LaserJet 6L on WinXP

[esmithbda]

This printer was working fine up until today. Today it has decided that it is only going to print garbled text.

I deleted the printer and then added it back in, putting in the drivers over top of the old ones. Tested it (right click on printer, go to Properies, select "Print Test Page&quot - garbled.

I downloaded the drivers off of HP, deleted the printer, installed the new ones over top. Tested it - garbled.

I disconnected the parallel cable from the printer and had it do a self test. First time - garbled. Second time - perfect.

I reconnected the parallel cable and tested it - garbled.

I opened a command prompt and did "DIR>LPT1" and it printed out perfectly.

Tried a test page again - garbled.

I tried the III and the 5 drivers, also garbled.


If the printer itself were broken, then its self test wouldn't have worked.
If the printer cable itself was at fault, then the command prompt "DIR>LPT1" wouldn't have worked.
So that makes me think it is a driver issue - but I have addressed that and it still comes out garbled.

Any ideas?

(and by garbled, I mean that in the test page that Windows does, the image will be distorted and incompleted, and the text will be missing chunks of letters and random characters will be out of place on the page - sometimes it will skip doing that and just draw a big pyramid that is a greyscale gradient)

 

[nickg99]

Does the printer have any extra memory fitted? If so, remove and and try again.

Otherwise it sounds like dodgy RAM on the formatter board causing the print job to become corrupt. Only solution is to replace the formatter board - not usually an economical solution with a 6L.

 

[esmithbda]

This is the first time that I have even noticed this particular printer (I am relatively new here and it had been working fine up until now). So I'm not sure what the case is with its RAM.

I am leaning towards just recommending that it is swapped out for a new printer.
The person has access to at least 5 other networked printers, but I think she likes this one because she doesn't have to get up.

 

[esmithbda]

I was busy for a bit, so they brought in a guy that only did printers. He couldn't fix it, so they swapped out the printer with antoher just like it. Still didn't fix the problem.
I went in today and put a new data cable on it, and now it seems to work.

Hopefully that is the end of it.

 

[esmithbda]

Okay, perhaps I spoke too soon.
It was working, but now it is not working again.

We have NAV 7.6 running on our network and it ran on her machine this morning around the same time as the printer issues - are there any known issues involving anti-virus and HP 6L drivers?

 

[dragon21]

Hi - Thread seems to die after 12th Nov posting.

Did you solve the issue with the Laserjet 6L? I have exactly same symptoms and results with printer self-test and Dos command dir>LPT1.

I do not have Norton running. Printer still throws out garbage

Dragon21

 

[esmithbda]

This user is on the network and has access to all of our other printers - they aren't on her desk, but I told her that would have to do at this point.

I have no clue what the issue is, and I unfortunately have far too many other issues around here to worry about it beyond this point.

It is very bizarre that changing out the cable made it work for one day.

 

[dbMark]

Mainboard problem? Port? Does another printer connected with the same cable to the same give problems too?

You aren't looping the printer cable around a flourescent light or fan motor and creating interference issues are you?

Are the connectors tight? I had one case of intermittant printing that went on for years! but when I investigated I saw that the screws had come off the PCI card's connector and any odd kick to the wires under the desk sent it to lala land.

 

[esmithbda]

The cables were all tight, they weren't near lights or anything that would cause interference (just the wood of a desk). It was behind the filing cabinet part of the desk so that there was no way to get to the cable to knock loose.

Good points though - I was hoping it was going to be something easy like that.

She now prints just over the network and it works for that. There is a networked printer about 5 feet away now, so it isn't so bad.

We ended up throwing out both of the HP 6Ls that we had.

 

[dbMark]

thread697-328655
Have you picked up Windows XP drivers from HP's website? I often have problems with the ones that XP provides, so I tend to go and download the newest ones from the printer's manufacturer.

thread697-285933
ericD said: Use the XP driver instead of the HP driver? Also, in the printer properties, check the language used between the printer and PC (advanced properties) If you see the word RAW, change it to text or another choice. Solves lots of problems.

Talking about the L series, HP did something screwy with its DOS handling. I don't know if other printers had this behaviour, but 3 years ago I have a tough time figuring out a print problem, I think it was a 4L, where the last line of a DOS print job (from FoxPro for DOS version 2.6a) would not print. Adding additional lines (CrLf) didn't make any difference. The empty lines were simply ignored! What I had to do was write one extra line with a space (so it was sure to be "invisible&quot in order to get the last "real" and required line to print. Occasionally, an extra sheet of paper would print out when that invisible line went onto the next page, but that was worth it in order to guarantee that the entire text printed. Here's my original comments in thread182-551152. Notice that someone there suggested it was a FoxPro issue, but I replied I'd never had that problem except with the 4L. I do not know if other L series printers exhibited that behavior.

dbMark