OK, I have two computers, one was in our “office” and the other in our kitchen area, but I needed to switch them around. Now, the newer computer (which is old by today’s standards) was attached to a HP DeskJet 5550 printer. I couldn’t move the printer, so I just attached it to the printer I brought in from the kitchen. Now, the printer is plugged in, it has paper, it’s connected properly to the computer. Installation software works fine. Windows acknowledges a working ltp port, my computer meets the minimum requirements which are
OS Microsoft® Windows 95, 98, Me
Processor Pentium® 150 MHz
Required Ram 32 MB Ram
Hard disk space required 40 MB
My computer is a 233mhz running Windows 98 with 64 MB Ram and with a couple gig of hard drive space.
Everything is fine, until it’s time to print out a test page. Neither the software that came with the printer, nor a Window’s driver I tried can get a test page to print.
Does anybody have any ideas? Is there any diagnostic software I can try to test my printer port, make sure it’s working OK (Windows says it does) and see if a printer can be found on that port? Maybe the port is OK, but Windows doesn’t register a printer. I don’t know, anyway, any help is appreciated. Thanks.
Verify that the printer itself is working. Most have a button on the front that will print a test page, completely independent of the computer. Sometimes you have to do stuff like press 2 buttons down at the same time, or hold down a button while you turn the printer power on. Check your printer manual for the details.
If it prints that way, then you know the problem is NOT in the printer hardware.
See if you can print outside Windows. Boot into safe mode or get into a plain DOS screen (“C:>” prompt). Now try to copy some text file to the printer. Most systems still have an AUTOEXEC.BAT or CONFIG.SYS file, so try "COPY AUTOEXEC.BAT LPT1: and see what happens. Many printers have a little light that lights up or flashes or something when the printer is receiving data. Note that some printers (laser ones, for example) won’t print a page until they have a full page (about 60 lines) or a page feed character (<alt>+012), so you may have to repeat that copy command several times to fill up a page before it prints.
If it prints this way, then you know that the cable to the printer works and that the computer can send data to the printer.
So then you know the problem is in Windows, and the printer setup in it. (Which is the most likely case, really. Especially if this printer was working before.) For this, you need help from someone who knows more about Windows than I do.
One hint: sometimes it seems to help to completely delete ALL printers that are defined to the system, reboot, and start over from scratch letting the system find printers and set up the drivers for them, etc.
Is it a SCSI printer? My friend once moved a SCSI scanner to a new house and the electrical current in the new place caused it to not work anymore. Adding a SCSI terminator to the empty SCSI port on the scanner fixed it right up.
I booted into DOS, pressed <SHIFT><PRINT SCREEN> and the screen printed just fine. I pressed power, linefeed and a sample page was printed. So the printer is fine. I tried reinstalling the HP software, and noticed something I hadn’t before. During the install process, it asks you to click a button called FIND PRINTER. When I did, it gave me an error message that the printer couldn’t be found. I tried to find the printer with Windows (Windows 98) but Windows tells me that the printer isn’t connected, even though it clearly is. The printer can connect either to a USB port or a Parallel port and since I don’t have a USB connection, I’m connecting it to the Parallel port, the same one it was connected to on the other computer.
I guess I’ll just look on line to find info or something to download to see why Windows isn’t detecting the printer that’s clearly hooked up.
I figured it out. I went into Control Panel -> System -> Device Manager and under the listing Plug and Play BIOS installed a driver for Printer Port (LPT1). Immediately it recognized my printer. Now I have to log off, close every program (I need to buy more memory) and install my printer software yet again.
I hate it when sometimes the answer is obvious, but you overlook it and drive yourself crazy doing so.
Anyway, thanks for all your help.
Adding more memory is by far the simplest & easiest way to speed up a computer. And it’s really pretty cheap nowadays.
I’d suggest using a name brand memory, like Cruical or Kingston. Because it’s such a critical part, and defective memory will cause you lots of hard-to-solve problems. Also, the cheap brands of memory aren’t really that much cheaper than the name brand ones. So personally, I won’t risk problems to save that few dollars.
You can order the name brand memory online, and they have good sites that help you find exactly what memory you need for your machine. See the Crucial site for example.