HP Laserjet II printing problem

[Robotech_Master]

My parents have an HP Laserjet II printer connected to their Windows
XP computer. In between turning the computer off and turning it back
on (to hear my Dad tekll it), the laser printer stopped printing.
When I send it a print job, it tries to print for a while and then the
print queue said "Error - Printing."

I went into the control panel and deleted the printer, turned the
printer off and rebooted the computer...but it didn't reinstall the
printer. It said something about "found new hardware: USB print
support" but didn't install a HP Laserjet II; it doesn't appear on the
printer panel.

The printer prints sample pages just fine; my Dad even bought a new
USB printer cable in case that was the problem.

Also I note that of the lights on the front panel of the printer, only
the On Line light is on, rather than the one above the Form Feed
button being there also which my Dad claims is always there until it's
ready to print.

Can you help me out with this? I don't want to leave my parents
without a printer, given that it doesn't seem to be installing
properly.

 

[Warren Block]

My parents have an HP Laserjet II printer connected to their Windows
XP computer. In between turning the computer off and turning it back
on (to hear my Dad tekll it), the laser printer stopped printing.
When I send it a print job, it tries to print for a while and then the
print queue said "Error - Printing."

I went into the control panel and deleted the printer, turned the
printer off and rebooted the computer...but it didn't reinstall the
printer. It said something about "found new hardware: USB print
support" but didn't install a HP Laserjet II; it doesn't appear on the
printer panel.

A LaserJet II isn't USB and was probably before PNP, so that's not
surprising.

The printer prints sample pages just fine; my Dad even bought a new
USB printer cable in case that was the problem.

What leads you to think it's a USB printer? Either there's a mistake
here or you haven't mentioned a USB-to-parallel adapter.

Once you've got the interface worked out, you'll probably have to
manually add the printer in Windows.

 

[Robotech_Master]

What leads you to think it's a USB printer? Either there's a mistake
here or you haven't mentioned a USB-to-parallel adapter.

Once you've got the interface worked out, you'll probably have to
manually add the printer in Windows.

All right, I looked at the back of the printer, and it is indeed a USB
to parallel adapter.

I reinstalled the printer drivers, but still nothing I can do will
make it print from the computer. I went through the entirety of the
Windows troubleshooter, including such steps as typing "copy con lpt1"
from the command prompt, typing "showpage" and enter, then hitting
control Z. Nothing works. The status indicator on the print queue
just says "Error - Printing".

 

[Warren Block]

All right, I looked at the back of the printer, and it is indeed a USB
to parallel adapter.

I reinstalled the printer drivers, but still nothing I can do will
make it print from the computer. I went through the entirety of the
Windows troubleshooter, including such steps as typing "copy con lpt1"
from the command prompt, typing "showpage" and enter, then hitting
control Z. Nothing works. The status indicator on the print queue
just says "Error - Printing".

Does the USB-to-parallel adapter have its own driver? At this point, it
would be the main suspect. Reinstalling software or trying a different
adapter would help isolate the problem. If the computer has a parallel
port, hooking up the printer that way would be another option.

 

[Robotech_Master]

Does the USB-to-parallel adapter have its own driver? At this point, it
would be the main suspect. Reinstalling software or trying a different
adapter would help isolate the problem. If the computer has a parallel
port, hooking up the printer that way would be another option.

I looked at the driver disk for the adapter. It claims to have native
support under Windows XP; plug it in and it's detected. And this is
actually the second adapter they've tried; the other one had the same
problem.

The computer doesn't have a parallel port. It's one of those little
breadbox-sized micro-ATX boxes; plenty of USB, but no parallel.

 

[Warren Block]

I looked at the driver disk for the adapter. It claims to have native
support under Windows XP; plug it in and it's detected. And this is
actually the second adapter they've tried; the other one had the same
problem.

The computer doesn't have a parallel port. It's one of those little
breadbox-sized micro-ATX boxes; plenty of USB, but no parallel.

