HP Laserjet 4P Not Recognizing Drivers

[flasher40]

Hi,

I have an "old faithful" HP Laserjet 4P connected to a computer with Windows XP on it. A few days ago, while I was working on the computer doing nothing related to printing, the printer suddenly cranked out a page with the following code on it: AQKM! COMMEOU ! IQ! MasesKeu ! 5QAQKM ! (and so forth. I can supply the rest of the code if needed).

My wife has the same model computer attached to her computer, so I connected mine to her computer (also Windows XP), and it works fine there, so the problem isn't the printer.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Bill

I've deleted and reloaded the 4P drivers off of the Windows XP list, but the output remains the same. As far as I can tell, neither HP nor Microsoft has updated drivers for this computer.

 

[Michael52x]

Okay, first, use the 2000 driver. You may have corrupted the XP OS. Re-install it.

"Impatience will reward you with dissatisfaction" RMS Cosmics'97

 

[flasher40]

Michael,

Thanks for the suggestions. A couple of questions:

First, would it work as well to install the XP driver off of the disc (as opposed to off the hard drive) instead of installing the Windows 2000 driver?

Secondly, are there any dangers, cautions, etc. involved with reinstalling Windows XP over the one now on the hard drive?

Regards,
Bill

 

[gbaughma]

Wow. I would certainly try other options before reinstalling the OS.

Like removing/reinstalling the printer drivers first...

Get the latest drivers from HP for that printer for XP.

If you feel you must reinstall the OS, then do the following:

Boot from your XP CD (have your activation key handy).
Don't do the "Automated system recovery"
Skip the first "R" that says "Recovery console"
... continue as if you're doing a fresh install...
When it says "We found windows xp installed on c:\windows", *THEN* select the "R" to "Repair" the installation.

Then do all the updates again... SP2, and (currently) 74 updates after that. It will take a while.



Just my 2¢
-ARRGH! All my clothes are wrinkled! Oh, the irony!

--Greg

http://parallel.tzo.com

 

[flasher40]

Does anyone have or know where I can find drivers for my HP non-postscript Laserjet 4P printer operating under Windows XP? HP no longer has them on their site. I've tried driverguide.com with no luck.

If you have this driver and can post it in a .zip file on a website, that would be great.

Thanks!
Bill

 

[w33mhz]

does a regular LJ 4 driver work? You could also try a LJ 4 si driver. if all else fails us LJ 2100.

 

[flasher40]

Turns out the problem was due to a faulty cable. A rookie error! Thanks anyhow.

Bill