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  • February 4, 2003 at 2:37 am #2309496

    Disappering Printer in Printer Folder

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    by olsenbanden2 · about 21 years, 2 months ago

    Homebuilt Computer: CPU is Celleron 900 Mhz, 256MB RAM, SDRAM PC100, 40GB Hard drive.
    OS is WIN 98SE. Tested hardware in DOS with the Analyzer CD, no problem found. OS and Printer drivers(newest from HP) has been reinstalled 3 times. From time totime I can’t print, I get Spool 32 Error and in Exell I get an out of Memory error or check if printer is on or check cable (Brand new parralell cable). It is not a program specific problem. If I reboot I can then print again. There is no time, number of pages printed or sequences of tasks that can be repeated, that will “tricker” the problem. I found here today that when the problem occurs there is no printer shown in the printer folder. Guess that explains why the programs are having troblecommunicate with the printer. I hope that there is someone out there that has an answer, it’s driving me up the wall. Thanks John

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    • February 4, 2003 at 3:32 am #3465168

      Disappering Printer in Printer Folder

      by franjent79 · about 21 years, 2 months ago

      In reply to Disappering Printer in Printer Folder

      You should try to find out if the program is capitble with Win98SE. That might be the problem. Try going on to HP website and download the newest drive for it.
      On the other hand it might be that there’s a conflict with someother hardware. Giveme a list of your other hardware you have plug on to the computer if the new driver doesn’t work.
      Good Luck

      • February 4, 2003 at 4:21 am #3465858

        Disappering Printer in Printer Folder

        by olsenbanden2 · about 21 years, 2 months ago

        In reply to Disappering Printer in Printer Folder

        All programs are WIN98SE compatible. And newest driver is installed. No other hardware pluged in to the computer. No conflicts. Thanks. 🙂

    • February 4, 2003 at 4:47 am #3465848

      Disappering Printer in Printer Folder

      by martyl · about 21 years, 2 months ago

      In reply to Disappering Printer in Printer Folder

      For a parallel printer – verify cable is IEEE 1284.4 compliant and connected DIRECTLY from the printer to the computer, make sure no other printer drivers are pointing to lpt1, then reboot to safe mode and open device manager and remove all instances of the printer port. Do not remove communication ports. Restart the PC with the printer connected but turned OFF. When it reboots, you’ll see plug-n-play add the port back in. Turn the printerback on – if you still can’t print, find the specific steps for completely removing the software and try reinstalling with only the driver from the manufacturer’s web site and not the original floppy or cd. If none of this helps, please provide the specific model of the printer – there’ll be a sticker with a bar-coded serial number and the model number just above it – probably 6 characters.

    • February 4, 2003 at 5:10 am #3465839

      Disappering Printer in Printer Folder

      by sgt_shultz · about 21 years, 2 months ago

      In reply to Disappering Printer in Printer Folder

      see if you can disable bi-directional printing in the printer driver. the other thing i would check is the bios settings for the parallel port. try different settings, probably ecp or epp….

      • February 4, 2003 at 5:31 am #3465825

        Disappering Printer in Printer Folder

        by olsenbanden2 · about 21 years, 2 months ago

        In reply to Disappering Printer in Printer Folder

        I tried that, still no change. What seems to be the “problem” is that the printer “disappears” in the Printer folder when I can’t print.

    • February 4, 2003 at 5:48 am #3465818

      Disappering Printer in Printer Folder

      by martyl · about 21 years, 2 months ago

      In reply to Disappering Printer in Printer Folder

      Thanks for the additional information. Can you double-check the model? I find HP has a Deskjet 3320 and 3320v and a Laserjet 3330 but no reference to a Deskjet 3330.
      -Marty

    • February 4, 2003 at 5:57 am #3465814

      Disappering Printer in Printer Folder

      by olsenbanden2 · about 21 years, 2 months ago

      In reply to Disappering Printer in Printer Folder

      I am sorry it is a HP LaserJet 3330

    • February 4, 2003 at 6:58 am #3465784

      Disappering Printer in Printer Folder

      by martyl · about 21 years, 2 months ago

      In reply to Disappering Printer in Printer Folder

      Bear with me and I may still find some useful information – I find NO reference to a “deskjet 3330 PCL6”. Does this printer use laser toner or liquid ink? Does it include a fax/scanner/copier? PLEASE look at the sticker with the serial number andprovide the Model Number. Also, how old is the printer?
      Thanks, – Marty

