Area is grayed out and will not permit any changes. Keep getting "bidirectional support disabled" e

[10_4]

Installed a Kodak 3250 on an XP Home SP3 machine via USB cable and shared
the printer. I have a Dell Latitude D620 that I setup the shared printer on
using the network settings. The D620 has XP Professional SP3. Everything
worked fine for a short period of time then started getting the,
"bidirectional support disabled" error message. Double checked settings on
both machines to find the bisectional area on the D620 is grayed out and I
cannot make any changes. Googled and found many hits with most of them
already tried with no success and the others offered no solution. The D620
prints fine but about every five seconds the error message pops up. Any
help on this would be much appreciated!

 

[Big Steel]

Installed a Kodak 3250 on an XP Home SP3 machine via USB cable and
shared the printer. I have a Dell Latitude D620 that I setup the shared
printer on using the network settings. The D620 has XP Professional SP3.
Everything worked fine for a short period of time then started getting
the, "bidirectional support disabled" error message. Double checked
settings on both machines to find the bisectional area on the D620 is
grayed out and I cannot make any changes. Googled and found many hits
with most of them already tried with no success and the others offered
no solution. The D620 prints fine but about every five seconds the error
message pops up. Any help on this would be much appreciated!

My suggest to you is to go get a router, a print server and plug the
print server into the router and the plug the printer into the print
server. That way, no PC has to host the printer and both computers can
use the printer on the network individually, because of the router and
the print server.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

My suggest to you is to go get a router, a print server and plug the print
server into the router and the plug the printer into the print server. That
way, no PC has to host the printer and both computers can use the printer on
the network individually, because of the router and the print server.

+1

 

[Paul]

Installed a Kodak 3250 on an XP Home SP3 machine via USB cable and
shared the printer. I have a Dell Latitude D620 that I setup the shared
printer on using the network settings. The D620 has XP Professional
SP3. Everything worked fine for a short period of time then started
getting the, "bidirectional support disabled" error message. Double
checked settings on both machines to find the bisectional area on the
D620 is grayed out and I cannot make any changes. Googled and found
many hits with most of them already tried with no success and the others
offered no solution. The D620 prints fine but about every five seconds
the error message pops up. Any help on this would be much appreciated!

Error: "Bidirectional support is disabled"
Published 08/25/2010 11:38 AM | Updated 05/16/2011 05:15 PM | Answer ID 1294

http://support.en.kodak.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1294

"If the error continues, and the printer is connected with a USB cable,
follow the steps below:

1. Disconnect the printer from the computer.
2. Delete the all-in-one printer icon:
3. Select Start > Programs (or All Programs) > Kodak > Kodak Printer Network Setup Utility.
Follow the on-screen instructions to set up the printer.
Connect the printer using the USB cable when prompted."

That web link will prompt you for country first, and after setting
your country, will display info on setting up the printer again.

That doesn't answer why it got fouled up, and it could well revert.
Perhaps some "update" will wander onto the computer, after you
reset things ?

Paul

 

[10_4]

Error: "Bidirectional support is disabled"
Published 08/25/2010 11:38 AM | Updated 05/16/2011 05:15 PM | Answer ID
1294

http://support.en.kodak.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1294

"If the error continues, and the printer is connected with a USB cable,
follow the steps below:

1. Disconnect the printer from the computer.
2. Delete the all-in-one printer icon:
3. Select Start > Programs (or All Programs) > Kodak > Kodak Printer
Network Setup Utility.
Follow the on-screen instructions to set up the printer.
Connect the printer using the USB cable when prompted."

That web link will prompt you for country first, and after setting
your country, will display info on setting up the printer again.

That doesn't answer why it got fouled up, and it could well revert.
Perhaps some "update" will wander onto the computer, after you
reset things ?

Paul

Been there and did all of that as well as all kind of searching. The D620
is not physically connected to the printer so this information does not
satisfy the situation. Thanks anyway!

 

[Char Jackson]

+1

On the other hand, I have a print server somewhere around here with
less than 20 minutes of use on it. I yanked it as soon as I realized
that it wasn't able to report ink status on my Epson printer. Have the
current print servers gotten around that by now? I sure hope so,
because it was a deal breaker for me.

 

[Paul]

Been there and did all of that as well as all kind of searching. The
D620 is not physically connected to the printer so this information does
not satisfy the situation. Thanks anyway!

They make it sound here, like "bidirectional support" is an error message
associated with a communications problem between the other computer and
its local printer. In other words, the "Kodak 3250 on an XP Home SP3 machine via USB cable"
has a local communications problem, and the remote D620 sees this lack
of proper functioning, and the error message results. So the problem
might well be with a setting on the Kodak 3250 host computer.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c00062217&locale=en_US

To me, a technical term like "bidirectional support", is something associated
with a parallel port or a parallel port emulation over USB. It's pretty hard
to figure out, why a networked protocol stack, would be using that in an
error message.

Paul

 

[Char Jackson]

They make it sound here, like "bidirectional support" is an error message
associated with a communications problem between the other computer and
its local printer. In other words, the "Kodak 3250 on an XP Home SP3 machine via USB cable"
has a local communications problem, and the remote D620 sees this lack
of proper functioning, and the error message results. So the problem
might well be with a setting on the Kodak 3250 host computer.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c00062217&locale=en_US

To me, a technical term like "bidirectional support", is something associated
with a parallel port or a parallel port emulation over USB. It's pretty hard
to figure out, why a networked protocol stack, would be using that in an
error message.

To me, it's entirely related to printer communication. With printers,
you usually send data in one direction, from the computer to the
printer, but with inkjet printers, for example, you want the printer
to be able to send data back to the computer. Hence, bidirectional
support.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

On Wed, 08 Jun 2011 12:33:43 -0700, Gene E. Bloch


On the other hand, I have a print server somewhere around here with
less than 20 minutes of use on it. I yanked it as soon as I realized
that it wasn't able to report ink status on my Epson printer. Have the
current print servers gotten around that by now? I sure hope so,
because it was a deal breaker for me.

OK, I really missed the "print router" remark...

I was thinking of a printer plugged into a LAN port on the router, or
connected wirelessly. Obviously if the printer doesn't one of those
capabilities, I'm all wet.

But do they make printers without some kind of LAN connection these
days? It's a serious question - I'm not paying much attention to
printers right now.

 

[Char Jackson]

OK, I really missed the "print router" remark...

Or print server, I suppose...

I was thinking of a printer plugged into a LAN port on the router, or
connected wirelessly. Obviously if the printer doesn't one of those
capabilities, I'm all wet.

But do they make printers without some kind of LAN connection these
days? It's a serious question - I'm not paying much attention to
printers right now.

Most consumer-level printers, or maybe even all of them, simply come
with USB connectivity these days. It's a significant step up in cost,
usually, to find a printer with some kind of network connectivity,
whether wired or wireless.

Anybody seeing a different trend?

 

[10_4]

They make it sound here, like "bidirectional support" is an error message
associated with a communications problem between the other computer and
its local printer. In other words, the "Kodak 3250 on an XP Home SP3
machine via USB cable"
has a local communications problem, and the remote D620 sees this lack
of proper functioning, and the error message results. So the problem
might well be with a setting on the Kodak 3250 host computer.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c00062217&locale=en_US

To me, a technical term like "bidirectional support", is something
associated
with a parallel port or a parallel port emulation over USB. It's pretty
hard
to figure out, why a networked protocol stack, would be using that in an
error message.

Paul

Have not been able to find anything wrong on the host computer but will
continue looking.

Thanks!

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Or print server, I suppose...

You suppose correctly