USB printers won't print

  • Thread starter Thread starter johnsuth
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johnsuth

Two identical Dell PCs each with XP Home SP1, and a different USB printer on each.

Both printers behave the same:-

On booting the PC and printing a document, the first page may or may not print, but then the printer goes to Offline mode.

I employ the mouse to revert to Online mode, but then the balance of the print job is in error for no apparent reason.

There must be a cause and a solution to this.
 
Check cables.... and have you tried installing SP2?
Click to expand...


I will be less flippant and more specific.

Some HP printer drivers are installed automagically without human intervention when powering on the PC after plugging in the printer. How could I "incorrectly install" these?

Others require me to invoke the Wizard to find the driver in the XP cabinet then install it without further intervention on my part. How could I "incorrectly install" these?

For the HP laserjet 1010 which I found gathering dust in a corner, I Googled for and downloaded and installed a driver. The test page printed. What was wrong with that install?

I moved one printer between PCs but it made no difference.

I went into Hardware Manager and told the USB controller to stay awake, but anyway, the problem occurs immediately after booting and before anything could reasonably time out.

Surely USB printers worked before SP2?

I did apply ACEs to the spooler folder in the hope of enabling network users to delete jobs in error; it did not.

All applications and printers default to the correct paper size and the printer drivers are instructed to ignore forms mismatch anyway.

The problem initiator seems to be the printer going offline only a short time after booting.

After that every job is in error when it gets to the head of the queue.

All this time the control panel is reporting that the printer is "Ready".

The printers have worked more reliably than this (but never perfectly) in the past. The problem has crept up on me.

I did try a parallel port printer but it suffered a mechanical failure before I was able to measure its reliability.

There is a possibly related problem with an NT application which I originally got working and printing using 95 compatability, but it recently failed to load. When I changed to NT compatability, it loaded but could not find any printers.
 
If it happens immediately on starting the PC I would suggest a possible
power supply issue. How many USB devices do you have attached to each PC?
How much upgrading have you done since the purchase of both PCs?
 
If it happens immediately on starting the PC I would suggest a possible
power supply issue. How many USB devices do you have attached to each PC?
How much upgrading have you done since the purchase of both PCs?
Click to expand...

The printer is the only USB device on each PC.

There have been no upgrades since purchase.
 
I understand MS offers a hotfix for just this problem (see support article
#834462) as a single fix for those not ready/comfortable installing SP2. I'm
having same problem on separate XP Home & XP PRO OS's (both running SP1A) on
separate Gateway Desk & laptops with both direct & networked printing to an
older HP 880C.

Cari....how do we find/download/install the hotfix without installing SP2?
 
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