Knowledge Base

Problems Printing to HP DeskJet Printer

Article ID: 137996

Article Last Modified on 1/19/2007

APPLIES TO

Microsoft Windows 95
Microsoft Windows 98 Standard Edition

This article was previously published under Q137996

SYMPTOMS

After you upgrade to Windows 95, you may not be able to print to your Hewlett-Packard (HP) DeskJet printer. You may experience any of the following symptoms:

When you try to print to the DeskJet printer, or to a file, you may receive

"Out of memory"

or

"Not enough memory"

error messages.
When you try to print to the DeskJet printer, you may receive an error message stating that the printer is offline.
When you try to install the HP DeskJet printer drivers included with Windows 95, you receive an error message stating that Unidrv.dll is already in use.
When you print to a Hewlett-Packard (HP) color DeskJet 5xx-series printer, you may receive the following error message:

Cannot print to device LPT1
When you try to print from WordPad, you may receive the following error message:

Could not start print job
When you try to print to the DeskJet printer, your entire document may be printed as random or unintelligible characters.
When you try to print to the DeskJet printer, graphics may be printed, but text may not.
When you try to print to the DeskJet printer, text may be printed, but graphics may not.

CAUSE

The Windows 3.1 drivers for the HP DeskJet printer were not successfully upgraded to the Windows 95 versions.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, follow these steps:

Double-click the Printers icon in Control Panel.
Right-click the HP DeskJet printer, and then click Delete on the menu that appears. If you receive a prompt stating that all the files associated with the printer will be removed, click OK.
If there is more than one HP DeskJet printer in the Printers folder, repeat step 2 for each HP DeskJet printer.
Locate and remove the following files in the Windows folder:

Deskjet.ini
Deskjetc.ini

NOTE: Your computer may have only one of these files, or both.

Locate and remove the following files in the Windows\System folder. To avoid deleting files that may be crucial to other HP components, delete only these files:

      DESKJETC.DRV
      HPDSKJET.DRV
      HPSETUP3.DLL
      HPV1284.DLL
      HPV500.HPC
      HPV500C.HPC
      HPV510.HPC
      HPV520.HPC
      HPV540_A.HPC
      HPV540_B.HPC
      HPV550C.HPC
      HPV560C.HPC
      HPV660C.HPC
      HPVBG.EXE
      HPVCM.HPM
      HPVCNFIG.EXE
      HPVDOS.DLL
      HPVDSM.EXE
      HPVEXT24.DLL
      HPVHT.DLL
      HPVMLC.DLL
      HPVMLCH.EXE
      HPVMON.DLL
      HPVPML.DLL
      HPVQP.DLL
      HPVQPR.DLL
      HPVRES.DLL
      HPVTTPCL.DLL
      HPVUI.DLL
      HPVWCPS.DLL
      HPVWIN.DLL
      SCONFIG.DLL
      TBKBASE.DLL
      TBKCOMP.DLL
      TBKNET.EXE
      TBKUTIL.DLL
      TBOOK.EXE

Rename all the Oem<n>.inf files in the Windows\Inf folder, where <n> is an incremental number starting at 0.

NOTE: Do not use the oem*.inf wildcard to rename files. Doing so may cause the wrong files to be renamed. For information about rebuilding the driver information database, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

ARTICLE-ID: 137377
TITLE: Removing Windows 3.1 Drivers from Wizard Hardware Lists
If the HP DeskJet Status Monitor is in the Startup group, remove it. To do so, follow these steps:
1. Use the right mouse button to click the Taskbar, and then click Properties on the menu that appears.
2. Click the Start Menu Programs tab, and then click Remove.
3. Double-click the Startup branch to expand it.
4. Click the HP DeskJet Status Monitor shortcut, and then click Remove.
5. Click Close.
Restart your computer.
Use the Add Printer Wizard to reinstall the HP DeskJet printer.

NOTE: Make sure to select the DeskJet driver included with Windows 95, not the Windows 3.x HP printer driver. If the new Deskjet Printer does not show up in the Add New Hardware List, remove the Drvidx.bin and Drvdata.bin files from the Windows\Inf folder. This will cause the Add New Hardware Device Database list to be updated with the new printer.

MORE INFORMATION

For additional information about troubleshooting printing problems in Windows 95, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

ARTICLE-ID: 128345 TITLE: Troubleshooting Printing Problems in Windows 95/98

Additional query words: w_works envelope laserjet laser jet 5L desk garbage corrupt

Keywords: kbenv kberrmsg kbprb kbprint KB137996

Microsoft KB Archive/137996

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