Printing Problem: Need Urgent Help

I am using a HP Deskjet 500C Printer, which has always worked fine in the past. My OS is Win 98se. It prints the test page just fine, but when I try to print anything else, it prints PART of the document okay, but then about halfway down the second page (or sometimes third) it starts printing what I guess is code: Faces, letters, numbers, strange characters, etc. and does this for a line or two, then feeds a new sheet into the printer and prints one line of this stuff, feeds the paper out and feeds in another sheet, printing just a few characters on it, and keeps going and going until I can go to START/SETTINGS/PRINTER/CANCEL PRINTING. Usually, it prints out a single page document okay. I've uninstalled the driver and reinstalled it from HP site; rebooted; etc. all the usual stuff. No-one can tell me what's going on here and how to correct it. It's like the thing is schizophrenic! HELP!!!

 

golfnutz
Welcome to TSG!
At this point I would suggest to uninstall the printer and do a reinstall. Make sure you follow the HP proceedures for installing (HP generally requires the owner to install the software first and during install it will prompt to hook-up printer) which should be in your manual and after the install is complete
retrieve the newest drivers from HP.
After a complete reinstall if problem still persists it may be a physical problem with your printer.
Keep us posted
Dave

 

Davey,

Thanks for the QUICK and helpful reply. I did as you advised, but have only printed out a very short document, so don't know yet if this fixes the problem of printing out a longer document. Will let you know if it doesn't. Hope you had a nice Christmas, and have a Very Happy and SAFE New Year. BTW, that's a nice picture in your profile. Do you use the headset for speaking rather than typing documents?

 

Golfnutz
I have IBM viavoice which I was trying out but seldom use it.
There is quite a learning curve, not for me, but for the software.
I use the headset for net meeting and creating small clips.

Yes please let us know if that solved the print problem because we come up against those strange symptoms every now and then.
Dave