I recently reformatted my hard drive and re installed Windows 98 on my computer. Connected a HP Deskjet 500 to it and when I tried to print something, the system froze up. Even the keyboard. Couldn't even do Control Alt Delete. Then I tried a Canon Bubblejet 5100C on it and still the same thing. Reformatted and re installed Windows 98 again and it's still doing the same thing. Computer is a Celeron 366. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

That sounds very much like a IRQ conflict. Access the System properties through the Control Panel. Here, check the Device Manager and look at the parallel port properties for any conflicts...banged out with a red x or a yellow !. Also, you should be able to tell what is causing the conflict. The IRQ that most use is 7 at port 378. The only thing I could think that is causing this is either the sound card is also using IRQ 7 or Windows has setup another device to share that IRQ through PCI IRQ Steering. Start there to beginning checking for hardware conflicts on the system and let us know.

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Tried that. I kind of figured it might have been the IRQ setting also, but LPT 1 is on IRQ 7 and the sound card is on IRQ 9. Checked all my other devices and no conflicts. Any other suggestions?

Okay, check the settings for the port in BIOS, and device manager (in safe mode, make sure that there aren't any "ghost" drivers), also check the spool settings on whatever printer you currently have installed, and try here (http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q128/3/45.asp?LN=EN-US&SD=gn&FR=0&qry=troubleshooters&rnk=11&src=DHCS_MSPSS_gn_SRCH&SPR=W98SE)

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mjc
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Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

Gun Control...hitting what you aim at!

I had the exact same symptoms as you had,the only thing though was this was happening to me on windows 2000. it took me forever to figure out, but if you eliminate these issues you will find your problem, it was my memory by the way..

1.make sure your ram is still good and that its secure and everything. you might consider trying other ram, or upgrading.
2.i'm assuming you didn't overclock your computer, but if you do you might want to reduce it back to its normal settings
3. device drivers; if its not the newest ones get an update as soon as possible.
4. make sure you don't have any programs running in the background. usually two or three programs running at once will juice your cpu and memory and make your computer freeze.
6. buy another computer, usually works for everyone....


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S_K_I