HP Laserjet IID printing problem

1st, a virus possibility. 2nd, in printer setup see what fonts are there. Also check the font setup on the printer itself. Sounds like it is printing in a different language or is it just printing split letters? add comment about this to your question.

Why is the text unreadable? Are the letters missing parts of the letters? Or is it printing out symbols in place of the letters?

If it's printing, but looks like parts of the letters are missing, then look at the fuser. You may have a sheet of paper or two wrapped around the rollers. (Fuser is the "hot iron" that melts the plastic toner particles to the sheet of paper, but poor quality paper, or an overworked printer may curl the paper and cause the wrapping. Because the heat is not applied to the subsequent sheets, the letters tens to come out sort of choppy).

If it's printing garbage (symbols), then you may have a logic problem. I'd check the memory and reseat them in the printer first, reset the printer and try again.
You may have to take the printer to an authorized repair center and get an estimate of repairs and decide whether you want to fix it or replace it.

Fusers are pretty expensive... and I do not know if they are even available any more for the IIDprinters. Logic boards are usually more expensive and also may or may not be available.

A printer can get a virus? never heard of that. It's not printing a different language. If I print a test page the only that I can read is the windows 2000 printer test page part but that's because of the size. The printing has pixels moved to the left and right. I can't read the smaller text because of this. I opened up the printer and I can see that the text appears like this before reaching the fuser so that rules out the fuser. Does that help you guys?

Also... Now it is just printing all over the page.. filling it up .. dots everywhere. hmmm

Some viruses attack the printer software. If you have not, please remove all software for the printer and reinstall. Hope this helps. Also pull the fuser and look at it and the area ahead of it as anna may be on the right track.

Hi disconnect thr printer from the Computer power up the printer and print a printer test page if the print is still garbage then it will be printer fault ie font corruption. If the test page is clear then it may be a printer interface fault or the PC try it on another PC.

Rich

This is very clearly not a fuser problem...all the fuser does is make the toner image on the paper permanent, the problem is obviously electronic component related and is affecting the pattern in which the toner is being applied to the paper.

Unplug the printer and pull the memnory chips out, reseat them and power back up. If the IID doesn't have removable memory chips then just open the case and look for connetor problems, tighten any you find.

You might also check and see if this old workhorse has any addon font cartridges. Could be a bad one or a bad connection. If memory serves those older cartridges are like the old Atari 2600 game cartridges and can become dirty or scratched on the contact surface...try pulling the cartridgeand see if you can get a better contact.

Sounds to me like its just about time for a new printer...that IID owes you nothing at this point...it must be about 12 years old now.

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