motherboard doesn't let me play in MS-DOS like my old one did so 98 to me is just like XP. I might as well have access to the new toys. This time I used the built in SoundMAX audio. What do you know but the Baseball game runs perfectly. It must have been an Audigy 2 ZS Creative driver/software problem. Either that or that I had CloneCD installed in the system the last time. A while back that program used to interfere with Safedisc games, but Slysoft fixed that so I do think it was the Creative drivers. To be safe, I'll wait until I have some use for CloneCD before installing it. Believe it or not, I mostly used it to copy my VCD's because it did it with less problems in the copy than Nero did. And maybe a couple of times a year I wanted to make a backup of a game in case the original cd might break. (Seriously!) I was never by any means a frequent user.

Folks, XP runs about as smooth as 98. We're paying to keep Microsoft goin'. And my built in audio sounds great! Me thinks we're being had by these companies charging all that money for soundcards. At least I am. I've bought so many of them.