Win XP Won't Reliably Print to HP Laserjet

[Elle]

HP Laserjet 5L Extra (bought new c. 1998) printer here.
One-month old computer with new Win XP SP2 Home loaded on
it. Was printing fine the first few weeks. Now, printing a
single paged document, the printer's error light comes on
and blinks. The manual indicates this means the (software)
driver is suspect. I reset the printer, to see if it's just
some temporary hangup, and the printer starts printing but
only very large font and only a few words of my one-page
long (like 12-pt font) document at a time.

Last time this happened, after loading and reloading what I
thought were the drivers, and stopping print jobs as needed
using the "Printers" feature in "Control Panel," I could not
get any improvement. I waited a day or two, then tried to
print something, and it printed fine.

My old computer with Win ME has no problems sending a print
job to this printer.

Any suggestions?

 

[kony]

HP Laserjet 5L Extra (bought new c. 1998) printer here.
One-month old computer with new Win XP SP2 Home loaded on
it. Was printing fine the first few weeks. Now, printing a
single paged document, the printer's error light comes on
and blinks. The manual indicates this means the (software)
driver is suspect. I reset the printer, to see if it's just
some temporary hangup, and the printer starts printing but
only very large font and only a few words of my one-page
long (like 12-pt font) document at a time.

Last time this happened, after loading and reloading what I
thought were the drivers, and stopping print jobs as needed
using the "Printers" feature in "Control Panel," I could not
get any improvement. I waited a day or two, then tried to
print something, and it printed fine.

My old computer with Win ME has no problems sending a print
job to this printer.

Any suggestions?

Probably a driver setting, resulting in a page that is too
complex for the printer to handle.

You might try entering the printer properties and checking
all settings, perhaps trying to reset all to defaults
manually or if there's a "defaults" type of button to
automate it. If all else fails uninstall any printer
drivers from add/remove programs, delete the printer from
the control panel-printers listing if it's (still) there,
reboot and reinstall the current driver IF WinXP doesn't do
so automatically.

 

[badgolferman]

HP Laserjet 5L Extra (bought new c. 1998) printer here. One-month old
computer with new Win XP SP2 Home loaded on it. Was printing fine the
first few weeks. Now, printing a single paged document, the printer's
error light comes on and blinks. The manual indicates this means the
(software) driver is suspect. I reset the printer, to see if it's
just some temporary hangup, and the printer starts printing but only
very large font and only a few words of my one-page long (like 12-pt
font) document at a time.

Last time this happened, after loading and reloading what I thought
were the drivers, and stopping print jobs as needed using the
"Printers" feature in "Control Panel," I could not get any
improvement. I waited a day or two, then tried to print something,
and it printed fine.

My old computer with Win ME has no problems sending a print job to
this printer.

Any suggestions?

Try installing HP Laserjet 4 driver even though it is Laserjet 5. That
is an old trick for many different brand printers when driver problems
are suspected.

 

[Elle]

Try installing HP Laserjet 4 driver even though it is
Laserjet 5. That
is an old trick for many different brand printers when
driver problems
are suspected.

Kony and badgolf:

Right. I just removed all drivers then added different HP
Laserjet drivers (including the original), one at a time,
and have rebooted the computer etc. in several attempts. No
luck.

I have an email into HP and will try their tech support
online chat on Monday when it becomes available.

One thing I noticed is that in the list of drivers Win XP
presents, the Laserjet 5L is mentioned, but not the Laserjet
5L Extra. I think a distinction was made on my old computer.
From my past work on this printer, I know there is some kind
of difference between these two computers.

Thanks for your efforts.

 

[ElJerid]

HP Laserjet 5L Extra (bought new c. 1998) printer here. One-month old
computer with new Win XP SP2 Home loaded on it. Was printing fine the
first few weeks. Now, printing a single paged document, the printer's
error light comes on and blinks. The manual indicates this means the
(software) driver is suspect. I reset the printer, to see if it's just
some temporary hangup, and the printer starts printing but only very
large font and only a few words of my one-page long (like 12-pt font)
document at a time.

