Scott
One thought. What is your port setup in your system BIOS (i.e. the scary bit when you press DEL while your machine is booting up) I think the parallel port has to be set to 'ECP+EPP'. This is what mine is set to and the parallel interface works OK.
Also the calibration bars are stationary if no signal is seen and move violently when there is a signal but calibration has not been set.
Cheers
Mike