Vista laptop undocking issue - LPT port always in use?

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wolfsburged

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 29, 2002
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I have a Toshiba Tecra M4 laptop which I performed a clean install of Vista Business ~ 6 months ago. I have the docking station with it, which I use to connect my HP LaserJet 1100, external USB hard drive, mouse, keyboard, etc to.

Now I have had no issues with this setup until recently. Whenever I try to undock, I am getting this error:

"You cannot eject your computer because one of the devices in the docking station, 'ECP Printer Port (LPT1)', cannot be stopped because a program is still accessing it."

Now once I get that error I usually just stop the external drive and pop it out anyway, but once I redock the laptop, I cannot print until I reboot in the dock, at which point it begins printing the spooled print job at login.

I tried uninstalling/reinstalling the printer, but I get this error now even with the printer uninstalled and disconnected entirely! I see nothing in the process list that would seem stuck accessing the port either...
 
I've seen this happen a lot with printers and docking stations. If I am thinking of the same printer, isn't it USB compatible? If so, switch it over and disable the parallel port.
 
No, the printer is rather old and is parallel only. It otherwise works perfectly fine and is great for my college printing needs.

I can't think of anything I did recently that would have triggered this either.
 
Upgraded the printer drivers? HP's printers are great, but the accompanying software leaves a lot to be desired.
 
The printer is so old that there is no updated driver, just the supplied Vista driver. HP's website simply says "HP LaserJet and Color LaserJet products - products supported and drivers included in Microsoft Windows Vista."

And also, it is giving me this error even with the printer uninstalled and disconnected... Is there anyway to monitor port activity to see what process could possibly be trying to use the LPT port all the time?
 
Do you have the latest BIOS installed? Other than that I think you might be out of luck.

The M4 came out way before Vista so I wouldn't expect too many options for you

:(
 
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