Member Avatar for dhoch1488

I am running a photo booth application on an old Dell Dimension 2400 PC with Windows 98 SE.

We were using an HP2200 Business Jet printer but that seems to have failed and I cannot find another on the web.

Any new printer we install has to be already supported by existing drivers in W98 because a) we aren't networked; and b) our only external drive, a CD RW, doesn't work, so I have no way to put a new driver on the machine.

a) Is there a list somewhere of what printers w98 has built-in support for? I could exhaustively punch up each manufacturer in the 'Add Printer' dialog and then scribble down each model there, but a list would be much better.

b) We were using the above HP2200 (inkjet) printer to print the photos on glossy paper, but would a Laserjet work just as well? It seems easier to find old HP2200 Laserjets than Business/Ink jets.

c) Does anyone have any other suggestions for what printers already supported by Windows98 would print a decent (color, obviously) photo?

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by davidparkers
Member Avatar for rproffitt

Something may have been left out of the details. CD drives are readily available here. I can go on Amazon and get them. Maybe there's something of a cost or you don't have a tech to change the drive?
https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c00041196#AbT3 notes the 2300 which I found with a web search. These old printers come and go but sometimes you have to decide if it's time to upgrade the system or not.

But back to my question. Why can't you replace the CDRW drive? I think I personally replaced over a thousand over the years.

Member Avatar for Dani

Back in the day (around the time I ran Windows 98) I had an old Kodak photo printer. I don’t recall if the drivers were built-in or not.

What about putting the drivers you need on a USB memory stick formatted as FAT16?

Member Avatar for chuckc

Tough problem because such long time ago. Good comments.
Maybe old printers that used the very old printer connectors, if you can find one that is still working. They included Radio Shack, Panasonic, Okidata, and some others. Some would take plain text, but you would have to format document? into some maximum chars per line, and the text would require CR/LF chars in the text, then you might be able to just use the copy command.
Good luck

Member Avatar for lucyoscar

The HP Laserjet 5 and 6 printers are Windows 98 compatible options if you're in a rush. They are available for viewing on Amazon. If you've been using your Windows 98 PC for this long, you must have a good reason.

Member Avatar for davidparkers

HP Laserjet 5 and 6 are compatible printers for Windows 98. Because window 98 does not have a USB port, so we need a printer with a parallel port

Edited by davidparkers
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