printing stalls

  • Thread starter Thread starter Linea Recta
  • Start date Start date
L

Linea Recta

Today I needed to print some pages (from internet Explorer 7), and every
time printing stalls after having printed about halfway the page. This is
lousy... when you need to have something functioning most, it lets you down!
I have Googled, and found the problem mentioned many times, but no obvious
solutions :-(
One of them mentioned to use the ©MS printerdriver instead of ©HP driver,
but I have only installed the ©MS driver.
Any ideas?


Windows XP SP3
HP DeskJet 720C (parallel)



--
regards,

|\ /|
| \/ |@rk
\../
\/os
 
You should check your System Event log for printing errors.
Click Start, Run (type) EventVwr.Msc [Enter]
Expand the System category and check for Red Icons in the Right
Pane.

It's frustrating, but Windows is a platform and in many of these
situations it's not a Microsoft issue but one of drivers. Microsoft
does not write the driver it simply supplies it with Windows as
provided by the vendor.
 
Linea Recta said:
Today I needed to print some pages (from internet Explorer 7), and every
time printing stalls after having printed about halfway the page. This is
lousy... when you need to have something functioning most, it lets you
down!
I have Googled, and found the problem mentioned many times, but no obvious
solutions :-(
One of them mentioned to use the ©MS printerdriver instead of ©HP driver,
but I have only installed the ©MS driver.
Any ideas?

Windows XP SP3
HP DeskJet 720C (parallel)

regards,

\/os
Click to expand...

Have you re-configured the printer software to print to A5 paper (and
changed from portrate to landscape) in error?

The standard answer to printer problems is to re-install the driver
software. That solves many problems. If that doesn't work we need to
investigate the problem (at the risk of asking obvious questions) before
coming up with a diagnosis. Have you printed to the HP Deskjet 720C
successfully. If yes, what software (either downloaded or from CD/DVD) or
hardware have you installed since it last worked successfully.

Bill Ridgeway
 
R. McCarty said:
You should check your System Event log for printing errors.
Click Start, Run (type) EventVwr.Msc [Enter]
Expand the System category and check for Red Icons in the Right
Pane.
Click to expand...


There were no errors related to printing.



--
regards,

|\ /|
| \/ |@rk
\../
\/os
 
Bill Ridgeway said:
Have you re-configured the printer software to print to A5 paper (and
changed from portrate to landscape) in error?
Click to expand...


No. I only incidentally changed the quality setting from normal to concept.

The standard answer to printer problems is to re-install the driver
software. That solves many problems.
Click to expand...


This is a very recent and clean install of Windows XP.

If that doesn't work we need to investigate the problem (at the risk of
asking obvious questions) before coming up with a diagnosis. Have you
printed to the HP Deskjet 720C successfully. If yes, what software
(either downloaded or from CD/DVD) or hardware have you installed since it
last worked successfully.
Click to expand...


Yes I have printed succesfully most of the time, also from within internet
Explorer. The problem occurs randomly and preferably, as it seems, when I
have an important printing task and little time...



--
regards,

|\ /|
| \/ |@rk
\../
\/os
 
Install the HP printer driver, check HP site for any Firmware update,
specific to your printer

Linea Recta said:
R. McCarty said:
You should check your System Event log for printing errors.
Click Start, Run (type) EventVwr.Msc [Enter]
Expand the System category and check for Red Icons in the Right
Pane.
Click to expand...


There were no errors related to printing.



--
regards,

|\ /|
| \/ |@rk
\../
\/os
Click to expand...
 
Linea said:
No. I only incidentally changed the quality setting from normal to concept.




This is a very recent and clean install of Windows XP.




Yes I have printed succesfully most of the time, also from within internet
Explorer. The problem occurs randomly and preferably, as it seems, when I
have an important printing task and little time...
Click to expand...
I would recommend checking the event log in event viewer, it should tell
you what's going on or not going on and should be able to narrow down
what the problem is - Driver issue, Internet Explorer issue etc..
 
