HP Laserjet problem.

I've had a Canon i560 inkjet printer on my system. Through low use, it dried up and now wants a new head. I thought I'd re-install my old HP LaserJet 4, (herein after LJ), which does not suffer from problems of this type.

My machine has had a Motherboard, (etc.), upgrade since I removed the LJ and the new ASUS MoBo did not have a parallel port. I bought a LogiLink PC0013 card with a single parallel port, fitted it and installed the supplied driver.

I plugged in the LJ with the same parallel cable it used to have when it was in use before. This, I've set to the default output on lpt1. Printer passes self test.

I downloaded a pile of files in a zip from HP which purport to be the drivers for the LJ, which I've unzipped. None of these are executables however. These files are all sitting in a directory, (called lj632 - name chosen by the website, not me).

It doesn't work. I can see the output in the print queue, (a few lines from notepad - test stuff). I assume there is another step to do, link the driver or some such, but can't remember what that is!

Any relevent suggestions?

 

Hi

If they're not executable files, what is the extension on them?

 

You don't say so I'll guess you're running a version of Windows as your operating system.

have you tried the Add a Printer function? If whichever version of Windows your running doesn't have a driver, just point it to that directory where all the files you downloaded and unzipped are.

Sam

 

@mcsmc...

The directory contains a .inf, a .ini, a .hlp, a .ntf, a .gif, a .gid, several .dll's and a larger number of .ppd files.

@scajjr...

Sorry, I should have said, it is running XP Home. I tried to run the add printer tool, it did not ask for a driver or directory. I now have 2 LaserJet 4 printers when I try to print, (LaserJet 4 and LaserJet 4 (Copy 1) listed). Trying to print the Notepad file again did nothing.

 

@mcsmc...

About 20 .ppd files, a smaller number of .dll's and a collection of one-offs with a variety of assorted extensions.

@scajjr...

Sorry, yes, Windows XP. I went through the add printer tool, it didn't ask for anything. I ended up with LaserJet4 and LaserJet4(Copy 1) in my printer list. Neither work.

 

If that add-in card isn't showing any problems in the device manager, maybe try a different parallel printer cable? XP had default LJ4 drivers built-in if I remember right.

sam

 

I think I have fixed it, at least partially.

I was sniffing around the system looking for oddities, and found one. I have a single parallel port, so I assumed it was lpt1. In the device manager, under ports, I found I had a whole flock of these things. I assume, since I have been faffing about for a week or so trying to get this to work, I have unknowingly created them.

Now a session of deleting and booting has got me down to 3 of them, which I can live with, and I just tried to print my test file, to lpt3, and it failed. BUT! It failed in a different manner. The printer is now blinking away at me asking me to load a different type of paper.

This implies that the printer and machine are at least communicating, and that I have a set-up problem in software somewhere which I can chase.