Incomplete printing

[willfir 0]

In all honesty I'm not sure if this is hardware or software, HP seem to think it's my power cable... That seems laughable to me, but it would be hardware so here I am. Please move me if I'm wrong

 

On with the problems! I had a fully functioning printer last week (HP Deskjet F2480 if it's relevant). This week it developed a "USB device not recognized" problem, which initially could be solved by turning the printer off and on again. When that stopped working, I discovered after much googling that turning off and unplugging my computer might fix it - it did. Lovely stuff.

 

The actual problem itself is as follows: I now can't print complete documents. In the printer queue, it displays (as an example) "14.0/64KB" under size - although it doesn't always stop at 14KB, that was just one example. It does however always stop before the print job finishes.

 

Sometimes if left alone for long enough it will print the first inch or two of a document, sometimes you have to cancel the print job to cause this. (Note: Not the first few lines, just a seemingly random length of text, after which printing interrupts whether the end of a line has been reached or not.) Also the HP Solution Centre claims the printer's not connected when it is, but under 'Printers and Faxes' in Control Panel it's listed as online.

 

I am yet to reinstall the drivers, as that would be the 3rd time this evening, which might just drive me insane (having had to do so as a possible solution to the earlier problems).

 

As far as I can work out I've tried all the basic stuff - checking it's plugged in and switched on, various USB ports, restarting/resetting computer and printer, etc etc.

 

I'm on XP Pro (2002 version), SP3. Can't think of any other details you'd need but if there are some just ask.

 

Thanks in advance

[danleff 0]

It very well could be a funky cable. Is it possible to get a hold of another cable to see if the problem goes away?

 

You could also try the HP Printing Diagnostic Utility located here to see if it assists in diagnosing the problem.

 

You could also have static build-up on the USB ports. When you tried shutting down and unplugging the system, did you hold the power button on for about 10 seconds to see if this releases the static in the ports? Then plug the power cable in again and start the system normally.