hp laserjet 4L on windows XP

[Guest]

Has anybody had success getting an HP laserjet 4L to work on Windows XP
Home?
For each print job, mine prints out many pages with a just couple of lines
of gobbledygook at the top of each page.

I see from the hp website forum that many users are having problems with HP
Laserjets and WinXP.
Discussions there have included changing the bios (to allow ECP on the
printer port), allowing any interrupt to be used for the port, and loading
NT drivers instead, but none of these have worked for me.

I'd rather like to get this working as it gives a lovely print, so if anyone
knows the answer I'd like to hear from you.
Sue.

 

[Allodoxaphobia]

Has anybody had success getting an HP laserjet 4L to work on Windows XP
Home?
For each print job, mine prints out many pages with a just couple of lines
of gobbledygook at the top of each page.

I see from the hp website forum that many users are having problems with HP
Laserjets and WinXP.
Discussions there have included changing the bios (to allow ECP on the
printer port), allowing any interrupt to be used for the port, and loading
NT drivers instead, but none of these have worked for me.

I'd rather like to get this working as it gives a lovely print, so if anyone
knows the answer I'd like to hear from you.
Sue.

It shouldn't be `difficult`. My wife's Win XP Pro is attached
to our OS/2 Peer lan here, and prints without any `special` setup
to a HP LJ III attached to one on the OS/2 boxen. Granted, it's
a LJ III -- versus a LJ 4. But the two printers are pretty much
interchangeable at the plug level -- when plain-and-simple
printer definitions are used.

Are you sure the XP isn't trying to push PostScript into that LJ 4?
That could explain the "...gobbledygook at the top of each page."
(Re)Check your XP settings (... however one does _that_.)

(I do have a LJ 4 here -- but, it's bolted to one of
the linux boxen... Cost me $10 at the local thrift shop.)

HTH,
Jonesy

 

[Guest]

It shouldn't be `difficult`. My wife's Win XP Pro is attached
to our OS/2 Peer lan here, and prints without any `special` setup
to a HP LJ III attached to one on the OS/2 boxen. Granted, it's
a LJ III -- versus a LJ 4. But the two printers are pretty much
interchangeable at the plug level -- when plain-and-simple
printer definitions are used.

Are you sure the XP isn't trying to push PostScript into that LJ 4?
That could explain the "...gobbledygook at the top of each page."
(Re)Check your XP settings (... however one does _that_.)

(I do have a LJ 4 here -- but, it's bolted to one of
the linux boxen... Cost me $10 at the local thrift shop.)

HTH,
Jonesy

Ta, but I don't think it is that; in addition to the driver bundled with XP
I've tried the PCL5e drivers and the postscript drivers from the HP website,
but they all give the same result.

Sue

 

[David A Berkowitz]

I own a 4L and have no problems printing from within XP Professional.

The LaserJet 4L does not work well (or at all) when it is connected to an
ECP port. Try changing your port settting to SPP or EPP.

The 4L does not support PostScript, so it's no surprise that you get garbage
from the PS driver. The 4ML supports PostScript.