Printer prints only blank pages except with IE and the test page

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MissingGhost

Weaksauce
Joined
Jan 18, 2006
Messages
102
Hello to all,
I really need your help! I have searched all over the Internet for answers and I can't find anything.
The problem is that a printer that I have been using for a long time has suddenly started to only print blank pages. And by that, I mean that it looks like it's spending time to print something, the page isn't just coming out quickly.
Weirder thing is that the test page works fine. It also works if I print from IE. Printing from both Word, Firefox and Notepad doesn't work.
Printer is an HP Deskjet 812C connected to a Windows XP SP2 computer using a parallel port.
The printer has the same behavior when used over the network. For example, I have another computer with Windows Vista, here I can print only the test page and any webpage from IE too, but what I really need to get working is Word.
Thanks for any help!
 
Yes I did. I forgot to mention that, sorry. I have also restarted the computer multiple times.
 
What happens when you connect the printer to the other computer directly and try it? If it works fine then either you've got bad drivers or the OS is corrupted.
 
What's changed? Updated Driver?
If you hit Device Manager and roll back to an old version it may start working (if an update).
 
I've experienced something similar in the past with XP, and honestly never found a fix for it. After an OS reinstall, everything was back to normal
 
This is my brother's computer. I tried to ask him what changed in the past days. He can't think of anything except that he installed two games. The driver is the one that came on the windows cd that worked fine until this week. It doesn't appear to have been updated in any way.

Indeed it seems that everyone that had a similar problem could only fix it by repairing or re-installing windows, but I'll rather not do that if possible.
 
MissingGhost said:
This is my brother's computer. I tried to ask him what changed in the past days. He can't think of anything except that he installed two games. The driver is the one that came on the windows cd that worked fine until this week. It doesn't appear to have been updated in any way.

Indeed it seems that everyone that had a similar problem could only fix it by repairing or re-installing windows, but I'll rather not do that if possible.
Click to expand...

Repair install?

You could try un-installing the printer and then the actual port itself (From device manager) and let Windows detect it and see what happens.
 
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