Can't print after windows was resinstalled

[Chris Kingsley]

Hi, I'm running Windows XP home, and had a damaged main hard drive a couple
of weeks ago which caused me to reinstall Windows on the other hard drive.
Everything else is up and running now but I can't get my printer to print
any more. I can install it with no problem, but it won't print. It will
print a test page, only if I do it from the printer. It doesn't seem to be
connecting with the PC at all, and I get no kind of error message. Of
course, I've checked the connection. I'm sure it's missing something that it
had when it was set up under the former C drive, but can't find out what.
It's an HP laserjet 5L printer, and HP doesn't have anything for me as the
printer is no longer supported. It was working fine before the crash and I'm
going to have to hate to buy a whole new printer because of what seems for
sure to be a software issue.

Chris

 

[Rich Barry]

Chris see if this helps
Installation instructions


Windows XP software for the products listed below should be added via the
Add Printer Wizard for both parallel and network-connected devices.


Click Start, select Settings, then click Printers.

Within the Printers folder, select Add Printer Wizard. This Wizard will
guide through the various setup and installation steps for a printer.



For network printers:


For printers connected directly to a network, select Local install from the
Wizard and create a standard TCP/IP port. The IP address can be located on
the printer configuration page.

For printers connected to a printer server or host machine, select Network
install from the Wizard. There are several options for browsing the network
or entering the name of the shared system.



For parallel-connected printers:


Within the Wizard, select Local install.

To add the correct driver, select the appropriate product from the list
provided with the Add Printer Wizard and continue through the installation
process.



NOTE: If the printer is attached via a parallel cable to the PC, when the
system is turned on, the operating system will automatically install the
appropriate drivers for those products that support Plug and Play. Products
that do not support Plug and Play will indicate to contact the vendor for
the correct drivers. All of the products listed below have drivers on the
operating system CD and can be installed from the Add Printer Wizard.

 

[Chris Kingsley]

Installation instructions


Windows XP software for the products listed below should be added via the
Add Printer Wizard for both parallel and network-connected devices.

No, unfortunately. I've done that a number of times. It finds and installs
the drivers fine, everything going well up until the finish, when it asks
if I want to print a test page. It can't print that test page, and a little
balloon pops up from below saying "This document failed to print... test
page" etc.

The printer works, the cord works, so the problem is something missing from
the computer, some driver or bit of software I had before the breakdown. I
just don't know what. Possibly a windows driver of some sort given windows
loads the HP drivers fine.

 

[PA20Pilot]

Hi Chris,

A long time ago I had an Epson printer running on Win 95. I upgraded to
Win 98 and the printer worked fine. Eventually I upgraded to Win 2000
and it still worked as before. Later I did a reinstall of Win 2000 and
the printer didn't work. I went to find a driver and found there wasn't
one for 2000, but it was running on 2000 before, so....... I eventually
had to off the printer from that box.

It looked to me like an old OS driver would continue to work through an
upgrade, but not from a fresh install. You done anything along those lines?
--


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Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA)
Technical Counselor

 

[TaurArian [MS-MVP]]

I'm using an old HP 4L Laser (obviously older than yours) and all I did with the fresh install is
use the printer drivers which came with Windows XP.
Working okay for me, no fancy menus or anything.

I just checked and there are WinXP drivers for the HP 5L

When you try to add the printer, don't let it automatically detect it, manually select your printer
from the list.

Not sure if this helps or if you're already tried it. But I thought i would post anyway.

 

[Chris Kingsley]

I'm using an old HP 4L Laser (obviously older than yours) and all I did
with the fresh install is use the printer drivers which came with Windows
XP.
Working okay for me, no fancy menus or anything.

I just checked and there are WinXP drivers for the HP 5L

When you try to add the printer, don't let it automatically detect it,
manually select your printer from the list.

Yeah, I've done it, a few times in fact. The fact the drivers come with xp
is why there's nothing to download from the HP site, I guess. And why I
suspect it might not be the HP drivers - they are specfically for winddows
xp, after all, or at least it says so in the install wizard. Mind you, I've
also tried to install the printer as HP but not XP, for HP5M, HP5P, HP4, but
nothing works. It's wierd given it worked fine from the previous drive

 

[Rich Barry]

Chris, you can try going to Start>Run type: regedit click Ok,
Navigate to HKey_Local_Machine\System\Current Control
Set\Enum\lptenum\hpprinter. Delete that folder
Same for HKey_Local_Machine\System\Current Control
Set\Control\Print\hpprinter Delete that folder
Same for Hkey_Current_Config\System\Current Control
Set\Control\Print\hpprinter Delete that folder
Same for Hkey_Current_User\Printers Delete that folder

Also, rt click MyComputer>select Properties>Hardware>Device Manager>LPT
Printer Port rt click and choose Uninstall. Restart and let WinXP try to
find the printer.