? Turning Off and On Gets HP Laserjet 6P C3980A to Work

[Nehmo]

This is not my printer I'm talking about, and it's not in front of
me, so troubleshooting it is problematic. But the printer's owner
called for advice, and I'm in turn asking the good people here.

The OS is Windows XP Pro.

HP Laserjet 6P C3980A Description:
http://www.printertechs.com/printer/refurbished-hp-laserjet-6p.php

According to the owner, the printer will print from Notepad only if,
after sending the job to the printer, they turn the printer off and on.
The printer has the same behavior with a test page via properties. But
they also say when printing labels form QuickBooks 2003, only part of
the page is printed.

Do these symptoms make any sense? Is there a solution?

 

[measekite]

1. UNINSTALL THE ALL PRINT DRIVERS

2. REBOOT THE COMPUTER

3. RE-INSTALL DRIVER FROM FACTORY CD

4. REBOOT THE COMPUTER

5. IF YOU STILL HAVE PROBLEMS CHECK THE DATA CABLE.

6. RESET THE PRINTER MENU TO THE FACTORY DEFAULTS

 

[Tony]

There could be 2 problems here.
Firstly press the reset/job cancel button for more that 20 seconds to perform a
NVRAM reset.
If that does not help uninstall the printer and re-install using the lates
driver from the HP website for WinXP. Uninstall from Programs if an uninstall
is present or failing that from Add/Remove programs, don't delete the printer
in control panel/printers unless there is no alternative (this can leave driver
remnants on the system).
See if that helps.
The Quickbooks problem could be that the file is too big for the printer. Laser
printers can only print images that will fit in their internal memory.
So if this problem is not fixed with the driver re-install they need to do a
test by reducing the complexity of the lables so they have only a tiny amount
of data and see if all the lables print, if so memory size is the likely cause.
They can get a status page by pushing both buttons on the printer at once, this
will tell them how much memory is installed (2MB is standard on the 6P and 3MB
on the 6MP) memory can be increased by up to 48MB with plug in boards but they
are expensive so it is essential to do a test first.
Tony

 

[Ben Myers]

Amount of memory, or lack thereof, in a laser printer is a well-known cause of
printing problems like the one described by the OP. I would suggest that the OP
change the printer resolution to 300dpi as a workaround. I am assuming this is
possible with the 6P, as with other HP LaserJets.

Windows has become progressively less efficient with its printer drivers. My
first exposure to the partial page printing problem was in the transition from
Win 3.1 to Win 95. A spreadsheet printed perfectly with 3.1, got messed up when
printed with 95. It's only gotten worse, because efficient programming is an
unknown phrase among the Micro$ofties... Ben Myers

 

[me]

This is not my printer I'm talking about, and it's not in front of
me, so troubleshooting it is problematic. But the printer's owner
called for advice, and I'm in turn asking the good people here.

The OS is Windows XP Pro.

HP Laserjet 6P C3980A Description:
http://www.printertechs.com/printer/refurbished-hp-laserjet-6p.php

According to the owner, the printer will print from Notepad only if,
after sending the job to the printer, they turn the printer off and on.
The printer has the same behavior with a test page via properties. But
they also say when printing labels form QuickBooks 2003, only part of
the page is printed.
Do these symptoms make any sense? Is there a solution?

Is it turning itself offline after so many minutes of inactivity? Or
going into some sort of sleep mode, from which telling it to print
doesn't wake it?

 

[Nehmo]

I'm not with the printer. The info I have about it, I acquired over the
phone. So I don't know really what's going on with it regarding what
mode it's in.
Actually, I already told them to buy a new printer, a color one this
time. As a practical matter, it's not worth the toruble to fix some
printers.