4l not working after reboot

Every time I reboot my computer (XP professional), it will not send print jobs to my Laserjet 4L. The "data" light flashes briefly, but nothing happens. To get the thing to work, I have to go into the 'device manager' and in the port settings tab for LPT
1 change a setting (any setting!)--for example, from 'never use an interrupt' to 'try not to use an interrupt', or visa versa, and then it works fine. Until I have to reboot for some reason. Then I am back to square one.

I don't know enough about the port settings to know what they mean, but it doesn't seem to matter how they are set, as long as I change them after a reboot, the computer recognizes the 4L and sends print jobs to it.

Any idea why XP pro won't recognize the 4L permanently?