Anyone know why my deskjet 820Cxi won't print?

[johnhenson]

Anyone know why my deskjet doesn't work?
A freind lent it to someone but it wouldn't work on their PC so they gave it back but then it wouldn't work on my friends PC. My freind gave it to me and it won't work on my PC either.

I've got the latest drivers off the net, LPT1 set to EPP in BIOS and a cable that I know to be good.

When I power on the printer it does a lot of initialising and the print head settles down at the left end of the carriage rail after a lot of jigging at that end of the rail. Then a second or two later both the page feed and power light start to blink simultaneously. This, according to the HP website means, "Printer Error".

When I try to print I get "The computer has lost communication with the printer" errors. But it will do the "Test two way communication" test OK from the printer toolbox.

I've tried piping a directory listing to the printer from a DOS box but still get the "The computer has lost communication with the printer" error.

Anyone know what's up. Is this some kind of known fault with HP's?

Thanks

John.

 

[edfair]

My reply is generic to printers , not neccessarily to HP. When you get the movement to the right side of the paper like that it generally is an indication that the print position 0 sensor is broken or dirty. On initialization the print head moves right then gets a CR command. With a dirty sensor, it thinks it is there already. With multiple head recals the head finally slaps the right side and is detected as an error.
Don't know where the sensor is on your printer, but you can probably find it with the covers off. Then run cloth between the ears. Should look like a U with a base and probably has a plastic piece that is cammed by the head between the uprights. These are called slot detectors.
If cleaning doesn't fix it, and the pivot part isn't broken, then time for a new printer since the cost of repair exceeds the cost of replacement. Ed Fair
efair@atlnet.com

Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply.

Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[Howi]

Some HP printers have a plastic strip with vertical black line on it that tells the system where the head is along the platter, this can become detached, this will give the symptoms you describe (had this myself on a HP670C fooled me for a while till I took the lid of.)