HP 720 & XP

[Bolton Mong]

I have a HP DeskJet 720C. The print driver installs fine
with XP and prints out pages through IE 6 perfectly.
However, I cannot get it to print out from anything else,
it will not print from either the command line, notepad,
wordpad or any Office (xp) or Works (7.0) application.

I have tried it on 3 different PC's with differnt
licenced builds of XP but with no duffernce.

There are no drivers available from HP as now all rolled
into XP.

Any ideas?

 

[Guest]

I have exactly the same problem. It starts to print then stops and lights flash or it doesn't print at all. I'm tearing my hair out trying to find a driver that works but don't seem to be able to find one. Is there anyone out there who knows how to fix this problem other than buying a new printer??

 

[Cari \(MS MVP\)]

COMPLETELY uninstall and reinstall:
http://www.coribright.com/Windows/Article One.htm

After Step 5 use the Add Printer Wizard. The drivers are built into XP.

 

[Guest]

I have tried this several times and it still doesn't seem to work. In fact, it seems to print even less (as in, it used to print part of a page, now the print head moves a couple of times and then the light just keeps flashing like it is printing)

Any more ideas other than get a newer printer which I don't really want to do cos' it works quite well when it is going.

 

[Cari \(MS MVP\)]

I have to say that it's probably in the final stages of its existence. It's
had a good life. Now is the time to let it go.

 

[Guest]

It has still got plenty of life in it - it was working fine until I installed XP. How disgusting that I should have to upgrade a printer just because I updated the operating system.

 

[Cari \(MS MVP\)]

Coincidence. It's telling you it's failing. Or rather trying to. If you
love it that much, take it to an authorized HP service center.

 

[Guest]

There appears to be a lot of people out there with the same problem then. Definitely not a coincidence. I have been checking a lot of other forums and there are a number of people who have come across this as soon as they installed XP. HP need to get their act together and upgrade their driver.

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

Perhaps if you offered to pay them! It's a very old printer, it's
uneconomical for them.

 

[Guest]

I didn't think 5 years was that old. I certainly won't be paying HP or buying another one of their printers. I'm just disappointed that I will have to replace a printer that is in perfect working order.

 

[Victor D.]

If you shop carefully you can get a good printer for a little more than what
you would of paid in ink cartridges.

I didn't think 5 years was that old. I certainly won't be paying HP or

buying another one of their printers. I'm just disappointed that I will
have to replace a printer that is in perfect working order.

 

[dimitri]

I have also been searching the net for a solution
to the problem you mention, and I must say I
didn't see a clear answer. However, by trying
a few things myself, I managed to rectify the
problem. The steps I recommend are the
following:

1. Make sure that your parallel port supports
bi-directional communication (I guess it was
already set that way before you upgraded
to Windows XP) by choosing "Bi-directional",
EPP, or ECP+EPP from the BIOS settings.

2. Under My Computer -> Properties ->
Device Manager -> ports -> Parallel port
advanced settings, make sure you change
the default setting of "Never use an IRQ"
to "Use the IRQ assigned to the device"
(don't have the window here in front of me
so the above descriptions are approximate,
but you shouldn't have a problem finding
and selecting the option I mention).

3. Make sure you don't have any other device
connected to the parallel port (e.g. scanner,
external ZIP drive etc. -- when my external
ZIP 100 is connected between PC and 720C,
printing fails almost consistently).

Hope the above helps.
Regards,

Dimitri