What would cause a Dell 4600 to not boot when HP printer is plugged in ?

[BlueJazz]

The dell boots up fine when HP all-in-one is NOT connected.

When I plug in HP Printer..USB... (after full restart) the dell can't seem to get out of Bios.

It shows the cursor in the top far left corner and just "Hangs"

I encountered this years ago while working on somebody else's computer but forgot the cure.

Thanks!

On Edit...Running XP pro

[hobbit709]

1. Is the power on on the printer?

Does the printer have a card reader slot?
If it does, if the BIOS allows Boot from removable devices, then it may be hanging trying to read from the nonexistent card.
I've had systems that hang if a flash drive is plugged in on boot up.

[Hokie]

2. My neighbor had a similar problem

It must be something weird with HP printers. He had to unplug the printer, boot, then he could reconnect the blasted thing. It could be a USB power draw issue. I used to buy HP printers but I got sick of their little games they play to make money on ink jet cartridges.

[whistler162]

4. Nope I have seen it with iPod's and USB drives on

various Dell PC's and laptops. I haven't found a solution. Even making sure that the boot sequence in BIOS doesn't handle USB devices doesn't work to eliminate the problem.

[salvorhardin]

3. I think hobbit709 is onto something

Check in the BIOS to make sure the boot sequence is set to boot from hard drive first and that boot from USB is disabled.

On edit: Found this on the HP forums. Try it with a different USB cable too.
(Google cached copy) http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:3u8nIF6Xe9IJ:forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do%3FthreadId%3D1094082+hp+printer+plugged+in&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

[pokerfan]

5. It's probably trying to boot from the USB

The problem turned out to be a BIOS setting under USB with the function "USB Emulation" enabled. When this funtion is enabled, it permits the PC to boot up to an externally connectd USB drive. But what was happening was the PC was trying to boot off the flash card slots in the printer, and getting hung up. Once I disabled this option in the BIOS, the PC booted up normally and the printer worked just fine. HP says they have been getting a lot of calls about this with the new Dells.

http://www.computing.net/answers/hardware/dell-wont-boot-up-with-photosmart/21568.html

[BlueJazz]

6. Ah..Of Course.. Thanks

[BlueJazz]

7. Thanks people for the help. Geez..I knew this about USB booting and went Blank.

:) :)

[Jersey Devil]

8. Hobbit's right, had the same problem on my Dell 4600 with a zip drive

It was trying to read the zip drive to boot up from an OS that might be on it. My solution was simply to make sure the disk in the zip drive was ejected before rebooting or it would hang.

I didn't change my BIOS as suggested by Hobbit (but should have). Funny thing is that after I replaced the zip drive with an external USB hard drive the problem did not happen again.