Last time this happened, after loading and reloading what I thought were
the drivers, and stopping print jobs as needed using the "Printers"
feature in "Control Panel," I could not get any improvement. I waited a
day or two, then tried to print something, and it printed fine.

My old computer with Win ME has no problems sending a print job to this
printer.

Any suggestions?

You don't say if you're using the default Win XP drivers or the HP drivers.
I had similar problems with my Laserjet 6L, I changed the HP drivers to the
default XP drivers (removing the printer in Control Panel and Device
Manager) and no problems anymore.

 

[Elle]

You don't say if you're using the default Win XP drivers
or the HP drivers.

I'm using the default Win XP drivers. But, as I mentioned,
no driver for the HP Laserjet 5L Xtra is listed, only one
for the 5L.

I tried HP's CD that came with the printer back around 1998.
Its drivers didn't make the printer work.

I had similar problems with my Laserjet 6L, I changed the
HP drivers to the default XP drivers (removing the printer
in Control Panel and Device Manager) and no problems
anymore.

I don't see anything that has to do with printers under
Control Panel, Performance and Maintenance, System,
Hardware, Device Manager.

I have removed and re-installed the drivers per the
directions under "Printers and Faxes."

God willing HP will have something intelligent to say about
this tomorrow.

 

[Quaoar]

I'm using the default Win XP drivers. But, as I mentioned,
no driver for the HP Laserjet 5L Xtra is listed, only one
for the 5L.

I tried HP's CD that came with the printer back around 1998.
Its drivers didn't make the printer work.


I don't see anything that has to do with printers under
Control Panel, Performance and Maintenance, System,
Hardware, Device Manager.

I have removed and re-installed the drivers per the
directions under "Printers and Faxes."

God willing HP will have something intelligent to say about
this tomorrow.

IIRC, the 5L "Extra" was just a designation for additional software of
some kind supplied with the basic 5L printer. In WinXP, is is often the
case that when switching printer drivers (say you started with the HP
driver and then switched to the default XP driver), the ports properties
get munged. You can completely remove the installed driver for a clean
install of the default XP driver by following the recommendations at
this link, select Article One:

http://www.coribright.com/windows/Article One.htm

Q

 

[Elle]

IIRC, the 5L "Extra" was just a designation for additional
software of some kind supplied with the basic 5L printer.
In WinXP, is is often the case that when switching printer
drivers (say you started with the HP driver and then
switched to the default XP driver), the ports properties
get munged. You can completely remove the installed
driver for a clean install of the default XP driver by
following the recommendations at this link, select Article
One:

http://www.coribright.com/windows/Article One.htm

Tried the steps at the above link. Downloaded the Win 2000
software. Couldn't find anything executable. Added a printer
driver again, per Win XP's directions, leaving my printer
disconnected. Never got a prompt to disconnect. Connected
it. Same problem.

Earlier I got a Wordpad document to print okay. But neither
PDF files I have nor ordinary Word documents I have would
print properly.

I suspect the problem is munging, like you say.

Dear lord, let some soul not bent on selling crappy products
take over Microsoft, or otherwise develop a better OS...

 

[badgolferman]

Tried the steps at the above link. Downloaded the Win 2000 software.
Couldn't find anything executable. Added a printer driver again, per
Win XP's directions, leaving my printer disconnected. Never got a
prompt to disconnect. Connected it. Same problem.

Earlier I got a Wordpad document to print okay. But neither PDF files
I have nor ordinary Word documents I have would print properly.

I suspect the problem is munging, like you say.

Dear lord, let some soul not bent on selling crappy products take
over Microsoft, or otherwise develop a better OS...

I suspect there is a Postscript or PCL problem. Usually when you
select the print driver you get a choice between PS and PCL type. Try
the other one.

 

[Elle]

I suspect there is a Postscript or PCL problem. Usually
when you
select the print driver you get a choice between PS and
PCL type. Try
the other one.

