Printer prints unwanted character before every line

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NickOf Time

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Hi,

I need to hook up a Panasonic KX P-1091C dot-matrix printer to my Hewlett-Packard Pavilion dv6618ca notebook (dv6500 series) using Windows Vista.

I am using the patch-cord by StarTech--a USB-to-parallel adaptor cable DB25 (ICUSB1284D25).

I am told that the nearest compatible printer on my computer Control Panel's
drop-down list is the Epsom FX-80, however, during any printout there is always a spurious character like & @ # and various others in
front of every line. For example:

&the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs
@the rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain
#everyone wants to win the lottery including me

How can I eliminate that unwanted spurious character? Could it be that there
might be another printer I must choose from the very long drop-down list?
Others have suggested that the Epson FX-80 is the closest compatible model.

Would anyone be aware of another compatible printer that I could choose from that drop-down list in order to obtain an acceptable printout? The Panasonic KX P-1091C is not on that list, nor is the virtually identical Roland PR-1011.

The 8 DIP switches are set as: ON ON OFF OFF ON ON ON OFF but when I change the the number 1 switch to OFF (as others have suggested), the unwanted characters which appear are limited to only a P and a Q --somewhat of an improvement, but still unacceptable.

I have downloaded the latest drivers, but the problem still persists.

Would there be a quick fix for this issue, or is my printer unfortunately out of date?

Any suggestions? Thank you.
 
I dunno. I am thinking maybe there is a "general" or "standard" option or driver listing somewhere? You should do it through the windows control panel. if there is a 'Let Windows Detect it" option, try that. option, maybe that will work? I dunno. Or try seeing if there is a "common" driver that will work with all dot matrix printers? I could be wrong so don't shoot me if I am wrong. LOL I dunno why you wanna use a dot-matrix printer when today's printer are so much better!
You may have to actually go through all the printer drivers to see what works. It's all trial and errors. I would start with what's is considered "compatable' first before trying the ones that says are not compitable.
Good luck with it!:D
 
Last edited:
B.Hermance said:
I dunno. I am thinking maybe there is a "general" or "standard" option or driver listing somewhere? You should do it through the windows control panel. if there is a 'Let Windows Detect it" option, try that. option, maybe that will work? I dunno. Or try seeing if there is a "common" driver that will work with all dot matrix printers? I could be wrong so don't shoot me if I am wrong. LOL I dunno why you wanna use a dot-matrix printer when today's printer are so much better!
You may have to actually go through all the printer drivers to see what works. It's all trial and errors. I would start with what's is considered "compatable' first before trying the ones that says are not compitable.
Good luck with it!:D
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The Panasonic KX-P1091 is not directly supported in Microsoft Windows.

The "fix" in altering the dip switches was written back in 1995 and I would assume they were written as a workround for Windows XP, but I wouldn't hold my breath. :)

If you really need a DM printer I would suggest you look at the Windows Compatibility list for one that do the job.

Laser printers have taken over from the DotMatrix.


Welcome to PCReview :)


:user:
 
My Panasonic KX-P1091C dot-matrix printer is a spare which was sitting in the closet and had been hooked up to an old desktop using DOS.
I am able to run this printer from another laptop (a Presario 2710 with Windows XP) by substituting the KX-1081 from its Control Panel's drop-down list.
I can only assume that because the KX-1081 does not appear on the Pavilion's drop-down list then the nearest alternate choice is the Epson FX-80, but that still does not eliminate the spurious character printout, which may have nothing to do with the printer's DIP switches in any case.
I can only speculate that the solution may or may not be very simple.
Various other suggestions in Google have thus far not solved this issue, but since I am able to use the printer from the Presario, I can obviously avoid throwing the printer in the trash, which would be wasteful. Besides, I don't print out documents or letters as much as I used to, which is why I've hesitated to purchase a laserjet of inkjet.
Thanks for all of your suggestions.
 
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