Can print test page, can't print from Notepad

[agent60182204]

I just got an HP DeskJet 935C. I installed the driver and plugged it
in. I was able to print a test page by pressing the button in the
Printer properties.

Note that I am saying that I pressed a button on the computer, and it
sent a signal to the printer. I didn't just press a button on the
printer. Maybe some printers have that feature. I want to make clear
that the communication between the computer and the printer is working
(so don't ask me to check that the cable is plugged in).

I was not able to print from Notepad, Word or Command prompt (using
echo x > lpt1).

I'm sure this is a common problem with an easy answer. I'm just not
thinking of it right now.

Thanks

 

[agent60182204]

Sorry, some more info.

When I send a print job from Notepad etc, I see the job in the printer
queue briefly. It gets cleared and nothing further happens.

I did check that I targetted the correct printer. In fact, it is the
only printer installed.

There is no network involved. The printer is directly connected to
the computer.

The spool service is running.

I did install a new pair of ink cartridges (one black, one colour).

The printer is "online". There are no lights indicating lack of ink
or paper.

Thanks.

 

[Woody]

Where did the printer come from. It is not a current printer. What operating
system? There are no full feature drivers for Vista. Only basic print
drivers supplied with Vista. Latest drivers are dated 2002. What driver did
you install? Did you look at Device Manager to see if it thinks the printer
is installed correctly.? Is the printer port address and mode set correctly?
My guess (for lack of pertinent information) is you have incorrect drivers
installed.

 

[Woody]

Added info. The XP driver is only a basic DeskJet driver. The last full
feature driver for that printer was for ME.

 

[agent60182204]

I read all of your posts, and I will answer all of the questions,
mostly in order:


- Yes, the printer is new and never worked. Except remember that I
said the test page printed correctly, so I'm not saying the printer is
physically broken. It seems to be a software/driver issue.

- OS is Windows XP Professional "Version 2002" (whatever that means).
So not SP2 or even SP1, I guess. This is my friend's computer, btw.

- The test page is an HP page, with an HP logo and rectangles in
several colours and black.

- The computer is a bit old and has no USB port. The printer connects
to the parallel port. If I have to, I'll take the printer to another
computer and try it with parallel or usb. I'd rather not have to.

- Printing to file? No. When I printed from Notepad, it was just a
normal process. The only reason I mentioned redirecting to LPT1 was
because I wanted to try it from Command Prompt. From the prompt, I
had to use the echo command. How else do you print from the prompt?
I think best is don't focus on this. Just get me working on Notepad.
I tried from the prompt because the WinXP troubleshooter told me to.

- I don't have another parallel cable here, and I don't think that's
the problem since the test page worked.

- The printer came free with a computer my friend bought recently. He
gave it to me, since I said I had another friend who could use it.

- Even if it's only basic drivers, wouldn't that be ok? I'm not
trying to do anything fancy.

- I installed the driver that is included with WinXP, called HP
DeskJet 930C/932C/935C. I chose it from the list; first I chose the
manufacturer, then the model. This gave me a full-featured properties
dialog, with 7 tabs of stuff. Or does full-featured mean something
else?

- I'm not sure if you're right that the last full-featured driver was
for ME. Like I said, I seem to have a full properties dialog. Also,
I clicked on a link on hp.com (at the top of the page at the link you
mentioned) to have it check if I have the latest driver, and it said I
did.

- The device manager doesn't list the printer, but if I open "Printers
and Faxes", it lists the printer, and it looks ok. No exclamation
points or anything.

- Printer port is set to LPT1. Did I plug the parallel cable into
LPT1? I guess I did, or the test page wouldn't have worked, right?

- I'm not sure what you mean by port mode. If I click "Configure
port", it has only one parameter. Transmission Retry = 90.

- You asked about flashing lights, while printing the test page and
the notepad page? Well, I tried the test page just now, and it's not
working. :-( Now I'm not sure if undid something from last time. I
turned the power off and took all the paper out at the end of my
session last time. This time, I turned the power on and put a single
piece of paper in. Am I forgetting something? Anyway, I can't test
the blinking lights right now.

- I appreciate all the help. I wish printers and parallel interfaces
oweren't such black boxes. I have the patience to use a protocol
analyzer to solve network problems, and to wade through thousands of
lines in Process Monitor (which lists all access to files and the
registry). With printers, it seems to me that all there is to do is
put in a new driver. Or maybe someone has some new ideas. I'm all
ears.

Thanks.

 

[agent60182204]

------

All that is involved in that is getting a command of few characters to the printer. The Windows printer test page lists out the system drivers used.

