You are troubleshooting a user's connection to a printer. The printer is attached to the parallel port on the user's computer.
How can you determine whether the problem is caused by a faulty port?
1. Attach a parallel cable that you know works.
2. Disconnect the printer cable and attach a loopback adapter to the port.
3. >>Press the self-test button on the printer.
4. Enable bidirectional support on the port.
Explanation : The best way to determine whether the problem is caused by a faulty port is to attach a loopback adapter to the port. A loopback adapter allows you to isolate the problem and determine whether it is caused by the port because it removes the printer and the cable as variables. If the loopback completes successfully, you know that the port is not the problem and you can then try a different cable to see if the problem is caused by the cable. If the loopback does not complete successfully, you know the problem is caused by the port itself.
Attaching a printer cable that you know works will not allow you to determine whether the problem is caused by the port. It will only allow you to eliminate the cable as the cause of the problem.
Pressing the self-test button on the printer will print a test page. This will ensure that the printer can print characters, but it will not help you isolate the communication problem.
Enabling bidirectional support on the port will not allow you to determine whether the port is causing the problem. Bidirectional support allows two-way communication between the operating system and the printer. However, if the port is not functioning, the cable is faulty, or the printer's parallel connector is not working, bidirectional messages will not be passed.
Objective: Personal Computer Components