    • February 4, 2003 at 7:23 am #3465779

      Disappering Printer in Printer Folder

      by martyl · about 21 years, 2 months ago

      In reply to Disappering Printer in Printer Folder

      Laserjet – aha! Port mode MUST be “ecp”. Go to device manager, click on “+” for “ports” and double click on the printer port then click on “resources”. If “resource and setting” box only contains one i/o range and no dma number, then boot the pc,go into the BIOS and reset the parallel port mode – set to “enabled” and NOT “auto” – set mode to “ECP” – NOT ecp + epp – and, if it offers the opportunity, set it to use DMA 3. If DMA doesn’t appear as an option, skip it. Boot the pc with printerturned off. When it’s all the way up, reboot and go to safe mode, remove the printer port as described in my prior note and reboot again. THEN turn the Laserjet on and see if it works and shows up in the printer folder. If it does, go to the driver properties and then ‘details’ and then ‘spooling properties’ and turn spooling off. This unit requires full bidirectional port communication, thus ECP and IEEE 1284.4 compliant cable – do not assume the cable “that always worked before” is ok forthis – it may not be. Also plug the unit DIRECTLY into a wall outlet and not a surge protector or power strip. Also make sure any other printer drivers for LPT1 are pointing to something else. Also make sure any other drivers do not also have port monitor software – they’ll interfere. IF it still doesn’t work, and there IS a driver icon, go to driver properties and change it from LPT1 to Dot4_00n where n=number (highest number available) and ALSO check device manager for two entries called”dot4″. Your processor, if faster than about 266 MHz, disk size above about 200 MB free space and RAM if greater than about 32 MB are not a concern with this product. Indicate if you have no success – thorough uninstall/reinstall of this unit takes about 45 minutes but the steps are specific. -Marty

    • February 4, 2003 at 2:38 pm #3465671

      Disappering Printer in Printer Folder

      by martyl · about 21 years, 2 months ago

      In reply to Disappering Printer in Printer Folder

      John, here’s some info on uninstalling/reinstalling your 3330: after you run the uninstall in the tools submenu of the software for the laserjet, before restarting the pc you should start the system configuration utility and shut down ALL background programs, THEN restart. If you get hardware detected on restart- just cancel the hardware wizard and then go to your hard drive and delete the entire Hewlett-Packard folder from the Program Files folder unless it contains more than just the 3330.If there are other products, just delete what pertains to the 3330. Then empty the entire contents of the Temp folder within Windows – (c:\windows\temp) and empty your recycle bin. After that, see if there’s a folder called all-in-one or laserjet-all-in-one in the ‘my documents’ folder – if so, delete that and empty the recycle bin again. Then start your search program, search for and delete any files that start with hpbf3, hpbaf, hppc, or hpbft. Also find any files named oemX.inf or oemX.pnf where X is a number like 1 or 9 or 11 (digits only – no letters or other characters) – open each one with Notepad and look for references to the 3330 – any files that contain such references should be deleted. Empty the recycle bin AGAIN and reboot the pc AGAIN. Reinstall the software from the CD and then restart again. IF you made sure the port is in ECP mode, it should work – also make sure no other software may be conflicting – other twain drivers or print drivers. HP tech support will walk you through it but it’s a long distance call and the “click here and click there” step-by-step directions can take 2 to 3 hours and you will HAVE to follow instructions precisely. Let us all know how it turns out.
      -=Marty

    • February 14, 2003 at 9:48 am #3522925

      Disappering Printer in Printer Folder

      by nicolaspt · about 21 years, 2 months ago

      In reply to Disappering Printer in Printer Folder

      I also experienced your problem before…disappearing printer in printer folder is a sign of System Low Resources in my case. Though you are running 256MB RAM. Try to uninstall some applications that you do not use frequently. Try also not to open applications simultaneously.Try to check if the problem occurs again, go to START>SETTINGS>CONTROL PANEL>SYSTEM>PERFORMANCE and check for the System Resources.

      Here’s a reference for troubleshooting printing problems from Microsoft.Hope this will help. Good Luck.

      http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;128345

    • April 9, 2003 at 4:14 am #3539387

      Disappering Printer in Printer Folder

      by jim phelps · about 21 years ago

      In reply to Disappering Printer in Printer Folder

      Try the following:

      1. Make sure that everything is plugged in securely inside of the computer.

      2. Your paging file may be corrupted, too small, or dynamic (rather than static). If you have two hard drives, try putting the paging file on thesecondary drive, rather than the primary, and make it a big paging file – 500 (min), 1000 (max). The main thing, though, is that it needs to be big enough, and it needs to be “static” (managed by you rather than by Windows). (Back in the Windows 3.1x days, that was called “Permanent” vs “temporary”.)

      3. You might try reinstalling Windows.

      • April 9, 2003 at 8:02 pm #3459545

        Disappering Printer in Printer Folder

        by olsenbanden2 · about 21 years ago

        In reply to Disappering Printer in Printer Folder

        Thanks But it did not do the trick. I’ve been using USB connection for the last few weeks and no problems since then. Guess it did not like to work with Parallel.

    • April 9, 2003 at 8:02 pm #3459544

      Disappering Printer in Printer Folder

      by olsenbanden2 · about 21 years ago

      In reply to Disappering Printer in Printer Folder

      This question was closed by the author

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