Need printer help

[clhawk]

Started having trouble with my printer about 2 weeks ago. It was an HP 612C. Looked like the black ink cartridge was about out, so I put in a new one. Printing was fine until the next day. It started making a grinding sound. Figured the gears were stripped, so I got a new printer. This one is an HP 648C.

It started doing the same thing as the old one. Took it back and exchanged it. This one tries to work but when it starts to print, it stops and the 'resume' light starts flashing. It pulls up the paper but when the printer head should be starting, it stops. When I turn it off, it shoots the paper out, so I know it's not a paper jam.

This is what I have tried. Uninstall and reinstall. Rebooting. New parallel printer cable. Tried the USB port (which for some reason I couldn't try with the 1st HP 648C).

The message I get is "There was an error writing to USB1 DeskJet 640C. The printer is not ready."

Any suggestions??

 

[slipe]

It is unlikely that both the parallel and USB ports have problems. Take a look in device manager to make sure there are no yellow exclamation marks. (right click My Computer>Properties>Device manager)

In the printer folder under properties check that your spooler setting is for EMF and not raw. Also make sure there is only one HP printer in the printer folder. (Start>Settings>Printers) You might also want to check Add/remove programs in control panel to see that there is only one HP printer installed there.

Go to your toolbox in Start>Programs and check communications if your printer has that option. The latest driver for my 930 seems to not have it anymore, but yours probably does. Also print a test page from the toolbox – might tell you what the problem is if it can’t print.

HP says that an improperly installed print cartridge can cause an error message like you got. Make sure they are seated properly.

You might try disabling bi-directional communication: http://www.hp.com/cposupport/printers/support_doc/bpd06455.html

 

[clhawk]

Thanks slipe,

I'm going to try all your suggestions until I can get this thing to work. I haven't been able to do a test page from holding down the power and resume buttons and I couldn't find a toolbox. I've been so frustrated by this that I didn't even think about checking the programs area. Thanks again. I'll let you know how things went.