Member Avatar for tez

My PC is on ME. I have been running two HP printers (one colour, 1 B&W, which could be selected by a switch console.) Recently changed the HP colour printer for an Epsom which runs OK. But the HP B&W will now not print more than a few lines and a message appears on screen saying 'Parameters are incorrect' yet this printer was without problems previously.
It's driving me nuts! I have checked for more updates from HP (none). the paper sizes are correct, all cables seem OK, checked Properties - OK, ......
help please guys! :rolleyes:
Tez

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Short diagnosis and focused checklist that builds on 's and 's points.

If a printer prints a few lines then fails with "Parameters are incorrect", the usual culprits are a driver/port mismatch or the hardware switch interfering with printer handshaking. Work through these ordered checks to isolate the fault quickly:

  • Verify the software is actually sending to the HP B&W: open Start -> Settings -> Printers and make the HP the default. Confirm the application you use is sending to that printer.
  • Check the printer's Port in Properties so it matches the physical connection (LPT1, COM, or the switch's port). Mismatched ports/drivers will send the wrong data stream and stop the job.
  • Bypass the switch: connect the HP directly to the PC with a known-good cable and print a plain-text file (Notepad) or the printer self-test. If it prints OK, the switch is the likely cause.
  • Reinstall cleanly: delete the HP printer, reboot, then add it back using the correct driver for Windows ME. If the Epson driver is still installed, uninstall it temporarily to avoid accidental driver selection.
  • Try "print directly to printer" (if available) to rule out spooler corruption, and reboot the machine to clear the spooler if jobs fail repeatedly.

If the HP still fails when directly connected and the self-test is good, try the HP on a second PC. That separates driver/software problems from intermittent hardware faults (cable, parallel port, or printer controller). If direct printing is stable but fails only through the switch, replace or bypass the switch—many cheap parallel switches do not preserve printer handshaking and cause this exact symptom.

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Member Avatar for caperjack

Sounds like a drive issue .did you uninstall the other hp ,If not
Go to Start/Settings/printers ,uninstall and make sure the other HP is installed correctly ,maybe just reload the drivers for it !

Member Avatar for tez

Thanks Caperjack - tried as you suggested but still no luck.
Not sure where I go from here, perhaps I have to bin the printer??
Tez

Member Avatar for oalee

maybe you can try using it on a different computer. just to check if it's the printer that's causing the problem or not...

Member Avatar for DMR

I have been running two HP printers (one colour, 1 B&W, which could be selected by a switch console.)

If you're talking about an external switch box here, what's probably going on is that when you switch from the Epson to the HP with the switch, you aren't also changing your selected printer from the Epson to the HP in your (software) printer setup. That is, you're physically printing to the HP, but still using the Epson driver. If that's the case, the reason the two HP printers worked together was that whatever HP driver you were using was compatible with both HP printers.

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