LaserJet necromancy - starting to doubt my own sanity.
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Background: I've had this old HP LaserJet for years and try to give it a little occasional exercise to stop it seizing up. So yesterday, had a bit of B/W printing to do so though I'd take her for a spin ... Printer has vanished from the list. OK, probably to do with the Win 11 upgrade. So I use the Windows Add Printer dialogue and it installs. Yay, this is easy. I try printing to it. Quick as a flash, nothing happens. Document is in the print queue with the helpful message "There was an error." But it does let me cancel it and try again, with similar results. Okay, I'll uninstall it and try again. After what seemed like successful removal, it's still there. So, I run the troubleshooter which, surprise surprise, says that maybe making it the default printer will work. It doesn't. But we have now moved on - it can no longer use this as the excuse. This time it gives me a link to a HP page to download the correct driver. The link is to a page that doesn't exits. Okay, now the gloves are off. HP Print & Scan Doctor which of course won't run until I update it. But then - KAPOW! It tells me that the standard Windows drivers might be inadequate and I should install the full set of drivers "Downloadable here." This link works, the file downloads but crashes out every time I try to run it. I find another link to download all the drivers singly. I try it and this time it tells me not to use these but to use the Windows version that I started with. At this point, I accept defeat and use the other printer. But now is where it gets interesting ... I return home at about midnight and wake up the PC. Before I do anything else, there's a flashing of lights and a whirring sound and a single page pops out of the LaserJet. This was a document sent to the printer in May 2021! It now becomes clear to me that the name "LaserJet" is in fact derived from "Lazarus" and I appear to have gained the ability to raise the dead. Printer now seems to work perfectly.
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Background: I've had this old HP LaserJet for years and try to give it a little occasional exercise to stop it seizing up. So yesterday, had a bit of B/W printing to do so though I'd take her for a spin ... Printer has vanished from the list. OK, probably to do with the Win 11 upgrade. So I use the Windows Add Printer dialogue and it installs. Yay, this is easy. I try printing to it. Quick as a flash, nothing happens. Document is in the print queue with the helpful message "There was an error." But it does let me cancel it and try again, with similar results. Okay, I'll uninstall it and try again. After what seemed like successful removal, it's still there. So, I run the troubleshooter which, surprise surprise, says that maybe making it the default printer will work. It doesn't. But we have now moved on - it can no longer use this as the excuse. This time it gives me a link to a HP page to download the correct driver. The link is to a page that doesn't exits. Okay, now the gloves are off. HP Print & Scan Doctor which of course won't run until I update it. But then - KAPOW! It tells me that the standard Windows drivers might be inadequate and I should install the full set of drivers "Downloadable here." This link works, the file downloads but crashes out every time I try to run it. I find another link to download all the drivers singly. I try it and this time it tells me not to use these but to use the Windows version that I started with. At this point, I accept defeat and use the other printer. But now is where it gets interesting ... I return home at about midnight and wake up the PC. Before I do anything else, there's a flashing of lights and a whirring sound and a single page pops out of the LaserJet. This was a document sent to the printer in May 2021! It now becomes clear to me that the name "LaserJet" is in fact derived from "Lazarus" and I appear to have gained the ability to raise the dead. Printer now seems to work perfectly.
"LaserJet, come forth". :thumbsup: At least you have yours working. That's good.
