Which driver for HP Laserjet 4100n

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b33k34

I've just bought a second hand laserjet 4100n and am looking for the
right drivers. A bit confused by HP's site which lists:

HP Universal Print Driver for Windows - PCL 5
HP Universal Print Driver for Windows - PostScript
hp LaserJet 4100/4100mfp PCL6 driver
hp LaserJet 4100/4100mfp PCL5e driver
hp LaserJet 4100/4100mfp PCL6 point and print bundle 2.0
HP LaserJet 4100 Printing System 2.0
hp LaserJet 4100 PCL/PostScript Driver Bundle 1.0
HP LaserJet 4100 PostScript Point and Print Bundle 3.0
HP LaserJet 4100/4100mfp PostScript driver

I want to run the printer on my home network and print from two WinXP
machines. Which driver will be best?
 
I've just bought a second hand laserjet 4100n and am looking for the
right drivers. A bit confused by HP's site which lists:

HP Universal Print Driver for Windows - PCL 5
HP Universal Print Driver for Windows - PostScript
Click to expand...

Both of those will work, but may not provide access to all the features
of the printer.
hp LaserJet 4100/4100mfp PCL6 driver
Click to expand...

Should be the best performance in a PCL driver.
hp LaserJet 4100/4100mfp PCL5e driver
Click to expand...

Unlikely to be needed.
hp LaserJet 4100/4100mfp PCL6 point and print bundle 2.0
Click to expand...

I don't know what HP means by "point and print", but would guess it
implies lots of software I wouldn't want.
HP LaserJet 4100 Printing System 2.0
Click to expand...

Maybe the same as "point and print"?
hp LaserJet 4100 PCL/PostScript Driver Bundle 1.0
Click to expand...

Both PCL and PostScript drivers.
HP LaserJet 4100 PostScript Point and Print Bundle 3.0
Click to expand...

"Point and print" again.
HP LaserJet 4100/4100mfp PostScript driver
Click to expand...

This would be my choice.
I want to run the printer on my home network and print from two WinXP
machines. Which driver will be best?
Click to expand...

It depends on your software and what you print. Try the PCL6 driver and
the 4100 PostScript driver and compare print speeds and print quality.
You may find one is faster for some printing, or one provides better
output.
 
I ignored your advice and went for this one as it had by far the most
recent release date - I figured it would be likely to have full
backward compatibility and it seems to work really well.

Has a very slick looking pop-up window that reports back low toner
(what could i expect on a from a second hand printer....) and was easy
to install.

The hardest part of setup was changing the IP address and Subnet mask
of the printer to something in the range i use - the timeout on the
printer menu's was too short so I kept having to start over. Print
quality is a good as i'd expect from a printer that's done less than
10k pages according to the config sheet. A different class to the low
end Samsung it has replaced. All in all a great buy.
 
Has a very slick looking pop-up window that reports back low toner
Click to expand...

and still does with a brand new, sealed, OEM HP cartridge...... which i
suspect i may not have needed for some time. Any idea how to reset
this?
 
and still does with a brand new, sealed, OEM HP cartridge...... which i
suspect i may not have needed for some time. Any idea how to reset
this?
Click to expand...

The toner life is recorded in the cartridge chip, this chip interfaces with the
printer.
If you have two separate cartridges that report low toner and they are not low
then the printer has an issue. The chips cannot be reset. It is probably not
worthwhile fixing. I suggest you live with the toner low message and replace
the toner when you get poor quality printing.
Tony
 
Tony said:
The toner life is recorded in the cartridge chip, this chip interfaces with the
printer.
If you have two separate cartridges that report low toner and they are not low
then the printer has an issue. The chips cannot be reset. It is probably not
worthwhile fixing. I suggest you live with the toner low message and replace
the toner when you get poor quality printing.
Click to expand...
I think it's a software rather than hardware issue. The laserjets i've
used before give low toner/toner out messages on the LCD display on the
printer itself. The messages i'm getting are from the
driver/application on the PC - the printer display is not reporting low
toner.

I'm also getting a few documents that are failing to print - the
printer display records 'data received' but doesnt print. Eventually
it spits out a part printed page. The driver reports 'the document
failed to print'. I've not worked out what type of docs cause it -
i've had it happen with word/excel and mozilla pages. one doc caused
some problems then printed ok later. one excel doc will not print at
all but printed fine on my HP inkjet
 
I think it's a software rather than hardware issue. The laserjets i've
used before give low toner/toner out messages on the LCD display on the
printer itself. The messages i'm getting are from the
driver/application on the PC - the printer display is not reporting low
toner.

I'm also getting a few documents that are failing to print - the
printer display records 'data received' but doesnt print. Eventually
it spits out a part printed page. The driver reports 'the document
failed to print'. I've not worked out what type of docs cause it -
i've had it happen with word/excel and mozilla pages. one doc caused
some problems then printed ok later. one excel doc will not print at
all but printed fine on my HP inkjet
Click to expand...

Based on the updated information you have provided I do not think this is a
printer problem. I know of hundreds of this model installed and none of them
have this issue, also if the printer was at fault it is most unlikely that the
printer would not report low toner.
I suspect you have either the incorrect driver installed or the one that is
installed is corrupt.
I suggest you try the PCL6 driver.
Tony
 
Tony said:
Based on the updated information you have provided I do not think this is a
printer problem. I know of hundreds of this model installed and none of them
have this issue, also if the printer was at fault it is most unlikely that the
printer would not report low toner.
I suspect you have either the incorrect driver installed or the one that is
installed is corrupt.
I suggest you try the PCL6 driver.
Click to expand...

I've not tried the 5, 5e and 6 drivers and get the same problem with
all of them. Very odd - can't work out what's causing the print to
fail and since it's intermittent it's even more difficult.

2 MS Word docs based on the same template. One prints, the other fails.
 
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