lpt1 intermittently losing linefeeds

hi. i wonder if anyone can help me. i attached a printer to my parallel port without the requisite ieee 1284 cable (just a standard old bi-directional). It seemed to work more or less. (i occasionally last part of a page) this was unacceptable so i put the old printer back. now, it prints a few lines normally. then it overprints a line with several lines, getting worse and worse down the page. i tried re-setting the port from bios (spp, epp 1.7, epp 1.9, epp+ecp, etc.) Nothing mattered at all. i tried old dos commands for lines and columns and timeouts (the mode command). Nothing mattered. anyone have any idea, why!? why!!! why me!!? the printer works on an old lpt2 card i installed (pre epp bi-directional). i may be outside the bounds of this board. If so i'm sorry. I've had great luck with this board and i love it. any response is appreciated. thanks. bye, roy