Linea said:
Today I needed to print some pages (from internet Explorer 7), and
every time printing stalls after having printed about halfway the
page. This is lousy... when you need to have something functioning
most, it lets you down! I have Googled, and found the problem
mentioned many times, but no obvious solutions :-(
One of them mentioned to use the ©MS printerdriver instead of ©HP
driver, but I have only installed the ©MS driver.
Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Does this happen on EVERY web page or just the one that's crucial?

It may be that something on the web page is being interpreted by the printer
as "take yourself offline" or somesuch.
 
Linea Recta said:
Today I needed to print some pages (from internet Explorer 7), and every
time printing stalls after having printed about halfway the page. This is
lousy... when you need to have something functioning most, it lets you
down!
I have Googled, and found the problem mentioned many times, but no obvious
solutions :-(
One of them mentioned to use the ©MS printerdriver instead of ©HP driver,
but I have only installed the ©MS driver.
Any ideas?


Windows XP SP3
HP DeskJet 720C (parallel)



--
regards,

|\ /|
| \/ |@rk
\../
\/os
Click to expand...

What kind of computer do you have, make/model? How much RAM and hard disk
space do you have? I ask only because it seems the computer would have to
do lot of the rendering and processing before it sends the print job to the
printer.

Laser printers have their own processor and memory and do their own
rendering
 
Linea said:
Today I needed to print some pages (from internet Explorer 7), and
every time printing stalls after having printed about halfway the
page. This is lousy... when you need to have something functioning
most, it lets you down! I have Googled, and found the problem
mentioned many times, but no obvious solutions :-(
One of them mentioned to use the ©MS printerdriver instead of ©HP
driver, but I have only installed the ©MS driver.
Any ideas?


Windows XP SP3
HP DeskJet 720C (parallel)
Click to expand...

What are the URLs of the pages at issue? Maybe we can't print them either.
 
Tae Song said:
What kind of computer do you have, make/model? How much RAM and hard disk
space do you have? I ask only because it seems the computer would have to
do lot of the rendering and processing before it sends the print job to
the printer.

Laser printers have their own processor and memory and do their own
rendering
Click to expand...



Theye were very simple HTML pages (links in reply to HeyBub), and I was
printing them one at the time.
See my hardware data sign below...



--
MV

os: Windows XP Pro SP3 - mobo: Asus P4B266 - cpu: Intel P4 1,6 GHz. - mem:
1512 MB. - video: Matrox Marvel G450eTV 32 MB. (AGP) - Canopus ADVC-55 -
monitor: iiyama Vision Master 1401 - sound: SB Audigy 1394 (PCI) - hd: 2 X
Maxtor 60 GB. - DVD/CD-ROM: Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-M1712 - DVD+RW/+R: LG
GSA-H44N - LG RH7500 - modems: ADSL: Alcatel speedtouch 330 (USB) - analog:
Dynalink Lucent Win Modem 56k6 (PCI) - printer: HP DeskJet 720C (parallel) -
scanner: HP ScanJet 2200C (USB) - keyb: PS/2 MS Internet Keyboard - mouse:
Logitech Pilot Wheel Mouse Optical (USB) - webcam: Logitech QuickCam Zoom
(USB) - removables: Maxtor One Touch 120 GB (USB) - Medion 500 GB (USB) -
Iomega ZipDrive 100 (parallel)

Wi-Fi netwerk: Sitecom ADSL2+ Modem/Router 54G Turbo WL-174
laptop: Medion MODEL: MIM2300
PPC: ASUS MYPAL A730W
 
Linea Recta said:
Theye were very simple HTML pages (links in reply to HeyBub), and I was
printing them one at the time.
See my hardware data sign below...



