Here a good one for someone to figure out

[JCROCCO]

I have 2 new computer that replaced my 2 old computers.
My network is the same, the printer is the same.
The OS is the same (Kept win98se).

I have a HP Officejet R60 shared using lpt1 which is an ecp port.
MS networking is set up and works fine, file sharing is set up, the printer is shared.

The print test page prints just fine from both computers.
Everything prints fine from computer #1 that the printer is connected to.
Some stuff prints fine from computer #2 (word, excel), some stuff doesnt (Turbotax, Create a card, emails all as partial pages)

When I print from computer #2, it doesnt give an error message or anything, prints like it normally would, and the print size is correct, not smaller as one might think.

So, I am trying to figure out if the problem is with computer #1 (either network or printer related), computer #2 (network or printer related) or just network.

Heres what I did, still cant figure it out.

I set up my old computer that was computer #2, printed to new computer #1, didnt work, but test page did.
I set up my old computer that was computer #1 and hooked up the printer to it, printed everything correctly from old computers 1 and 2
I set up my New computer #2 (for the old computer #2), and printed to the old computer #1 and everything worked fine.

This tells me the problem has to be with my NEW computer #1, and not the network, or comp #2 or network settings.

I uninstalled and reinstalled the printer on new #1. This did not help.

I checked all the settings from the old ones and matched them to the new ones, and did not find any real differences.

I dont know if it has anything to do with the NIC card, but the new ones I am using are on the board, and my old ones were netgear cards, but it did print from the new #2 to the old #1, so I dont think that is it.

Am I missing something here? I have been working on this problem for over 2 weeks, and have little hair left. Please help.

 

[compudog]

Hmmm. Very interesting. It seems you tried everything I would have. Did you check over all of the advanced settings in control panel? Also, and this is the most likely, is the driver. Try using the latest driver from HP and not the stock Windows driver (if that even exists.) You may also try the knowledge base at HP's site for additional ideas. I pretty sure it's a driver thing.

 

[JCROCCO]

Thanks, I thought so too, but according to their website, the installation driver is the same as the driver they have on the site. It specifically states that fact.

I used the installation driver from the HP, and not the one from windows.

What other advanced setting in control panel could there be?

This is really a strange one.

 

[WarCon]

Was reading about your printer and Bi-directional printing is not supported over the network. Maybe those programs are trying to utilize the bidirectional capabilities of the ECP port and causing problems. Try setting the port the printer is on to standard (not bi-directional) and see if that helps with the printing issues. (Unless it needs bi-directional for the other aspects of the the officejet like scanning........etc.)

 

[JCROCCO]

well, I do need the bidirectional aspect for the scanner, But also it was set up this way before, and worked. I cant seem to figure out what is different about my setup now.

 

[WarCon]

Did you go from 10Mbit to 100Mbit? Maybe its having timing issues with the faster network speed? (Just Fishing....)

 

[JCROCCO]

Nope, but thank you. I was at 100 before the change, and still should be. My NIC should be a 10/100. Nothing changed other than the computer and the NIC cards. Even the protocal, TCPIP is the same, no other protocals.

 

[WarCon]

One more thing to try, unless you already have is changing the spool from EMF to RAW or even try printing directly with no spool buffer.

 

[JCROCCO]

have tried it all 3 ways, no luck

 

[Rav3n]

Its kind of funny how you mentioned the only applications that were printing were Microsoft applications, and the non-MS apps were not printing. As an interim solution, you might just want to send all the docs you want to print from #2 to #1, and then just print from 1.

Something I am confused about, did you say you tried to print from 2 by directly hooking the printer up to it? If you did not, I guess you should try that and see what happens.

You might want to try an office update - just get the latest patches and stuff, considering the printer was working for MS apps... maybe something is interfering... I dunno

The other suggestion I have to offer - try hooking the printer up via usb (i don't know if it does usb, but if it does...)

have you gone to windowsupdate to download all the updates? sometimes that fixes random problems.

Good luck

 

[JCROCCO]

I have all the updates yes, and it doesnt work with USB.

