Need help with printer!

Najvar · Post by **Najvar** » 10 Jul 2000 12:07 pm

I've tried everything I know to do.Loaded the correct driver,made sure the connections were good, power,to the thing was on.The dern thing just won't print. Has anyone ever had this sort of problem before? Can anyone please help?

Mark Herrick · Post by **Mark Herrick** » 10 Jul 2000 12:51 pm

On Macintosh systems you need to go into the "Chooser" (under the Apple Menu in the menu bar) and select the icon for that printer. If there is a selection in the dialogue box for "Setup" it wouldn't hurt to click that as well and follow whatever prompts you get.
Sometimes it seems the computer just has to go through a routine like this, usually just once if you don't change your printer selection, so that it recognizes the printer.

I don't know the steps for a Windows system but I suspect that it is a similar process of identifying the printer for the computer so it knows it is there.<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Mark Herrick on 10 July 2000 at 01:52 PM.]</p></FONT>

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 10 Jul 2000 2:24 pm

Most new Parallel Port (Printer port) printers require the printer port to be set to either "EPP" or "ECP", which are enhanced bi directional port modes. Many PC's come with the BIOS for the printer port set to "standard" (one way not bi-directional communications). Get into your BIOS (it is accessed at boot-up time and how you access it depends on the PC - e.g. Compaq requires you to press F10 when the cursor is in the upper right of the screen - some others will have a line stating press F1 for setup or something like that.

When you get into setup change the printer port to ECP (if it's available) which is the highest speed port setting, or if you don't have ECP, set it to EPP. If neither of those are available try bi-directional.

One other thing, the printer cable should not be longer than necessary and must be a good grade (I think it's IEE 1203 specifications - I should have looked it up) or some, like Hewlett Packard, will not work.

If you're using a USB port, you may not have all the driver software for the USB port loaded.

Other than the above, I'd look at either a bad parallel (printer) port or the printer has a problem.

Najvar · Post by **Najvar** » 11 Jul 2000 11:36 am

Thanks to the both of you.Now if I can just figure out how to get into bios....

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 11 Jul 2000 9:49 pm

Does the printer have a self-test function, independent of the computer? For this you would have to read the booklet that came with the printer. Of course, you should never read the instructions except as a last resort.