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Background: I've had this old HP LaserJet for years and try to give it a little occasional exercise to stop it seizing up. So yesterday, had a bit of B/W printing to do so though I'd take her for a spin ... Printer has vanished from the list. OK, probably to do with the Win 11 upgrade. So I use the Windows Add Printer dialogue and it installs. Yay, this is easy. I try printing to it. Quick as a flash, nothing happens. Document is in the print queue with the helpful message "There was an error." But it does let me cancel it and try again, with similar results. Okay, I'll uninstall it and try again. After what seemed like successful removal, it's still there. So, I run the troubleshooter which, surprise surprise, says that maybe making it the default printer will work. It doesn't. But we have now moved on - it can no longer use this as the excuse. This time it gives me a link to a HP page to download the correct driver. The link is to a page that doesn't exits. Okay, now the gloves are off. HP Print & Scan Doctor which of course won't run until I update it. But then - KAPOW! It tells me that the standard Windows drivers might be inadequate and I should install the full set of drivers "Downloadable here." This link works, the file downloads but crashes out every time I try to run it. I find another link to download all the drivers singly. I try it and this time it tells me not to use these but to use the Windows version that I started with. At this point, I accept defeat and use the other printer. But now is where it gets interesting ... I return home at about midnight and wake up the PC. Before I do anything else, there's a flashing of lights and a whirring sound and a single page pops out of the LaserJet. This was a document sent to the printer in May 2021! It now becomes clear to me that the name "LaserJet" is in fact derived from "Lazarus" and I appear to have gained the ability to raise the dead. Printer now seems to work perfectly.
Rich Leyshon wrote:
I appear to have gained the ability to raise the dead.
I would recommend that you stay away from cemeteries. :)
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. -- 6079 Smith W.
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Background: I've had this old HP LaserJet for years and try to give it a little occasional exercise to stop it seizing up. So yesterday, had a bit of B/W printing to do so though I'd take her for a spin ... Printer has vanished from the list. OK, probably to do with the Win 11 upgrade. So I use the Windows Add Printer dialogue and it installs. Yay, this is easy. I try printing to it. Quick as a flash, nothing happens. Document is in the print queue with the helpful message "There was an error." But it does let me cancel it and try again, with similar results. Okay, I'll uninstall it and try again. After what seemed like successful removal, it's still there. So, I run the troubleshooter which, surprise surprise, says that maybe making it the default printer will work. It doesn't. But we have now moved on - it can no longer use this as the excuse. This time it gives me a link to a HP page to download the correct driver. The link is to a page that doesn't exits. Okay, now the gloves are off. HP Print & Scan Doctor which of course won't run until I update it. But then - KAPOW! It tells me that the standard Windows drivers might be inadequate and I should install the full set of drivers "Downloadable here." This link works, the file downloads but crashes out every time I try to run it. I find another link to download all the drivers singly. I try it and this time it tells me not to use these but to use the Windows version that I started with. At this point, I accept defeat and use the other printer. But now is where it gets interesting ... I return home at about midnight and wake up the PC. Before I do anything else, there's a flashing of lights and a whirring sound and a single page pops out of the LaserJet. This was a document sent to the printer in May 2021! It now becomes clear to me that the name "LaserJet" is in fact derived from "Lazarus" and I appear to have gained the ability to raise the dead. Printer now seems to work perfectly.
Rich Leyshon wrote:
I've had this old HP LaserJet for years and try to give it a little occasional exercise to stop it seizing up.
I've been wondering about that. When my previous employer shut down (as part of an acquisition), nobody wanted the big LaserJet printer it had owned for many years - I don't know how long exactly. I think the company was roughly 6 years old at the time, so assuming it was bought brand new when the company was founded, it was 6 years old when I brought it home. That was in 2006. Which means it's now 23 years old. I clearly remember using it with XP--in fact I still have the driver installer for XP in my software archive. I'm still using it today with Windows 10, and a lot of Linux distros pick it up automatically. These days if I power it up twice every 3 months, it had a busy quarter - I really hardly ever print. But, I'll still say it has served me well, with no indication after all this time it's about to run into mechanical failures (fingers crossed). It's a LaserJet 4350, with - I think - all accessories you could get for it at the time. There's two 500-sheet trays, a duplexer, I believe is what it's called (which lets you print on both sides of a sheet), and even a stapler (assuming you're not trying to staple more than 5-6 pages together). It's big and heavy, so I think that's why nobody wanted it.
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Rich Leyshon wrote:
I've had this old HP LaserJet for years and try to give it a little occasional exercise to stop it seizing up.
