Laserjet 1100 prints odd characters

[emilyo]

I have one Laserjet 1100 which prints odd characters every now and again, in the middle of a document. It also occassionally prints a document and misses out every instance of a particular letter.

I have tried:
1. updating the driver
2. using a generic driver
3. changing the cable

All to no avail. Does anyone know what my problem could be?
TIA

Emily

 

[srguru]

How about first disconnecting the printer cable from the computer and running a self-test according to the directions in the HP instructions. This will at least tell you if the problem is internal to the printer and narrow down what else to check.

 

[DansDadUK]

Symptoms seem to indicate that the data is being corrupted at some stage.
The 'blank' letters symptoms would fit in with use of a downloaded font (rather than making use of printer-resident ones) in which at least one of the downloaded character definitions was corrupt; the printer would ignore these corrupted definitions and replace occurrences of the character(s) with the galley character (usually space, or perhaps a square).
There could be lots of things causing the corruption. For example:
- wrong cable (use 1284 one)
- wrong parallel port settings (ECP, EPP, etc.)
but I'm not the person to ask about that side.

 

[JimInKS]

I like DansDadUK idea of a bad font somewhere.
Normally, if you have some kind of comm problem, the printer will just go nuts and print tons of garbage.

Can you try the printer on a different computer?

You might also try printing some large graphics that don't make use of any fonts to try and verify the 'font' issue.

 

[srguru]

Trying the self test procedure I suggested before will tell you whether or not it is an internal font problem. If the test is ok, try going into your printer driver setup and checking to see if you are using downloaded bitmaps or internal fonts and switch the setting. You could skip all this and reinstall the fonts using the program that came with the printer (FontSmart, I believe). Corrupted fonts or corrupted firmware seem to be the main possibilities here; either way, you can work around the problem by identifying the one that is bad and then using the other one.

 

[emilyo]

Thanks guys. I will check out the font software.

I actually swapped the HP1100 for another one (the one on my desk) and we still have the same problem, so that seems to point to the software.

Thanks again and I'll let you know what happens.

Emily.

 

[emilyo]

Yesterday I reinstalled the CD software and installed Fontsmart (which I don't normally do).

This afternoon, the problem occurred again.

I have just changed the font setting to use bitmaps.

I know you're all on the edge of your seats waiting to see what happens next...
...I am.

Thanks everyone for your input.

Emily.

 

[netmanrick]

AS one of the other posters suggested,check pc bios for printer port type.This WILL cause subtle problems,even intermittent ones.

Rick Harris
SC Dept of Motor Vehicles
Network Operations

 

[emilyo]

Changing the font setting to use Bitmaps didn't work.

I just went in the BIOS this morining and chnaged the Port setting from ECP to EPP.

Fingers crossed.

Emily.

 

[BadBigBen]

Hola, one question, is this Printer hooked up through the Paralell Port or through USB?

if Paralell - then double check your CABLE for seating problems first, then go to the Control Panel, there double click on PRINTERS and FAX, ADD a new PRINTER using the HP1100 DESKJET and set that one as STANDARD, then delete the original printer ICON... and it should work... had same prob with an old 870cxi Deskjet...

if its USB - then I can't help...

Ben

 

[emilyo]

Cheers for that Ben.

The parallel cable connector on the HP 1100 is a bit of a pain in the ****.

Sounds like you're on to something.

Thanks

Emily.