LPT port connection worked only once and then no more

[jan_kratky]

I have a notebook with a DeLock LPT port ExpressCard running Windows XP. When I insert this card in the slot, a LPT3 port would be created. I wanted to connect to an old DOS-based PC using TC LPT port connection.

I launched TC and chose Net - Port connection to other PC. It worked fine without problems. I transfered several files and browsed through directories. When I closed the connection and tried to connect again (without closing TC), an error message appeared: "cglptnt: Could not load port driver"

First thing I did was to close the TC and launch again - and it did not help. I was trying to reboot the computer, then take the card out and plug it back in, reboot without the card, etc. etc ... but I was never able to make the connection again. Even when I logged in as Administrator ... It only worked once and no more ... I tried to reinstall TC, and it did not help ...

When the ExpressCard is plugged in, I do see the LPT3 port in the hardware manager, and it works, because I can use it with other applications. (so that TC did not "lock" the port, it remains available for other applications)

The only difference is that it uses non-standard port number, it is at 4CF8h but this is probably not a problem, because for the first time, the communication worked.

I tried the same on my desktop PC with a native LPT port, and it works without problems.

But on the notebook, I'm now getting only "could not load port driver" error ... But it has to work when it worked for the first time!

Do you have any suggestions how to fix this problem? What to check?

[ghisler(Author)]

No suggestions yet - I will have to purchase the adapter and test it myself (we have a laptop with ExpressCard slot but Windows 7).

Is it Delock Nr. 66220?

[jan_kratky]

Yes, exactly, I have Delock 66220.
Today, I tested it with another notebook with a Delock PCMCIA adapter, and it also did not work at all (I could not even make the first successfull connection)

[ghisler(Author)]

OK, I will try to get this adapter.

Btw, do you get any error message in the system event log? You can see them via control panel, or with this plugin:
http://www.totalcmd.net/plugring/EventLog.html

[jan_kratky]

Yes, I have many errors in EventLog.

They repeat, as I was trying the communication. They are in fact only two:

The first one is from cglptnt, and has event ID = 2. There is no explaination of the error. If it helps you, here is the event contents:

0000: 00 00 00 00 01 00 58 00 ......X.
0008: 00 00 00 00 02 00 07 c0 .......A
0010: 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........

The second one is from Service Control Manager, event ID = 7000, and it says that "service cglptnt failed due to following reason: system could not find requested device"

The messages here are my own translation from Czech to English, I have a Czech version of Windows, so in the English version, the messages could be slightly different.

[ghisler(Author)]

Thanks, that was very helpful! The problem is that your port is named LPT3. My driver (which is derived from a Microsoft sample driver) expects that all ports are named with increasing numbers starting with 1: LPT1, LPT2, LPT3 etc.

I have modified my driver to make it work also with LPT3 when there are no LPT1 and LPT2. Please download it here:
https://plugins.ghisler.com/addons/cglptnt_lpt3.zip

Then please unzip it to the Totalcmd directory. If you installed the driver via /INSTALLDRIVER, you will need to remove it via /REMOVEDRIVER and then re-install.

Please let me know whether it helps or not!

[jan_kratky]

So I downloaded the new cglptnt.sys, copied it to totalcmd directory (replaced the old one) Then I did /removedriver and then launched the TC and started the communication.

Again, for the first time, it worked OK. When I disconnected the remote folder and connected again, I got again "Could not load port driver"

In the EventLog, I have 19 times (!!!) the same error from cglptnt (EventID = 2) as yesterday (yesterday it was only twice for each try), and then the Service Control Manager now returns only information with EventID = 7035 that says: "Control command 'Running' was successfully sent to the service cglptnt". There is no more the error 7000.

After some experiments I discovered this sequence to get it working:

When TC shows "Could not load port driver":
* I execute totalcmd /removedriver -> I get error "Could not remove driver"
* I do it again: totalcmd /removedriver -> for second time the driver would be removed successfully
= then the communication works, but only until I disconnect

If I want to connect again, I have to repeat the above steps.

[ghisler(Author)]

Thanks for your tests! I have checked it now - TC 7.50a doesn't see the driver when it's already loaded but doesn't support LPT1. I will fix that in the next beta of TC 7.55. Currently the parallel port connection doesn't work at all in TC 7.55, so please don't test with it.

For the moment, the following will work:
1. Launch Total Commander
2. Use the parallel port connection once
3. After disconnecting, close Total Commander. This will unload the port driver!
4. Now when you go back to step 1, it will work again

If you do not close TC after disconnecting, the port driver will not be unloaded, so you will need to use /removedriver as you described.

This is just a temporary workaround until TC 7.55 will be available - sorry for the inconvenience!

[ghisler(Author)]

2jan_kratky
Could you try this with Total Commander 7.55 RC2, please?

It should work now also with ports other than LPT1!

2All
The port connection now also supports 64 bit Windows 2000, XP, Vista and 7! A user has ported my driver to 64 bit, I have tested it extensively on XP x64, Vista x64 and Win7 x64.