New Hardware (solved)

Todd Zuercher wrote: Why do you think that? The only issue I've ever had with a parallel card only partially working had to do with internal pull ups not working righ

With some cards setting them to EPP increases the drive current. But I suspect that only applies to motherboard ports where the setting is in the BIOS.

I am waiting for a new card, we will see how it works.
thanks for all the advice.

Solved.
Today the new card has arrived but unfortunately it behaves like the old one.
On the net I found a post with my same problem and the advice: "try another pci slot" ......... and everything now works, even with all 4 active processors.
thanks anyway for your patience

Glad you got it figured out.

Frustrating when so much time is wasted on something so simple. Probably just some dirt in the slot, plugging it in and out a few times may have fixed it.

PCI slots, especially vacant slots on older motherboards may be well coated with a many years accumulation of dust and grime.

A fairly easy way to clean these is to liberally apply 99% Isopropyl alcohol
to the new cards board edge connector and insert and remove the card about 5 times,
then wipe the new cards board edge connector and let the alcohol evaporate from the
motherboard before powering on again.

( Beware, 99 % IPA is very flammable so make sure all alcohol and vapors are gone before
powering up the system )

I tried to clean the connector but nothing changes.
The non-working slot is a PCI-e x16 (wire x4) like the LPT card, while the working one is wired x16.
Take a big hammer .........