Okay, here's what I'd do:

Try the printer from another computer, one with a parallel port.
Hopefully that will show that it's working fine, with no damage to its
parallel port.

Make sure the printer and the USB-only computer are plugged into the
same outlet to avoid grounding issues.

Physically disconnect the USB-to-parallel adapter, go into the Windows
Hardware Mangler, and remove all traces of it. Check for software it
installed and remove that.

Reconnect the USB-to-parallel adapter to a different USB port,
preferably one of a different pair. Then reconnect the printer and try
it again.

 

[Alan]

The computer doesn't have a parallel port. It's one of those little
breadbox-sized micro-ATX boxes; plenty of USB, but no parallel.

First check out the printer with a PC or laptop with a real parallel
port, as Warren suggests.

If that works the problem is the connection.

Do you have the docs for the micro-ATX? Perhaps it has a connector on
the mobo for a parallel port you can plug in. Or if it has a free PCI
slot. A parallel port card is pretty cheap and more reliable than
USB/parallel fakery.

Note that making a hot connection (i.e. while the printer and PC is
on) to the parallel port on the printer can easily blow the port on
the printer, which will cost you more to repair than it's worth.

If that's what happened, the LJII also has a serial port connection.
You have to enable it on the panel. It's considerably slower than
parallel though but it should work. If you have a COM port on your PC
you could try that. Get a 25-pin male to whatever is on the PC RS232
cable.

Odd though to have a mini PC and a hulking dinosaur of a printer like
the LJII. Look for a used LJ1200 or LJ1300 if you can't get it
working. The cost of electricity alone for the LJII would make that
worthwhile if you use it much.

 

[Arthur Entlich]

Are you sure it is a HP Laserjet II? That's a pretty old (and good)
machine, but I don't believe they had USB I/O at the time it was made.
I know they had serial and Parallel ports and an optional port, but I'm
surprised USB was an option with the Laserjet II.

Assuming for now it uses a parallel cable, the best thing I can think of
is to make sure the connections are good and solid, both at the printer
and the computer.

ALso, when he says it prints sample pages fine, doe she mean the sample
Windows Printer page, or a sample page that is created directly from the
printer internally? If it prints a Windows sample page correctly, that
usually means the drivers are correctly loaded and functional. However,
if the sample page is just coming from the printer itself, that tells us
nothing about the communications between the computer and printer.

Art

 

[Arthur Entlich]

AHa! ;-)

That explains a lot... or at least something. These USB <> Parallel
adapters can be quite tricky. Are there any dip switches on it? Is it
possible a wire or harness came loose? This sounds like a
communications problem between the computer and the printer, however,
there is always the chance the driver got mangled at some point when
other software was loaded, etc.

Also, has the printer spooling area been checked to make sure:

1) it isn't full of old failed print attempts

2) that the spooler drive (C drive usually in XP) has adequate space on
it to allow for the full printer file to be spooled.

Art

 

[Arthur Entlich]

I agree with Warren. Many USB devices (and I don't now about the
adapter) require the drivers be installed before connecting the
hardware. In other cases, the hardware will not be acknowledged without
it being connected (if native XP, for instance). I also agree with him
that you want to make sure the parallel i/o at the printer end wasn't
damaged by something.

Art

 

[William R. Walsh]

Hi!

but I don't believe they had USB I/O at the time it was made.

They didn't...it was still "a bit" off in the pipeline. IIRC the LJII
was a 1987 or so printer. I don't think USB appeared until late 1996/early
1997. I'm not even sure that these printers had anything like an EIO slot. I
have an external Token Ring JetDirect interface that looks like it would go
well with an LJ II or III...there's even an inline power connector on it.

However, USB to parallel port adapters do exist. I use one to drive my
DeskJet 870CSE since the OfficeJet 500 was adamant about having access to
the parallel port and all my PCI slots are in use for other things.

William