I did not try to hook up printer to #2 directly, but it printed to the OLD #1 via the network when I replaced the new #1 with the old#1 that used to have the printer to it.

Also, it seems that the turbotax program and the create a card program actually print info from the program, and not actually print a file, like word or excel does. I was wondering if something there can be the culprit. It seems that just printing a file previously made works, but printing info from these 2 programs (thats all I tested so far) dont work cause the printer info is being generated.

Is there some setting on the NIC card that can make the difference.

Another confusing thing, I was swapping the old and the new computers out, and actually got the new computer to print the correct information from the new #2 computer. I decided to reboot and retry, and it was lost again. why would that matter?

I tell you, hair is getting very thin . . . .

 

[compudog]

I have no suggestions. You have fallen in to the Microsoft vortex. The light at the end of the tunnel just burned out. Try the HP knowledge base if you haven't already, or just send the files to the PC that does print correctly and print from there.

 

[JCROCCO]

It amazing that such problems can occur when there seems to be no reason or solution for it.

 

[WeeWolf]

Ok I may not have much of anything new for you but I'll throw in my 2 cents.
A few things to try/check:
Force speed and duplex to either 100/full or 10/full or 100/half or 10/half just so it is not on auto
check to be sure both machines have installed the same driver for the printer. This is only an issue if you install a network printer as a local printer which is possible at least in 2k never tried it in 98se.
Have you tried the post script drivers? or perhaps you are using the PS drivers and not the normal drivers.
Can the 2nd machine see the printer machine via IP address and Name? ie if you do ping x.x.x.x to machine 1 from machine 2 you should get 4 replies now you should also be able to do ping <machine name of comp 1> from machine 2 and get 4 replies as well with it displaying the address. If you can ping by IP but it is not able to do so via name than put the machines in each others hosts file
like this:
x.x.x.x <machine name>
usually you do about 5 spaces or a tab between IP and machine name.
Good luck

 

[JCROCCO]

Sounds like great advice, I will try it. Both computers are the same, and are on auto-negotiate. I will change those 10 100/full. I will try the pinging option to see what I get. I dont know what a host file is, never had to do anything with that, but it did work before without it. Also, These computers I cant have static IP's due to Cable modem and router so can I still try to ping by name only?

 

[WeeWolf]

A hosts file is just something windows uses if you need to tell it what a certain IP address is. If the machines are on the same network and in the same Domain/workgroup there should be no need but if for some reason they are not able to see each others name than you have a problem. The host file is a way of fixing that problem temporarily by just saying this IP equals This machine name. I doubt this is your problem but making sure your windows networking is working properly is not a bad idea.

 

[JCROCCO]

I changed to 100 half, and it didnt change anything.
I was able to ping each other computer both by name and by IP. Even though I cant use static IP, when I ping name, it gives me an ip, and pinging that works fine.

Somethimes, the time was greater than 10ms or whatever the standard is closest to zero. It did ping it 4 times, sent 4 packets of 32 each, total of 128, no problem.

Cant figure this one out.

 

[Askalon]

ok, with everything you have posted, the issue is with New #1. As when you replaced it with old #1 it worked fine. So that rules out network and New #2.

I would suggest that it is a setting somplace you are missing. Double check the advanced tab and the device options. Make sure the correct amount of ram is being reported to PC #1 (may not be an issue, if nothing else, tell it it has more and see if that helps any). otherwise I am better at hands & over the phone than this.

 

[JCROCCO]

"Double check the advanced tab and the device options. Make sure the correct amount of ram is being reported to PC #1 (may not be an issue, if nothing else, tell it it has more and see if that helps any)."

What do you mean by this, and what exactly should I be checking for?

Also, how to you tell the computer it has more memory than it does have?

It has 256 ddr ram, and 64 meg video ram card (not shared)

I did double check the old#1 win.ini files to see if the printer was set up any differently, and it wasnt.

I checked both new computers win.ini files to make sure they had the same printers and drivers.

I am running out of options, and hair !!!