There is not such a choice for the HP Laserjet 5L. There are
for other HP Laserjet models.

I'm taking a break from all the shot in the dark attempts
I'm making at finding the right driver. Hopefully HP will
come through. If they don't (and I think there's a 50%
chance of this), I think I'll go printer shopping. My old
printer has mechanical problems that require a sheet by
sheet hand feed anyway.

 

[Elle]

Hopefully HP will come through. If they don't (and I think
there's a 50% chance of this), I think I'll go printer
shopping.

Couldn't get through to the online chat. Stuff needs to be
downloaded.

The HP 800 number said my (c. 1998 Laserjet 5L Xtra) printer
is out of warranty; support is provided only for a fee.

 

[kony]

Couldn't get through to the online chat. Stuff needs to be
downloaded.

The HP 800 number said my (c. 1998 Laserjet 5L Xtra) printer
is out of warranty; support is provided only for a fee.

Did you yet remove the printer entirely? I don't mean
uninstalling drivers, but also removing from the installed
printers list. Have windows redetect it again and start out
clean without the HP drivers, and test it.

 

[Elle]

Did you yet remove the printer entirely? I don't mean
uninstalling drivers, but also removing from the installed
printers list. Have windows redetect it again and start
out
clean without the HP drivers, and test it.

First, since the printer is old and slow and unreliable
mechanically anyway, I caved in and ordered a new printer
online yesterday. Details below.

Yes, I removed both the driver and the printer's listing in
the printers list.

It's not a USB connected printer (that is, it only has a
parallel-connecting cable), so using the "Add a printer"
sequence of steps, my HP Laserjet 5L Xtra is not detected
(via plug n play, anyway). The Laserjet 5L (sans Xtra) does
come up in the subsequent listing.

I was able to get Wordpad short documents and some Outlook
Express email messages to print out. One Microsoft site
indicated this was then symptomatic of a problem with my
Microsoft Word document. And my Acrobat Reader PDF software.
Neither of which are successfully printing documents using
my new computer right now.

So forward the best I know how for now (weenie that I am, I
know!). My new printer specs and decision-making process: I
researched this with help from people here and elsewhere a
year ago and quickly settled on an HP Laserjet 1020 for $122
from an apparently reputable online source. It beat out
Samsung's ML-2010 Laser printer for maybe $50, after the
rebate (ha). Getting rebates from Samsung for this printer
is said, by newegg.com's reviews, to be horrendously taxing.
Also, thanks to warnings here, I factored in what was going
on with printer cartridges, estimating the 1000-page
"starter" cartridge Samsung provides vs. the 3000-page
regular cartridge HP provides is an immediate roughly $40
extra for the Samsung. Plus that damned rebate runaround. HP
cartridge prices subsequently appear to be available for
around $20 less than the Samsung's. Plus I had to darn near
extort a rebate from Samsung last year for a new monitor (I
crossed every "t" and dotted every "i"; they were animals,
until Best Buy stepped in. Or so it seemed.). So there
certainly seems to be some truth to the rebate problems, and
all those problems had a huge impact on my decision-making
here. 'Cause otherwise, the Samsung ML-2010 gets pretty good
reviews for a discount Laser printer.

I know it's maybe a cop-out to just buy a new printer, but
my personal cost-benefit analysis (the greater speed I'll
get with the new laserjet; the fact I can load more than one
sheet of paper at at time(!); etc.) indicates it's worth it.
Not that I have money to throw away. I don't. But my old
printer is pretty old. I checked my records, and I purchased
it in May, 1997. So my gosh, I've had it almost ten years.
Nine of which yielded bad performance--much jamming, though
this is said to be repairable and a class action lawsuit
yielded results, etc.

Again, thanks for giving so much time to my queries and
others. It's important community service. I wish people
could deduct it on their tax returns!

