HP Photosmart Generates Blank Page

[johntx2001]

I have an HP Photosmart 1218 printer, and it generates a blank sheet of paper for every page it prints. I've checked all the settings, downloaded the updated printer drivers and still have the problem. Please help if anyone else has had this same problem. Thanks!

 

[cnthomp]

What OS are you running? Sounds like an extra Form Feed is being generated for each page. You might want to try a driver reinstall. Does it happen even for the Windows test page?

 

[johntx2001]

OS is Windows 98 SE. The extra page was being ejected using the original drivers received with the printer, and also with the new drivers downloaded from the HP website. The original drivers were completely uninstalled and the new driver installed, and the same problem occurred. It did not do this with the Windows test page, but it does it with any other page printed. The printer was checked out by a technician who said nothing is wrong with it, and a new parallel cable was installed and still the same problems.

 

[cnthomp]

If it is only happening in your apps (which ones are you printing from, BTW?), you might want to double-check Page Setup. It is possible that if Legal-sized paper is selected, it could pull an extra sheet through each time. Also, to see if it is a Form Feed problem, try typing dir>lpt1 from a command prompt. If all goes well, it should not kick out the last sheet until you type echo ^L>lpt1 (where ^L is generated by pressing Ctrl-L).

 

[johntx2001]

This primarily happens when I print emails from AOL 6.0. I'll double check the settings and see if there's anything I can do and I'll definitely check for the legal paper size that you mentioned. Thanks for the tips!

 

[johntx2001]

I recently printed using dir>lpt1 and the last page was kicked out without my having to type in echo ^L>lpt1, so it does look like there is a form feed problem. Does anyone know any way to correct this so it doesn't automatically kick out this extra page at the end? Thanks!

 

[cnthomp]

Sometimes an .INI file can get corrupted that is not affected by uninstalling/reinstalling the driver. This must be deleted manually. To find it, print a test page from Windows. You'll notice on the page that the files used by the printer will have the first few characters shared amongst the files, e.g. hpd5 or something similar. Uninstall the driver, then do a Find (Start->Search->Find Files Or Folders) for all files with those letters. You should see in the list several files, at least one of which should be described as an Application Settings File (it will have a .INI extension, if you're set up to view those). Delete that file (actually, deleting all files that begin with those letters would not hurt, but send them to the Recycle Bin just in case you accidentally get one that shouldn't be deleted!) and reinstall the driver.

Hope This Helps