HP LJ 4P parallel port problem

[Jeff Hails]

I have to try and keep this printer going to print newsletters, and I'm not sure
where the problem lies. I had been using it on the parallel port for a few
months but it decided to start printing one or two lines of characters at the
top of multiple pages. The same thing happened when using a different PC. I
switched over to the serial port and was able to get normal print, but it takes
a lot of time to spool up the data before printing. I downloaded an Acrobat
copy of the combined service manual that wasn't too good. Some pages couldn't
be read. What I could see from the flowchart in the manual and the circuitry
layout, It seemed the problem was on the formatter board (C2006-80101 REV a). I
found a cheap replacement, but had the same problem when I swapped boards.

I've got no income and am donating my time, so any help will buy you some
positive karma. I'll check the electronics repair groups also.

Jeff
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Tony]

I have to try and keep this printer going to print newsletters, and I'm not
sure
where the problem lies. I had been using it on the parallel port for a few
months but it decided to start printing one or two lines of characters at the
top of multiple pages. The same thing happened when using a different PC. I
switched over to the serial port and was able to get normal print, but it takes
a lot of time to spool up the data before printing. I downloaded an Acrobat
copy of the combined service manual that wasn't too good. Some pages couldn't
be read. What I could see from the flowchart in the manual and the circuitry
layout, It seemed the problem was on the formatter board (C2006-80101 REV a).
I
found a cheap replacement, but had the same problem when I swapped boards.

I've got no income and am donating my time, so any help will buy you some
positive karma. I'll check the electronics repair groups also.

Jeff
(e-mail address removed)

Hi Jeff
If you had not tried this on another PC I would have said that the problem was
a corrupt or damaged driver which needed to be reinstalled.
If the problem is in the printer it has to be the formatter or possibly any
installed memory simms. Nothing else in the printer is likely to cause this
sort of problem.
Did the original printer have simms installed? If so did you transfer it/them
to the new formatter?
The fact that the printer works OK using the serial port (although slowly)
rules out an application issue.
Other than the simm question have you got the latest available drivers?
Tony

 

[DC]

I have to try and keep this printer going to print newsletters, and I'm not sure
where the problem lies. I had been using it on the parallel port for a few
months but it decided to start printing one or two lines of characters at the
top of multiple pages. The same thing happened when using a different PC. I
switched over to the serial port and was able to get normal print, but it takes
a lot of time to spool up the data before printing. I downloaded an Acrobat
copy of the combined service manual that wasn't too good. Some pages couldn't
be read. What I could see from the flowchart in the manual and the circuitry
layout, It seemed the problem was on the formatter board (C2006-80101 REV a). I
found a cheap replacement, but had the same problem when I swapped boards.

I've got no income and am donating my time, so any help will buy you some
positive karma. I'll check the electronics repair groups also.

Jeff
(e-mail address removed)

I suspect there is a problem with connection parallel port. Corrosion, something
broken or similar.

I had a very sililar problem with an Epson inkjet. LPT port was giving identical
problem after having worked for years. I switched to USB and problems went away.
Before trying that I had tried reinstalling drivers and printing from other
sources to no avail.

 

[mkirkman72]

I suspect there is a problem with connection parallel port. Corrosion, something
broken or similar.

I had a very sililar problem with an Epson inkjet. LPT port was giving identical
problem after having worked for years. I switched to USB and problems went away.
Before trying that I had tried reinstalling drivers and printing from other
sources to no avail.

 

[mkirkman72]

Have you tried to change the parrell port in the BIOS to EPP or SPP? I
have seen the port change with out notice and that will give you
garbage print out. Hope this helps

 

[Lou]

I have to try and keep this printer going to print newsletters, and I'm not sure
where the problem lies. I had been using it on the parallel port for a few
months but it decided to start printing one or two lines of characters at the
top of multiple pages. The same thing happened when using a different PC. I
switched over to the serial port and was able to get normal print, but it takes
a lot of time to spool up the data before printing. I downloaded an Acrobat
copy of the combined service manual that wasn't too good. Some pages couldn't
be read. What I could see from the flowchart in the manual and the circuitry
layout, It seemed the problem was on the formatter board (C2006-80101 REV a). I
found a cheap replacement, but had the same problem when I swapped boards.

