Using HP 855C with Vista 64

[Alan Wolfson]

I have a very old and very reliable HP 855C printer. There is no Vista
driver available for the 855C. I downloaded used the HP driver for the 870.
It prints fine, however, before each print job I get a single page with
"@PJL ENTER LANGUAGE=PCL" on the first line and the rest blank. The rest of
the print is fine.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to eliminate the first page?

Thanks and Happy New Year.

Alan

 

[Alan Wolfson]

I would suggest trying the Deskjet 500C driver built into Vista. (Use Add
Printer).

Regards,
Bob Headrick. MS MVP Printing/Imaging

Thanks for the suggestion Bob. Using the Deskjet 500C driver eliminates the
extra page as you suggested. However, when printing black letters they come
out a reddish brown. Did the 500C make black by mixing colors? If I set
the printer to black instead of color, it prints using black ink. It's a
good work around if I don't need color. I suspect that if I want color I
will have to use an XP computer.

Happy New Year!

Alan

 

[measekite]

I have a very old and very reliable HP 855C printer. There is no Vista

The 800 series HP printers were not very reliable when it came to paper
handling. They were problematic when feeding certain papers after the
rollers became less pliable.

 

[measekite]

I would suggest trying the Deskjet 500C driver built into Vista. (Use
Add Printer).

Regards,
Bob Headrick. MS MVP Printing/Imaging

That is a crappy driver from day one.

 

[Alan Wolfson]

The 800 series HP printers were not very reliable when it came to paper
handling. They were problematic when feeding certain papers after the
rollers became less pliable.

Thanks for an utterly useless comment. As I said my HP855C is 13 years
old and has reliably printed 10s of thousands of pages maybe even
100s of thousands with no problems. In that period I have had to clean out
the ink well two times.

A well designed and well engineered printer.

Alan

 

[measekite]

Thanks for an utterly useless comment. As I said my HP855C is 13 years
old and has reliably printed 10s of thousands of pages maybe even
100s of thousands with no problems. In that period I have had to clean out
the ink well two times.

A well designed and well engineered printer.

Alan

It was not very well designed. It had poor paper handling and envelope
feeding and you never printed hundreds of thousands of pages. That is a
lie since the HP engineers did not design that kind of longevity into any
inkjet ever.

 

[TJ]

It was not very well designed. It had poor paper handling and envelope
feeding and you never printed hundreds of thousands of pages. That is a
lie since the HP engineers did not design that kind of longevity into any
inkjet ever.

That doesn't mean that it didn't happen. Statistically speaking, for
every printer that fails in the first week there's another of the same
model that happily chugs away for years beyond its expected life. And
another thing - the OP never said anything about printing envelopes.
Maybe he doesn't.

Assuming a 6-day work week, 100,000 pages works out to around 25 pages a
day over the course of 13 years. (100,000 pages/13 years/52 weeks a
year/6 days a week) That doesn't sound like so many to me.

TJ

 

[Alan Wolfson]

That doesn't mean that it didn't happen. Statistically speaking, for every
printer that fails in the first week there's another of the same model
that happily chugs away for years beyond its expected life. And another
thing - the OP never said anything about printing envelopes. Maybe he
doesn't.

Assuming a 6-day work week, 100,000 pages works out to around 25 pages a
day over the course of 13 years. (100,000 pages/13 years/52 weeks a year/6
days a week) That doesn't sound like so many to me.

TJ

TJ, actually, I do print envelopes all the time. Now it is one at a time,
but years ago
when I was sending out a newsletter I used to print them in batches using as
many
envelopes at a time as would fit in the tray.

Measekite's comments are irrelevant to the topic and ill informed as usual.

Alan

 

[TJ]

Measekite's comments are irrelevant to the topic and ill informed as usual.

True. That's mostly because he refuses to accept the idea that someone
can have an experience that runs contrary to what he believes. He
completely discounts the idea that a heavily-used mechanical device that
is well-maintained can actually last longer than one that is lightly used.

Take the paper rollers, for example. With most users, the surface of the
rollers dries out over time, and the printer develops paper-handling
problems. The cure is often to use some sort of abrasive to remove that
surface and restore its "grip." With a heavily-used printer, wear from
the passage of paper would probably do the same job as the abrasive, and
the roller surface wouldn't dry out the same way. Of course, that
speculation is based on years of general experience with things
mechanical, so it could be completely wrong. Unlike Measekite, I don't
claim to be a printer expert. But it makes perfect sense to me.

Actually, Measekite surprised me. I'm surprised he didn't jump in and
say that the only way you could possibly get that kind of life out of a
printer was if you'd used OEM ink exclusively.

TJ

 

[measekite]

True. That's mostly because he refuses to accept the idea that someone
can have an experience that runs contrary to what he believes. He
completely discounts the idea that a heavily-used mechanical device that
is well-maintained can actually last longer than one that is lightly
used.

Did not say that.

Take the paper rollers, for example. With most users, the surface of the
rollers dries out over time, and the printer develops paper-handling
problems. The cure is often to use some sort of abrasive to remove that
surface and restore its "grip." With a heavily-used printer, wear from
the passage of paper would probably do the same job as the abrasive, and
the roller surface wouldn't dry out the same way. Of course, that
speculation is based on years of general experience with things
mechanical, so it could be completely wrong. Unlike Measekite, I don't
claim to be a printer expert. But it makes perfect sense to me.

You are not a printer expert. These printers had issues with paper
handling.

 

[TJ]

You are not a printer expert. These printers had issues with paper
handling.

Maybe many of them did, but apparently the OP didn't have those
problems. Might not be the printer, anyway. You yourself have stated
that your HP handles envelopes better with Linux than with Windows.

TJ

 

[measekite]

Maybe many of them did, but apparently the OP didn't have those
problems. Might not be the printer, anyway. You yourself have stated
that your HP handles envelopes better with Linux than with Windows.

TJ

But I have an HP990Cse. The cups driver does handle envelopes better than
Windows but still not as good as the Canon. Still and all the HP990Cse
has a faster and higher quality draft mode and that is why I use it;
mainly for general text printing. I do use the higher quality mode when
sending out letters etc. I use the Canon when printing papers that
require better paper handling and for photographs.

One day I expect to get a wide format printer. Today, I think the Epson
3800 produces the best print but its lack of the appropriate number of ink
channels is a real drawback.