Problem with antique parallel HP 820cse

[pgluth1]

I have an HP 820cse parallel printer that has served me well many years.
Suddenly, after using XP-pro for 5 years, the printer prints jittery - adds
color to b/w documents, runs ink together, and generally makes everything
illegible.

All self tests work cleanly and perfectly - both the tests within windows
and the stand alone ones.

Plenty of ink.

Works fine on my old win98se machine.

I have tried:
1. Reinstalling drivers (delete and add, delete and detect, delete and
check windows update). Nothing.
2. Reinstalling drivers from original xp disk. nothing
3. Reinstalling drivers from a friend's xp disk. nothing.
4. Turned off spooling.
5. No irq conflicts, lpt port seems fine.
6. Changed lpt port setting in bios to "standard".
7. Tried three different cables.
8. Tried to install 98 drivers on an xp machine. (don't try this!)

Any more ideas? I have used this printer for years without issue and
bristle at the suggestion - well, just toss it and get another!

 

[Bob Headrick]

I have an HP 820cse parallel printer that has served me well many
years.
Suddenly, after using XP-pro for 5 years, the printer prints jittery -
adds
color to b/w documents, runs ink together, and generally makes
everything
illegible.

If by jittery you mean it makes shadows, perhaps in multiple colors of
text, it could be an issue with an encoder strip fogged with aerosol.
XP may print text as graphics (and use the color cartridge to do this)
in some cases, and if the encoder is dirty the printhead may stutter
across the page resulting in the effect you may be seeing.

Try gently cleaning the encoder as shown at the following:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=bpd50646

Pay particular attention to the cautions, as you can damage the fragile
encoder if you are not careful.

While you are "under the hood" you might also check out the spittoon.
In a printer this old it may be near full, causing issues with the black
cartridge. See:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=bpa02019
for instructions on cleaning the spittoon.

Regards,
Bob Headrick

 

[John Sheatsley]

I have an HP 820cse parallel printer that has served me well many years.
Suddenly, after using XP-pro for 5 years, the printer prints jittery -
adds
color to b/w documents, runs ink together, and generally makes everything
illegible.

All self tests work cleanly and perfectly - both the tests within windows
and the stand alone ones.

Plenty of ink.

Works fine on my old win98se machine.

I have tried:
1. Reinstalling drivers (delete and add, delete and detect, delete and
check windows update). Nothing.
2. Reinstalling drivers from original xp disk. nothing
3. Reinstalling drivers from a friend's xp disk. nothing.
4. Turned off spooling.
5. No irq conflicts, lpt port seems fine.
6. Changed lpt port setting in bios to "standard".
7. Tried three different cables.
8. Tried to install 98 drivers on an xp machine. (don't try this!)

Any more ideas? I have used this printer for years without issue and
bristle at the suggestion - well, just toss it and get another!

Had you recently installed any other software or hardware just before it
started acting up? If so, remove it/them and try again.

Have you tried to go back to a known working restore point?
(Start/Accessories/System Tools/System Restore)

Just some thoughts.

Regards,
John

 

[measekite]

If by jittery you mean it makes shadows, perhaps in multiple colors of
text, it could be an issue with an encoder strip fogged with aerosol.
XP may print text as graphics (and use the color cartridge to do this)
in some cases, and if the encoder is dirty the printhead may stutter
across the page resulting in the effect you may be seeing.

Try gently cleaning the encoder as shown at the following:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=bpd50646


Pay particular attention to the cautions, as you can damage the
fragile encoder if you are not careful.

While you are "under the hood" you might also check out the spittoon.
In a printer this old it may be near full, causing issues with the
black cartridge. See:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=bpa02019
for instructions on cleaning the spittoon.

WERE YOU EXPELLED FROM DA CLUB

 

[pgluth1]

If by jittery you mean it makes shadows, perhaps in multiple colors of
text, it could be an issue with an encoder strip fogged with aerosol.
XP may print text as graphics (and use the color cartridge to do this)
in some cases, and if the encoder is dirty the printhead may stutter
across the page resulting in the effect you may be seeing.

Try gently cleaning the encoder as shown at the following:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=
bpd50646

Pay particular attention to the cautions, as you can damage the
fragile encoder if you are not careful.

While you are "under the hood" you might also check out the spittoon.
In a printer this old it may be near full, causing issues with the
black cartridge. See:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=
bpa02019 for instructions on cleaning the spittoon

Thanks to all for many excellent suggestions. I will probably try to
clean the encoder and the spittoon this week, however, I am not sure that
explains why the self tests come out perfect and there are no streaks
when I connect the printer to a Win98se machine.

Lastly, and I should have included this in the original post, documents
almost always start out perfect and then get "jittery." It might be in
the middle of page one, or it might wait until page 3, but the top
section is always flawless and once the characters begin to go out of
focus, they never recover. Also, though it doesn't happen every time,
often by the end of the document, the printer "stalls" and all 3 lights
flash. I must then turn off the printer before I can continue.

I am fast reaching a reinstall of XP -

 

[Bob Headrick]

Lastly, and I should have included this in the original post,
documents
almost always start out perfect and then get "jittery." It might be in
the middle of page one, or it might wait until page 3, but the top
section is always flawless and once the characters begin to go out of
focus, they never recover. Also, though it doesn't happen every time,
often by the end of the document, the printer "stalls" and all 3
lights
flash. I must then turn off the printer before I can continue.

This could still be the encoder, but it also may be that the carriage
rod has gotten sticky due to an ink buildup, causing the carriage to
stall. (The encoder problem would make the printer think its carriage
was stalling, the carriage rod friction could cause it to actually
stall. Both would appear the same in terms of error conditions.) In
this case it may help to clean the carriage rod with a soft damp cloth,
then dry with a soft dry cloth. HP does not recommend lubricating the
carriage rod, but it might not hurt to open the lid, put one small drop
of oil on each side of the carriage, then pull out the power plug and
move the carriage back and forth by hand a few times. Do not overdo the
lube, as this can cause problems.

Regards,
Bob Headrick