Printer partially ejects on cold boot

  • Thread starter Thread starter *Vanguard*
  • Start date Start date
V

*Vanguard*

Windows XP Pro SP-1
HP DeskJet 970Cse (parallel port)

When my computer system is turned on (cold boot), the printer starts up.
Its head starts moving back and forth (that's typical) but it also feeds in
a sheet of paper (not typical). However, the paper feed stops with the edge
of the paper just after the exit rollers so it is stuck partially inserted.
On occasion, and after a couple minutes, it will fully eject the paper, but
it should never have injected the paper in the first place.

This is not a Windows driver problem. This occurs immediately on bootup and
is probably before the POST even completes. I know a reset gets sent to all
devices to put them into a known state. The printer is connected to the
parallel port. No operating system is even loaded at the point when the
printer starts going through its power-on throes. If the printer is off
when the computer is powered on and I later turn on the printer, no problem.
If I power on the printer with the parallel cable detached, no problem. So
it is the initialization of the parallel port that causes the problem (and
when the printer is on during that initialization).

Other than having to remember to power off the printer before powering up
the computer, got any suggestions as to a fix? What could the parallel port
be sending to the printer that would make it partially inject (and not fully
eject) a sheet of paper? Why would powering up the parallel port even send
a paper feed to the printer?
 
*Vanguard* said:
Windows XP Pro SP-1
HP DeskJet 970Cse (parallel port)

When my computer system is turned on (cold boot), the printer starts up.
Its head starts moving back and forth (that's typical) but it also feeds in
a sheet of paper (not typical). However, the paper feed stops with the edge
of the paper just after the exit rollers so it is stuck partially inserted.
On occasion, and after a couple minutes, it will fully eject the paper, but
it should never have injected the paper in the first place.
Click to expand...

- BIOS setting for LPT port mode. EPP, ECP, Bi-Directional? Does changing
this make a difference?
- Faulty/non-compliant printer cable. Got another cable to try?
- Power spike causing printer to detect data? (Does same thing happen if you
disable the LPT port in BIOS?)
- PC and printer on the different electrial circuits with different ground
potential, again causing some interference when PC is powered up.
 
Windows XP Pro SP-1
HP DeskJet 970Cse (parallel port)

When my computer system is turned on (cold boot), the printer starts up.
Its head starts moving back and forth (that's typical) but it also feeds in
a sheet of paper (not typical). However, the paper feed stops with the edge
of the paper just after the exit rollers so it is stuck partially inserted.
On occasion, and after a couple minutes, it will fully eject the paper, but
it should never have injected the paper in the first place.

This is not a Windows driver problem. This occurs immediately on bootup and
is probably before the POST even completes. I know a reset gets sent to all
devices to put them into a known state. The printer is connected to the
parallel port. No operating system is even loaded at the point when the
printer starts going through its power-on throes. If the printer is off
when the computer is powered on and I later turn on the printer, no problem.
If I power on the printer with the parallel cable detached, no problem. So
it is the initialization of the parallel port that causes the problem (and
when the printer is on during that initialization).

Other than having to remember to power off the printer before powering up
the computer, got any suggestions as to a fix? What could the parallel port
be sending to the printer that would make it partially inject (and not fully
eject) a sheet of paper? Why would powering up the parallel port even send
a paper feed to the printer?
Click to expand...

Try/answer Noozer's suggestions/questions.

Besides that...

Did this ALWAYS happen?...from day one. Or is this a problem that
just developed.

My guess...without more much-needed info...

Printer somehow got configured to eject page upon startup. So it
starts the eject...but is stopped because of all the other startup
processes.

Ejecting a sheet of paper before PRINTING is not unusual. Its a
feature that can be set on most printers. That's why more info is
needed. It may simply be a leftover configuration setting from one of
your printing programs.

Good luck...let us know.

Have a nice week...

Trent©

Follow Joan Rivers' example --- get pre-embalmed!
 
Trent© said in news:[email protected]:
Try/answer Noozer's suggestions/questions.

Besides that...

Did this ALWAYS happen?...from day one. Or is this a problem that
just developed.

My guess...without more much-needed info...

Printer somehow got configured to eject page upon startup. So it
starts the eject...but is stopped because of all the other startup
processes.

Ejecting a sheet of paper before PRINTING is not unusual. Its a
feature that can be set on most printers. That's why more info is
needed. It may simply be a leftover configuration setting from one of
your printing programs.

Good luck...let us know.

Have a nice week...

Trent©

Follow Joan Rivers' example --- get pre-embalmed!
Click to expand...

I'm keeping Noozer's post marked as unread and watching this thread
until I can get at this problem in a couple days from now. Got super
busy right now. Looks like I won't get to this until the weekend.

This was not a problem on my old Pentium 3 system that had an Aopen
AX6BC motherboard. It is now attached to a new system but I don't
recall this happening at first. Built this new Abit NF7-S system back
at the start of January and only recall this symptom starting in the
last 3 weeks. I originally had the BIOS configured to use ECP+EPP mode
(and let the printer figure out what it would support). I have never
used SPP even on my old system since, I believe, one of the extended
modes is needed to support the commands from their software toolbox to
the printer (i.e., to get status, ink reserve, detection of the 2-sided
module, etc.). I also tried ECP and EPP separately but found nothing of
interest (i.e., nothing got faster or better). It's not like HP puts
anything in their printer manuals to tell you what is the best mode to
use with a particular model. I can't tell which is current mode until I
reboot to check (not something AIDA32 can tell me), so that might be
something I play with.

Using the same parallel cable as was used before. It's a well shielded
IEEE1284 spec'd cable for bidirectional mode. I've got one spare
printer cable to test with. The printer and computer are on the same
2kVA true sinusoidal UPS that weighs 120 pounds (60 for the huge
isolating transformer and another 60 for the 2 large batteries). I will
try disabling the parallel port to see if a power spike is the problem.
There is nothing programmable for features, like page eject before
printing. There's no reset (other than powering it off) to see if I
could unscramble some corrupted settings in the printer.

The printer is already powered on (without problem), and it is after I
power on the computer that the printer starts moving the heads and
partially ejects one sheet of paper. This occurs immediately when I hit
the power button. I don't think the reset signal has even been sent yet
as part the POST. I will check that. The LEDs on the keyboard flash
when the global reset is sent to initialize devices. I'll check if the
printer starts before or after the keyboards LEDs flash.
 
Update:

Okay, got around to testing my printer and try the suggestions to keep
if from going beserk on power up (on the parallel port, not from
powering up the printer). Changing the parallel port modes in BIOS did
not help. Disable the parallel port in BIOS did not help. So I suspect
that the NF7-S motherboard doesn't keep the signal pins low or
disconnected when first powered up which results in the printer getting
a scrambled mess of signals which it tries to interpret as commands.

I switched the printer from the parallel port to the USB port. The
printer supports both. The printer is slower than the bandwidth for the
parallel port so I saw no need to throw away a perfectly good and
capable port - until now. It took a couple uninstalls of old HP
software, deleting printers, and reboots to get a new driver install to
work (it first reported it couldn't find the printer until I had it do a
rescan) and now the printer works. It no longer goes beserk on powering
up the system unit and the test and calibration pages have printed okay.

So the problem went away (actually it got masked) by moving the printer
from the parallel port to the USB port.
 
Back
Top