Printing Problems

[dkn]

Hullo there...

I'm having trouble printing with a PC I recently built. The PC is an Athlon 1.4 running on a SystemBoard M810 motherboard. The O.S. is Win98se

When I try and print I basically get the first 10 - 15 % of the page, then reams of blank paper.

I have taken many steps to try and resolve this:

My first thought was drivers, but having tried numerous drivers I decided that this probably wasn't the problem. Next I replaced the printer cable, but still had the same result. Then I thought maybe it was the printer that was faulty - it is an oldish Epsom 300 Colour. So I took the printer, cable and drivers round to a friend who was also running Win98se, plugged it in and it printed no problem.

Finally, in desperation, I got hold of a spare pci parallel port suspecting that maybe this was the problem. No luck, the problem persisted.

I'm at my whits end!!!. Anyone got any other ideas what may be causing this?. I'm wondering if something has gone wrong during the Win98 install ... but I'm basically clutching at straws here..

All ideas greatfully recieved.

Thanks

David

 

[jrbarnett]

Is the printer cable shielded? If it is near something that could cause magnetic disturbance such as speakers, radiators, TV sets etc. it could cause problems.
Try moving the PC and printer away from its current location (if possible) and print something to see if there are any changes.

John

 

[jmatt]

You can ask your friend to look in his bios to see what the printer is set to , or do this .

Press Delete ( del ) on boot up , now this part can vary depending on your version .
Go to Intergrated Peripherals & then Onboard Parallel Mode , using the arrow keys .
Make a note of the existing entry . ( mine uses EPP/SPP )
Use the Page Down button to try the next entry .
Press Esc .
Save & Exit , Y , press Enter .
If it is still not right , repeat above , again & again .
If you find a entry that works , make sure you make a note of it .
Eventually you get back to where you started .

http://www.rojakpot.com/Speed_Demonz/BIOS_Guide/BIOS_Guide_Index.htm

 

[dkn]

John, moved the PC around but the problem persists. Thanks for your input.

JMatt, thanks for the link. I'll have a go tonight. Sounds promising though, especially this..

'As you can see, SPP is a very slow transfer mode. It should only be selected when faster transfer modes cannot be used (i.e. with old printers or scanners). With modern parallel port devices, the ECP and EPP modes are the transfer modes of choice.'

As I said the printer is several years old, so I may need to set the port to SPP mode.

Cheers

David