«

What about a new IEEE 1284 printer cable. I have a 5550 and you need a
bidirectional printing cable. I run Win2K and have no problems.

On Thu, 11 Sep 2003 01:21:40 GMT, "smackedass"
<> wrote:

>Hello again
>
>In a last-dash effort to fix a problem that I'd referred to earlier (asking
>about subbing out an HP 600 OfficeJet on an XP computer), are there any
>takers here now?
>
>-Computer: New Dell (forget the exact model, one of those newer black
>boxes), XP home edition. Virus free, no symptoms of any other problem.
>
>-Printer: HP DeskJet 5500, now discontinued; the Staples salesperson didn't
>tell me this when he advised me to buy it.
>
>PROBLEM: The printer has flipped out. First, the two bottom lights on its
>console were blinking simultaneously, while any sent print job rolled up,
>down, and up and down again,until the job finally failed. Message from XP:
>"The job has failed", etc.
>
>I went to the HP site, and tried what they suggested, something like, power
>off, remove cartridges, power on, replace cartridges; the blinking lights
>went away, but the printer still doesn't work. Keeps sending continuous
>pages of 1-2 line winky-dinks type gibberish, random, meaningless
>characters; the "failed" message then re-appears.
>
>Beyond what the HP site suggested, I have uninstalled and reinstalled the
>drivers (provided by XP itself; the drivers from the HP disk wouldn't load:
>"Not a valid image", or some-such)...I have re-booted the computer several
>times, and shut the printer down several times. I also tried a different
>known-good parallel cable. No go.
>
>HP tech support tells me that I'll have to walk through a (prolonged,
>unfruitful? What can I expect from the India outsourcing? please place your
>comments here) troubleshooting process; they also suggested that a USB cable
>may make a difference (I disagree; your comments here, also, please).
>
>The guy at Staples (am coming to hate Staples, but this guy seemed
>knowledgeable and competent) said that the next thing that I try is to hold
>down all three buttons on the console of the printing device, for a "hard"
>reset. Says that the problem is "between" the computer and the printer, and
>this might do it.
>
>HELP! My client is ****ed, this is one of the busiest weeks of her annum,
>and I would be well served with relevant knowledge.
>
>Thank you, again!
>
>smackedass
>

smackedass wrote:
> I belive (not positive) that it is bidirectional 1284. Why did it work, at
> all, for 1 1/2 months? In addition, I've seen it scan, from scanner to
> printer to computer, before it broke.
>
> NOTE: What I did fail to mention, in my initial post, is that after I
> reinstalled the printer driver, I was able to successfully send a "Windows
> Test Page" through the printing device. Other documents, however, are
> gibberish, if anything at all gets through.
>
> Thanks for responding.
>
> smackedass
>
>
> wrote in message ...
>
>>What about a new IEEE 1284 printer cable. I have a 5550 and you need a
>>bidirectional printing cable. I run Win2K and have no problems.
>
>
>

Have you tried to go to the HP site and download the device driver from
that site for this printer, since you could not read from the CD?

The site is a little log and you may have to do some cut and paste:

http://h20015.www2.hp.com/en/softwar...etype=software

--
Danny Kile
Please reply to the Newsgroup ONLY

"Dogs come when they're called, CATS take a message and get back to
you." Mary Bly

On Thu, 11 Sep 2003 01:48:01 GMT, "smackedass"
<> wrote:

>I belive (not positive) that it is bidirectional 1284. Why did it work, at
>all, for 1 1/2 months? In addition, I've seen it scan, from scanner to
>printer to computer, before it broke.
>
>NOTE: What I did fail to mention, in my initial post, is that after I
>reinstalled the printer driver, I was able to successfully send a "Windows
>Test Page" through the printing device. Other documents, however, are
>gibberish, if anything at all gets through.
>
>Thanks for responding.
>
>smackedass

Can you try the printer on a different computer with the same OS,
and/or a different computer, different OS?

I heard awhile back that HP printers don't forget anything (settings,
glitches), even when AC was removed. I don't know if it's still true,
but it was certainly true of my venerable old DJ600C.

Tom