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New Dell Machine prints to HP printer with garbled characters but prints fine when connected to other machines on same OS
Hi
I've just installed a new Dell Desktop Inspiron at a friends house and the printer keeps hanging or printing spurious characters
I've used the same driver on another 2 windows 8.1 64 bit machines and it works fine.
Has anyone any ideas what might be the problem
Thanks
Martyn
speedstep
8 Wizard
8 Wizard
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47K Posts
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December 19th, 2014 03:00
It will print page after page after page of garbage that looks like swearing aka #$%^%#$%^&*^ and the printer is attached via Ethernet.
This is always a Bad Driver and usually PCL6 vs PCL5 or postscript.
Remove all printers.
Manually Download and install the specific HP Printer Driver.
Then add the printer and make sure it "sees" the exact model of HP Printer.
I have never seen this with OSX but I have seen this with Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 64 bit software.
martyn1060
2 Posts
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December 24th, 2014 06:00
I've uninstalled the driver and reinstalled the dedicated driver...both 32 and 64 bit and the problem still persists.
If I plug into my windows 8.1 laptop with same driver everything works fine....wondering if its a usb port issue!!!
RoHe
10 Elder
10 Elder
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43.5K Posts
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December 24th, 2014 12:00
Always include the version of Windows on the system with the problem in your posts. It's not relevant that it works on some other system. We need to know what version of Windows is on the system having problems. :emotion-5:
Did you follow the instructions to install the printer on the Inspiron? Many USB printers want their drivers installed before you connect the printer to the PC. If you connected the printer first, Windows may have loaded the wrong driver.
You might consider doing a System Restore to last date available before your very first attempt to install this printer. Personal files shouldn't be affected but always good to back up first. If this system is Win 8/8.1, you might consider doing a Refresh or a Reset, but again back up everything on external media first.
Once you're back to a "clean" state, you can try installing the printer again, but be sure to follow the instructions about exactly when to connect it to the PC or you'll end up in the same boat.
I presume this is 64-bit Windows so DO NOT install a 32-bit driver.
BTW: Have you checked the HP website for an updated driver for this printer and whatever version of Windows?