Well, it had an HP logo too, so it has an image, and isn't just a few
characters.

------

That might be your best bet to prove out the printer and cable. Could be the printer is knackered, commands work but the memory buffer that build pages is dead.

Do you really think the memory is bad? I never really considered
that. When they give a free printer, I expected one with fewer
features, but not an old one or a broken one. I'm not even sure how
successful I'll be if I ask my friend to try to get a replacement.

Printer codes may mean commands with escape chars like print test page go one way, data to print another path.

Do you really think the Test Page is a special page stored in the
printer's memory, and the computer instructs it with a special code to
go ahead and print it? I doubt it. So I don't see what the
difference is. (I'm not saying I'm right, it just doesn't seem
logical to me.)

I agree that a Test Page is special, in that the software that starts
it off might know better how to talk to the printer, and not use a
generic interface that other apps use. But, if we are talking about
bad memory, I would think that the test page would use it.

Anyway, I think I'll take the printer to my house next time I visit,
and try it on my computer.

------

... if you installed the USB driver, the printer would not work using tha parallel port ... Since the computer you're using with this printer has no USB ports, this is probably not an issue as you should have installed the parallel driver only.

Well, I chose the driver manually. Was it smart enough to know that
there's no USB port? I wouldn't be sure. Down the line, I can try to
track down this HP tool to clean the system.

------

The difference between printing a test page and printing from an application, is that the test page is an internal function of the driver. You could have a driver problem on the application interface side, while the driver can still communicate with the printer.

Ok, what I said above agrees with what you are saying here. How
likely do you think it is that the driver is faulty in this way? If
it is, I don't know what I'd do about it, but I'll keep it in mind.

Can you access the printer with the toolbox to see the ink levels, etc?

By "toolbox", do you mean the Properties dialog? I can check if it
lists ink levels next time I'm there. I did buy a new cartridge
though.

 

[agent60182204]

Ok, thanks. I didn't realize the test page is stored in the printer's
memory.

I guess here is my to-do list:
- Call HP. My friend says I can call 1800 hp invent
- Install the driver from HP's site, even though the current driver
from XP has the correct printer name.
- Take the printer to my house and see if I can get it to work.

As I mentioned above, the test page isn't working now either. But
I'll assume that's a separate problem that I will soon solve on my
own.

 

[agent60182204]

I solved the problem, thanks to everyone here. Here's what I did:

- I phoned HP support, but they said the printer's too old and no
longer supported. (Or maybe their voice recognition system
misunderstood me when I mumbled the model number.)

- I was going to take the printer to my house, when I decided to try
one more thing.

- I installed the driver from HP's website. Yes, I left the printer
power on while I installed. (Ato_Zee, I didn't get a CD with the
driver, I had just used WinXP's driver.) This also installed the HP
"Toolbox" software. Ian, you mentioned this toolbox, but I didn't
know what you meant.

- The toolbox has a screen to check the ink levels, so I tried. But
it told me that it could not connect to the printer. I was also
unable to print a test page (by clicking the button in the driver
properties), even though I had been able to earlier.

- Now that I had a definitive message, I decided to double check the
cable connection. The cable was firmly plugged in, but the parallel
port seemed to be a bit diagonal, and I was only able to screw in one
of the two screws that secured the parallel cable to the PC port. It
did seem firm enough, but now I had extra incentive to check this. I
thought the internal screw that held the card onto the PC chassis was
missing. So I opened up the box, but the screw was there. Everything
really did seem tight enough, but the card was slightly angled.

- I don't know if I can describe this, and it doesn't really matter.
Feel free to skip this paragraph. The green card is attached to an L-
shaped metal piece that holds the port / socket that you see from the
back of the computer. That metal piece's top screws onto the
chassis. The metal piece's bottom just fits into a space beside the
motherboard. That bottom piece was horizontally offset from where it
should be. That's it. So, I shoved it back a bit.

- Then I plugged in the parallel cable, screwed in both securing
screws, and it worked!

- Credit goes to all those who gave suggestions. The suggestion to
reinstall the driver led me to double check the cable connection.
It's funny how, in my first post, I said, "don't ask me to check that
the cable is plugged in".

FYI:

There is a way to access the DJ 930's internal diagnostics test page, but I no longer have the panel button sequence list to access that.

The command sequences are listed on this page:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...cc=us&product=58118&lang=en&docname=c00213505

To print the internal test page: With the printer on, press and hold
the RESUME button until the printer starts printing. It printed a
multi-coloured flower. BTW, there are also sequences to run a self-
test and a diagnostic test.

Thanks.