--
MV

os: Windows XP Pro SP3 - mobo: Asus P4B266 - cpu: Intel P4 1,6 GHz. - mem:
1512 MB. - video: Matrox Marvel G450eTV 32 MB. (AGP) - Canopus ADVC-55 -
monitor: iiyama Vision Master 1401 - sound: SB Audigy 1394 (PCI) - hd: 2 X
Maxtor 60 GB. - DVD/CD-ROM: Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-M1712 - DVD+RW/+R: LG
GSA-H44N - LG RH7500 - modems: ADSL: Alcatel speedtouch 330 (USB) -
analog: Dynalink Lucent Win Modem 56k6 (PCI) - printer: HP DeskJet 720C
(parallel) - scanner: HP ScanJet 2200C (USB) - keyb: PS/2 MS Internet
Keyboard - mouse: Logitech Pilot Wheel Mouse Optical (USB) - webcam:
Logitech QuickCam Zoom (USB) - removables: Maxtor One Touch 120 GB (USB) -
Medion 500 GB (USB) - Iomega ZipDrive 100 (parallel)

Wi-Fi netwerk: Sitecom ADSL2+ Modem/Router 54G Turbo WL-174
laptop: Medion MODEL: MIM2300
PPC: ASUS MYPAL A730W
Click to expand...

Do you have your HP 720C chained off the ZipDrive 100 or do you have two
printer ports? Could it be Windows is polling the ZipDrive 100 during
prints? I see you have two 60GB drives, are you running RAID? Do you have
a lot of space free on C:? Between shadow volumes and recycle bin, you
might be running low on space on C: drive even though it might report being
more than 20% free. Have you consider moving your temp directory? You
could point it to your 2nd drive by changing %TEMP% to D:\TEMP. Do you
have pagefile set to D: drive?

Processor is not the latest and greatest, but it should be adequate. Seems
like you have enough RAM. You could use a larger internal hard drive. USB
2.0 is fast, but IDE/ATA and SATA are still faster. Get an 1TB internal,
they go for $80-$90. I seriously think you do not have enough space on C:
drive. You could try running Cleanmgr.exe if your printing slows down, see
if that doesn't help.
 
Tae Song said:
Do you have your HP 720C chained off the ZipDrive 100

Yes.


or do you have two printer ports?
No

Could it be Windows is polling the ZipDrive 100 during prints?
Click to expand...


a. Often enough printing gives no problems.
b. While searching the internet, I have encountered many instances of
printing stalling problems under XP, involving all sorts of other printer
types.

I see you have two 60GB drives, are you running RAID?
Click to expand...


No. As you might have concluded the PC is not the latest. I think it may be
about 5 or 6 years old by now. Recently I have upgraded memory from 512 to
1512 MB.

Do you have a lot of space free on C:?
Click to expand...


I think 45 GB free space might be enough, what? :-)
Page file is on D:

Between shadow volumes and recycle bin, you might be running low on space
on C: drive even though it might report being more than 20% free. Have
you consider moving your temp directory? You could point it to your 2nd
drive by changing %TEMP% to D:\TEMP.
Click to expand...


I'll keep that in mind!

Do you have pagefile set to D: drive?
Yes.



Processor is not the latest and greatest, but it should be adequate.
Seems like you have enough RAM. You could use a larger internal hard
drive. USB 2.0 is fast, but IDE/ATA and SATA are still faster.
Click to expand...


Internal drives are IDE, but I doubt wether even the slowest type of drives
would cause printing to stall...


Get an 1TB internal, they go for $80-$90. I seriously think you do not
have enough space on C: drive. You could try running Cleanmgr.exe if your
printing slows down, see if that doesn't help.
Click to expand...


Biggest problem is to repeat a random problem. I you change something, after
which the problem seems gone, you might think you discovered the cause.
Then, when it occurs again afterwards, you know it must have been something
else again, etc.


And what about printer spooling? I've had it on and off, but I noticed no
difference regarding the issue.

One other thing: since using McAfee antivirus security, at certain intervals
it seems to freeze (updating desktop icons etc.) for seconds. I can't do
nothing but wait, only after the icons are renewed I can continue working.
I have been thinking: because of continual updating this virus database, it
becomes larger and larger hence slower and slower and after a few years it
may become impssible to work al all...


Thanks for your analysis,


--
regards,

|\ /|
| \/ |@rk
\../
\/os
 
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