4550N keeps losing driver on WindozeXP

[Kneale Brownson]

Can anyone tell me why my Laserjet 4550N quits working? It's hooked to a Compaq (HP) Presario and we've had to reinstall it repeatedly because it just quits printing. It will "process" a print job and end up with "data received" showing in the message window, but nothing happens. No printing occurs. If I then hit the "Go" button, I get a page that has this printed across the top:

[emqrstuX@PJL`JOB`NAME}bTest`PagebMJ@PJL`COMMENT`bt uup`Series~hPCL`uCiVersion``t


and that's it.

As I noted, we've been able to download current drivers from HP's website and reinstall, but this time it won't work. Of course, HP has no on-line support for the 4550N.

[dekard]

I'm not famaliar with the exact error your describing. I've tried these tips before when dealing with driver issues to varying degrees of success. You may have done these already, I'm just listing them in case you haven't tried them all.

Use the add\remove printer section to remove the printer. When reinstalling make sure you replace the existing drivers.

Try the printer on another to narrow down your problem.

Try replacing the printer cable with another, known good unit.

[Kneale Brownson]

Thanks, dekard.

We DID manage to finally get a driver reinstalled.

My issue is why does XP keep losing the driver. I ran this printer on a Win98 computer for a long time and never had this problem.

[dekard]

Are you running a clean install of Windows XP or the preinstalled version supplied by Compaq?

[Kneale Brownson]

It's the XP program that came on the box when purchased.

[dekard]

on the box, you mean a retail windows xp box? I was thinking that if you had a number of third party programs crapping up the system. Compaq installs have been known to have a lot of junk on them. :)
The only other suggestion I can make is double check the printer cable connection. Have you tried it on another computer yet?

[Kneale Brownson]

Yes, we're running the XP program as installed by Compaq.

Compaq's "offerings" of a bunch of other software isn't activated unless you pay, I believe. We've not added any of those "services" to the programming we use.

We ran this printer previously with no problems on a Win98 box.

Has everyone else who operated 4550N printers scrapped them already and not run into problems on XP?

[dekard]

I tend to think your problems are related to the configuration on the PC. I would suggest using the printer on another computer. If thats not an option you may want to consider a network print server which will host the printer for all the pc's on your network.

Your best bet is a clean install of Windows Xp from a Microsoft Disk, not one which is provided from Compaq. Preinstalled software from vendors greatly affects the reliability of systems, and frankly, Compaq is notorious for loading their pc's with everything under the sun. There's no telling which application is causing the conflict.

[mpugh11]

go ahead and delete the printer in your printer list along with any other printers listed. then go to windows explorer. right click on the start button and then click explorer. then click the program files then windows then system 32 scroll down till you see services. double click services and then scrol down in that box till you see print spooler. highlight the print spooler and click the stop button. wait 5 seconds and then click play to restart the print spooler. click start then settings and printers and faxes the box should still be empty. right click in the box and click server properties then go to the drivers tab and remove all printer drivers in the list. then reinstall your print device and reboot. this should fix the problem.

[JeffH]

Buy another computer... the Presarios are worthless... Get a commercial quality machine. After all the problems I have seen with Presarios, I wont even work on them any longer. I even made my mother buy a different computer.