Jason,  

Yes, parallel ports (and serial ports) usually die due to the TTL logic shift
chips going dead during events where the humidity drops all of a sudden or
they get shocked by a discharge (especially non heavy duty TTL packaged chips
that are shocked by electrostatic discharge, not that they are impervious,
but rather that they are simple to replace back in the day and cheap chips to
get....).  

You can probably fix the parallel port card, but if you have shifted to USB
and find it fine for your use, I would go with it.  USB certainly has more
complexity, but it can be a cheap chip-set to do bit banging with! - lower
price per unit than TTL shift logic.  

Kelly
KB0GBJ  
>  Fri Oct 01 2010 08:05:58 PM CDT from  "Jason Hsu, embedded engineer, Linux
>user" <jhsu802701 at jasonhsu.com>  Subject: [tclug-list] Dead parallel ports
>
>  
> Is it just me, or are parallel ports prone to failing without warning?  Is
>this part of the reason parallel ports are now obsolete?  (Fortunately, I've
>never had problems with USB ports.)
> 
> I just had the parallel port of my 10-year-old Dell desktop die on me.  A
>few years ago, the parallel port of my now 9-year-old IBM NetVista desktop
>die on me.  So I guess I've now been forced out of the parallel port era.
> 
> -- 
> Jason Hsu, Linux-literate embedded engineer
> (952) 715-7661
> embedded_engineer at jasonhsu.com
> http://www.jasonhsu.com/ee.html
> http://www.jasonhsu.com/swrwatt.html
> http://www.jasonhsu.com/ee-robot.html
> 
> _______________________________________________
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> 
>
>
>  

  

 
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