hp 842c printer problem

I have an hp 842c and an IBM 560z laptop 300mhz w 128mb.
My printer is connected via usb - most of the time when I try to print, the print cartridge cradle slams up against the side of the printer and the gears begin to grind and all three lights start blinking and the driver software says that there is some type of "mechanism error." It says something is obstructing the cradle. I look in the printer, and it looks clear. The paper seems fine.

Sometimes is prints ok, more often on 1 page documents. I would have thought it was likely a mechanical problem of some sort, but when I am printing, the driver often gives a message like "printing page 7 of 4" so I think there is a problem with the driver.

I mostly print with Lotus Word Pro, but have tried with Microsoft Outlook and had the same error. I have had other printers work fine on this computer.

I have solved a problem with the driver not detecting my printer. (I had plugged the printer into my computer before installing the driver and the driver installation was unable to deal with something that win98 did in the registry so I had to download a progrm from hp's site designed to scrub the registry.)

Jacob Perasso
[email protected]

 

What drivers are you using and have you rececntly changed the cartridge. Have you run the alignment utility?

 

Sounds like it is most likely a mechanical problem.

Uninstall and reinstall the driver to be sure. You might as well get the latest driver from HP if you do that: http://www.hp.com/cposupport/printers/software/840-enu-win9x_ME.exe.html The driver on the site seems to work better for USB than the one that came originally on the CD. The date is 11/27/01 so it is newer than the software on the CD. The 840c and 842c are the same printer BTW – they just come with different user software.

You can remove the software with the install CD, the uninstall in Start/Programs or Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel. They all use the same uninstall applet.
Follow the install instructions on the HP download page and not the ones that came with the printer.

 

I am running win98 and have the latest printer driver
840c driver program 4.3 - I just downloaded it from hp and reinstalled it - no help.

It seems like it is getting worse. I DID just install a new cartridge, and I didn't have the problem until after installing it. However, the other cartridge didn't have any ink and I only used it for a few test pages. Just before this one, I tried to install a wrong cartridge from my old 712 and it didn't work. I wend out a bought a c6615d which seemed to work but maybe it is not the right one. the HP site lists a c6615a. I think the box said 842c on it though, or I wouldn't have purchased it. It is an hp brand cartridge. I have never run the alignment program, i just tried, but I got the same error message. I will try a cold boot and then run the alignment and see what happens.

Is it possible that using the wrong cartridge screwed up the circuitry?

I am also going to try some different drivers 550c and 895 because I saw them mentioned on another site to help with 842c driver problems.

I'll let you know.

 

Putting in the wrong cart may have caused all your problems. They do have electrical contacts and may have shorted something out.