Can a computer hose a printer?

[Sumotku]

I have a client with an XP based Dell Inspiron 3000. She has an equally dated HP 1020 laserjet printer. Both have been kept alive and worked ok until recently. One day she received a Spooler Subsystem App crash error and the printer obviously no longer printed. I googled and found a way to clean uninstall the driver and edit the registry to remove non MS print services. Reinstalled the driver and things worked for a few days. Then the printer stopped working without an error message of any kind. A coworker brought in her Canon 4700 inkjet and I had that up and running in a few minutes. It printed a couple dozen pages. Then it stopped working. It threw a B200 error, citing unplug and contact a repair center. This is a bit too much coincidence to not suspect the computer of causing some sort of corruption. Ideas anyone?
I just heard from the coworker that the printer no longer prints after bringing it home with the same error message. This printer was fine before connecting it to the magic machine.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

I find it hard to believe that the PC could do that, being that it's only connected via parallel port or USB.

What I would suspect is dirty power. A proper UPS with AVR, or a Line/Power Conditioner, would protect the printer and other electronics, but if the wiring is bad it really needs to be addressed before it takes out more electronics or (worst case) causes a fire.

 

[ericloewe]

The only way I can imagine a printer being wreked by a computer is if there's a pretty big voltage spike that fries everything from PSU to USB/Parallel interface and proceeds to ruin the printer as well.
Unless both printers had some kind of vulnerability and were affected by some sort of malware on the pc that goes after printers, I can't imagine a PC causing a logical failure of one, much less two printers. Must be a very coincidental failure.

 

[C1]

Does sound suspicious. I suppose that there is an outside chance that a MB's parallel port becomes damaged/defective in such a way as to be able to damage printers to which it connects.

If there is any doubt, then install a PCI parallel port card and cease using the MB onboard one.

 

[cl-scott]

I would have to say it sounds more like the electrical wiring the printers were being plugged into is probably bad. The idea that a computer could destroy a printer like that is probably not completely impossible, but I would say you probably have a better chance of winning the lottery on the same say you survive an airplane crash followed by being struck by lightning... Without buying a ticket.

 

[Sumotku]

I'll be back to that office next week and will look into the power. Sadly it didn't even occur to me to check it and I carry a meter with me. The connection is USB and I did try other ports on the MB with the same results. There was some wiring done there recently so it's now the number one suspect. Thanks very much for the excellent help.