 

[kony]

So forward the best I know how for now (weenie that I am, I
know!). My new printer specs and decision-making process: I
researched this with help from people here and elsewhere a
year ago and quickly settled on an HP Laserjet 1020 for $122
from an apparently reputable online source. It beat out
Samsung's ML-2010 Laser printer for maybe $50, after the
rebate (ha). Getting rebates from Samsung for this printer
is said, by newegg.com's reviews, to be horrendously taxing.

Often Newegg reviewers review the product well before
they've waited long enough (the typical 6-10(?) weeks) to
actually have any reasonable expectation that they would've
received the rebate yet. Many even post reviews within a
few days of receiving the product. Others may wait the 6-8
weeks but unfortunately it seems many rebates these days
wait until the particular rebate period is ended to start
processing, or so they claim, and it may be over 8 weeks so
people just didn't wait long enough.

I don't recall how long my wait was but I bought one of
those from Newegg, several months ago and did receive the
rebate without any further action.

Also, thanks to warnings here, I factored in what was going
on with printer cartridges, estimating the 1000-page
"starter" cartridge Samsung provides vs. the 3000-page
regular cartridge HP provides is an immediate roughly $40
extra for the Samsung.

Quite true, but if you're going to price out (plan to buy)
whole replacement cartridges, it can be cheaper in the long
run to buy a printer that takes higher capacity cartridges.
I can across a special deal at newegg where they had an
extra coupon and a momentary price fluctuation that brought
the price down to under $40 AR when I bought it, and I have
no complaints about the 2010 for ~ $50, but it is not built
to last long term and has trouble with thick stock. I
usually use a $1000+ Lexmark laser though, which just
refuses to die after many years so it is still my primary
printer, I'd not recommend the 2010 for medium or heavy duty
use. Funny thing is the 2010 will probably die of old age
without ever having printed much because if/when my Lexmark
fails I've a HP Lasermark 3 that also refuses to die. Now
THAT is a tank, it probably weighs 80 pounds.

Plus that damned rebate runaround. HP
cartridge prices subsequently appear to be available for
around $20 less than the Samsung's. Plus I had to darn near
extort a rebate from Samsung last year for a new monitor (I
crossed every "t" and dotted every "i"; they were animals,
until Best Buy stepped in. Or so it seemed.). So there
certainly seems to be some truth to the rebate problems, and
all those problems had a huge impact on my decision-making
here. 'Cause otherwise, the Samsung ML-2010 gets pretty good
reviews for a discount Laser printer.

It doesn't print bad at all except that issue I mentioned
above about taking thick stock. I am a bit spoiled in that
department though, sometimes it seems as though I could just
throw a small animal into the Lasermark 3 and it'd make a
pancake out of it. Otherwise, the 2010 does ok but most
lasers do, so it's not bad but must be seen as a sub-$100
class printer which is best for light use. It was ideal for
my uses because it will be years before I exhaust the
starter cartridge in it's aux. role.

I know it's maybe a cop-out to just buy a new printer, but
my personal cost-benefit analysis (the greater speed I'll
get with the new laserjet; the fact I can load more than one
sheet of paper at at time(!); etc.) indicates it's worth it.
Not that I have money to throw away. I don't. But my old
printer is pretty old. I checked my records, and I purchased
it in May, 1997. So my gosh, I've had it almost ten years.
Nine of which yielded bad performance--much jamming, though
this is said to be repairable and a class action lawsuit
yielded results, etc.

If I had to buy a new main-use printer today it'd likely be
an HP, whatever is large enough to accept 8K+ capacity
cartridges. Price per page goes down in the long run with a
larger printer, though of course it'd depend on how long it
takes per your printing volume to recoup the cost.

 

[Elle]

Often Newegg reviewers review the product well before
they've waited long enough (the typical 6-10(?) weeks) to
actually have any reasonable expectation that they
would've
received the rebate yet.

I looked for that. There were people who said over 12 weeks
had passed and they were getting no help from newegg.com.

My own rebate from Samsung for my new monitor last year took
about 15 weeks, and that was with my calling and pestering
them starting after week 8.

I appreciate the other input.