I've been wondering about that. When my previous employer shut down (as part of an acquisition), nobody wanted the big LaserJet printer it had owned for many years - I don't know how long exactly. I think the company was roughly 6 years old at the time, so assuming it was bought brand new when the company was founded, it was 6 years old when I brought it home. That was in 2006. Which means it's now 23 years old. I clearly remember using it with XP--in fact I still have the driver installer for XP in my software archive. I'm still using it today with Windows 10, and a lot of Linux distros pick it up automatically. These days if I power it up twice every 3 months, it had a busy quarter - I really hardly ever print. But, I'll still say it has served me well, with no indication after all this time it's about to run into mechanical failures (fingers crossed). It's a LaserJet 4350, with - I think - all accessories you could get for it at the time. There's two 500-sheet trays, a duplexer, I believe is what it's called (which lets you print on both sides of a sheet), and even a stapler (assuming you're not trying to staple more than 5-6 pages together). It's big and heavy, so I think that's why nobody wanted it.
dandy72 wrote:
It's big and heavy, so I think that's why nobody wanted it.
It's probably also an electricity guzzler, at least compared to modern laser printers. OTOH, if you turn it on only a couple of times a quarter - who cares?
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. -- 6079 Smith W.
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Background: I've had this old HP LaserJet for years and try to give it a little occasional exercise to stop it seizing up. So yesterday, had a bit of B/W printing to do so though I'd take her for a spin ... Printer has vanished from the list. OK, probably to do with the Win 11 upgrade. So I use the Windows Add Printer dialogue and it installs. Yay, this is easy. I try printing to it. Quick as a flash, nothing happens. Document is in the print queue with the helpful message "There was an error." But it does let me cancel it and try again, with similar results. Okay, I'll uninstall it and try again. After what seemed like successful removal, it's still there. So, I run the troubleshooter which, surprise surprise, says that maybe making it the default printer will work. It doesn't. But we have now moved on - it can no longer use this as the excuse. This time it gives me a link to a HP page to download the correct driver. The link is to a page that doesn't exits. Okay, now the gloves are off. HP Print & Scan Doctor which of course won't run until I update it. But then - KAPOW! It tells me that the standard Windows drivers might be inadequate and I should install the full set of drivers "Downloadable here." This link works, the file downloads but crashes out every time I try to run it. I find another link to download all the drivers singly. I try it and this time it tells me not to use these but to use the Windows version that I started with. At this point, I accept defeat and use the other printer. But now is where it gets interesting ... I return home at about midnight and wake up the PC. Before I do anything else, there's a flashing of lights and a whirring sound and a single page pops out of the LaserJet. This was a document sent to the printer in May 2021! It now becomes clear to me that the name "LaserJet" is in fact derived from "Lazarus" and I appear to have gained the ability to raise the dead. Printer now seems to work perfectly.
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: Sounds like the usual HP lunacy. I recently bought a new HP 24" T630 printer, downloaded the software and installed it. Every time I print, it informs me that my Preview software is out of date (just downloaded) and has to be updated, but it then proceeds to print correctly. THey used to be fairly reliable, but since HP opted to lump all of their drivers and support software into a single package, nothing has worked very well.
Will Rogers never met me.
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:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: Sounds like the usual HP lunacy. I recently bought a new HP 24" T630 printer, downloaded the software and installed it. Every time I print, it informs me that my Preview software is out of date (just downloaded) and has to be updated, but it then proceeds to print correctly. THey used to be fairly reliable, but since HP opted to lump all of their drivers and support software into a single package, nothing has worked very well.
Will Rogers never met me.
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dandy72 wrote:
It's big and heavy, so I think that's why nobody wanted it.
It's probably also an electricity guzzler, at least compared to modern laser printers. OTOH, if you turn it on only a couple of times a quarter - who cares?
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. -- 6079 Smith W.
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"LaserJet, come forth". :thumbsup: At least you have yours working. That's good.
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I expect in this case the printer was one from the period of time when HP was making money from selling printers and not the mayhem now.
took the words right out of my mouth, though the driver nonsense is pretty much HP.
Charlie Gilley “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759 Has never been more appropriate.