I've got no income and am donating my time, so any help will buy you some
positive karma. I'll check the electronics repair groups also.

Jeff
(e-mail address removed)

Have you checked the connector for the cable?
Tried a different cable?

Lou

 

[Jeff Hails]

Hi Jeff
If you had not tried this on another PC I would have said that the problem was
a corrupt or damaged driver which needed to be reinstalled.
If the problem is in the printer it has to be the formatter or possibly any
installed memory simms. Nothing else in the printer is likely to cause this
sort of problem.
Did the original printer have simms installed? If so did you transfer it/them
to the new formatter?
The fact that the printer works OK using the serial port (although slowly)
rules out an application issue.
Other than the simm question have you got the latest available drivers?
Tony

Tony,

The printer has 4MB installed on a single stick. I would think that wouldn't be
a problem since they would be doing the same job in serial/parallel mode. I
hadn't checked into drivers, but since this is such an old printer, I doubt
there would be any solution there.
Thanks for the input.

Jeff

 

[Jeff Hails]

I suspect there is a problem with connection parallel port. Corrosion, something
broken or similar.

I had a very sililar problem with an Epson inkjet. LPT port was giving identical
problem after having worked for years. I switched to USB and problems went away.
Before trying that I had tried reinstalling drivers and printing from other
sources to no avail.

That would be a good call. I used a different cable when I checked it on
another PC. If the problem where on the original formatter board connecter it
wouldn't matter how and what it was connected to. After changing the board, I
only used one cable to one PC. It would be easy to check if my breakout box
had a Centronics connector. I'll double check the cables just to be sure.

Jeff

 

[Jeff Hails]

Have you tried to change the parrell port in the BIOS to EPP or SPP? I
have seen the port change with out notice and that will give you
garbage print out. Hope this helps

Thanks m,

I didn't check that, but I'd think that the odds are slim that two PC's would
suffer the same problem at the same time.

Jeff

 

[Burt]

That would be a good call. I used a different cable when I checked it on
another PC. If the problem where on the original formatter board
connecter it
wouldn't matter how and what it was connected to. After changing the
board, I
only used one cable to one PC. It would be easy to check if my breakout
box
had a Centronics connector. I'll double check the cables just to be sure.

Jeff

On an Epson inkjet printer, after a few years of use I also had a problem
with the internal printer parallel connector. Switching to USB connector
solved the problem. I used an HP4P for several years - I don't recall a USB
port. Seems that if it works on the serial port you have a problem with the
internal parallel connector. Although serial transmission is much slower
than parallel, the bottleneck in print routines is more often the printer
speed. I don't know much about print buffers, etc, but is there a
possibility that you can tweak the print buffer?

 

[Jonathan Lowe]

Hi Jeff,

Old printers like the LJ-4P are not so well protected against
Electromagnetic (EM) Noise as are newer printers. The garbage printout is
very common when there is a bad source of EM near to the printer cable, so
the first thing to do is get one of the more recent type of shielded printer
cables. Standard printer cables are not shielded. Some component in the VDU
could have gone bad causing it to emit more em noise than previously.

LJ-4P's normally would require that the printer port is set to SPP as this
is slower than other settings the LJ-4P is better able to handle the rate of
data flow = less likelyhood of garbage. This is more of a problem when the
older printers are matched up with a new computer. So make sure that your
port is set to SPP. I had several LJ-III's that would only work when the
port was at it's slowest speed setting.

If you mooved your computer and printer and then this problem occured, then
I would go for a new screened printer cable.
--
..
..
Cheers,
Jonathan Lowe,
Rallye 100
EI-BFR