I had some problems with my Dell.........but it turns out there are two printer ports, and one of them worked just fine with PE Design, and the printer too.........so try re-installing your printer on the other port........Solved my problem in a flash!!!
I am troubleshooting a connectivity problem for a friend. She has a Pfaff
> 7570 and is connecting to a Dell Latitude 500GT. The Latitude is running
> Windows 2000 Pro, (fully updated) and gets error messages saying that the
> connection failed and to check connectors. The 7570's screen shows the
> connection starts, but then the software on the laptop pops up with the > error. >
> I loaded PC-Designer on my Toshiba and it connects just fine. (My Toshiba is
> also running Windows 2000 Pro, same updates.) This eliminates the OS as an
> issue and the cables as an issue as I used the same cables.
>
> So I then connected my laptop to the Latitude via the serial ports using a
> null modem cable and they communicate just fine. So the serial port works
> fine, no errors.
>
> But just in case it is the OS, I installed the PC designer onto a Dell
> Inspiron 3700 and it too would not communicate and it's OS was Windows ME. >
> So does anyone here know if there is an issue with using PC-Designer with
> Dell products (or at least the Pentium III 500 generation of them)? If so
> was there a fix?
>
> Thanks, Rich
>
>