Mighty Favog Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 My wife just bought a new computer with Win 7 Home on it. She aslo has a very sturdy and reliable HP LJ4050 printer. The printer only has the parallel centronix connection and the computer only has USB's. So we buy the appropirate converting cable and plug 'er in. Send it a print job, it goes into the cue, times out with an error. OCCATIONALLY while rebooting the computer, upon powering up, the job sent to the printer will all of the sudden print!! BTW- this has been setup as a local printer. I've tried PCL5, PCL5e (listed as LJ4000), PCL6, some UPD's (Universal Print Driver). Geek Squad was no help and blamed the cable (one of theirs, a Dynex....ick..) but a new Dynex cable didn't work either. I have one at my office from CablesToGo and I'll try that tonight. A coworker has pretty much the same setup and every time she has to print something she'll send the job, unplug the USB cable from the CPU, plug it back in and wait. Eventually it comes out. Haven't decided if I'm ranting or if there's a real answer out there... p.s. -- no, I'm not buying a mac. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schu Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 one question... when sending to the printer, is there an option to select printer? or set default printer? current drivers for that printer? I would also suspect the cable, at the very least change it out to rule out that conflict. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mighty Favog Posted November 14, 2012 Author Share Posted November 14, 2012 Thanks Schu, I updated the drivers through Windows and even manually downloaded and installed PCL5e (LJ4000) driver from HP dated 6-11-12. At first the default printer was OneNote (I never use it) but I had since made the PCL6 the default, easily done. I am going to try that cable from where I work and see if that changes anything. If it works I'll return it and but that same cable from the manufacturer. Fortuneatly they're within 20-min. of my house., near PartsExpress. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJkizak Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 There is a problem with printer drivers and Win7 that hasn't been sorted out yet. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't even with revised drivers.My Epson R1800 will not communicate with Microsoft Word but will with everything else. There is also a problem with application of the ICC curves to the printer. Good luck. JJK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 You are using a usb to parallel adapter cable? Or a print server box? The PS box would work best (although more expensive), and you could have it on your home network and not shared off of her computer. Look in the properties for the printer and look at the ports tab. See if the enable bidirectional support checkbox is checked (enabled). If it is, uncheck the box and try it. We have some smaller HP printers that when shared and this box is enabled, the que doesn't work. Restarting the PC usually flushes the cached job and it prints. Ifbidirectional support is enabled, sometimes it fails to communicate back through the adapter and fails to print. Bruce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mighty Favog Posted November 14, 2012 Author Share Posted November 14, 2012 Hi Bruce, Yes, bi-directional is checked (I'll uncheck it after my wife is done working on it for the night) and we are using the parallel to USB adapter cable. I just got home a few minutes ago and tried a like cable I borrowed from work and it's not working either (although I've only tried it on PCL6 v.5.5.0 UPD driver. I was thinking about a wireless print server but I'd have to find a card for this printer. Even though I haven't looked yet, something tells me it might be tough. I'll try your suggestion(s) later tonight. Thanks guys!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiet_Hollow Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 Or a print server box? The PS box would work best (although more expensive), and you could have it on your home network and not shared off of her computer. +1 That or picking up a used HP JetDirect ethernet card if you don't mind using CAT5 instead of USB/parallel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mighty Favog Posted November 15, 2012 Author Share Posted November 15, 2012 Hmmmm.....The computer it's being used on is an all-in-one desktop (but it acts like a big laptop) in that it always connects to the wi-fi first. I do have the cat5 RJ45 cable connected to it but it's not doing anything. Wonder if I can just connect the JetDirect directly to the computer or if the printer still has to go to the routed first and then get data from the wi-fi/computer. The only part that bothers me is that I have to reboot out router (Netgear WND3700N) about once every other month because the devices just won't connect to the Internet. Asking my wife to reset all that stuff if I'm not home is more than I want to put her through. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 A JetDirect would give you an ethernet port for the printer and allow you to assign it an ip address, If you only want to connect your wife's PC to it, you would need a crossover cable (I can explain), or plug it into your Netgear router (a regular ethernet cable will suffice). It's not as hard as it sounds. An HP JetDirect print server is probably more than you want to spend. I may have one I can send you if you want to try it. I have some that we are not ever going to use at work, that would allow three printers (that's why we aren't using them any more), but would work fine. If you are interested, let me know. Bruce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mighty Favog Posted November 15, 2012 Author Share Posted November 15, 2012 I just showed your post to Sheila (my wife) and smiled her biggest, looked at me and said "Please!" Just to make sure, the ones you have install into an open bay in the back of the printer? I can make a crossover cable if needed, I made (terminated) all the ones in our house. I saw different models on the net but they didn't all look universal. Running the cable is easy, the cat5 that currently goes from the router to her computer (used for hardwired Internet from her last computer) will just get plugged into the lj4050. EazyPeezy!! I'll PM you my address. THANKS A TON BRUCE!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mustang guy Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 The HP 4050 are great printers, and the JetDirect is relatively easy to set up. I don't blame you a bit going to the trouble to keep it working. They are definitely worth it! There is no need for a crossover cable. A standard wired ethernet RJ45 will do. Although DC can use DHCP for an IP, you should assign a fixed IP, so you can set up your computers once. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mighty Favog Posted November 15, 2012 Author Share Posted November 15, 2012 Thanks MG. I've got good vibes on this working. Sheila and I each have a 4050. 12-years ago I paid $1k for mine and we got her a refurbed a few years ago for about $200. There's even a great place locally that will get us 10k page yield toner for (I think) about $50 shipped and get it the next day via UPS. I plan on doing the same thing to mine because someday my Win XP Pro machine will bite the dust. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
germerikan Posted November 16, 2012 Share Posted November 16, 2012 This link just might help you as well: http://www8.hp.com/us/en/support-topics/win7-drivers.html We have the same problem with many of the Large Format Printers ( I work for a software company which develops RIP software) HP Support for Windows7 expecially 64bit is very limited and the older printers are not supported 100%. The automatic windows update will not find the right driver for many of the HP products and you have to search deeper manually. Even if not supported you can usually find workarounds under that link. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WMcD Posted November 16, 2012 Share Posted November 16, 2012 I wonder whether this problem has something to do with the USB power output which provides power the electronics in the adaptor. You should Google USB power settings. And maybe this feature is only used on laptops which have selected suspend for power conservation -- and not your all in one.. But . . . .. Try shutting off USB selected suspend: contol panel / power / change plan setting / change advanced power settings / USB settings / usb selected suspend settings. It may show "enabled" which probably means the USB power shuts off at some point, and if you "disable" the power should not shut down. The thing that got me going on this is that the post describes that replugging the USB solves the problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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