Problems adding a printer

I am trying to add a printer to my Laptop. I am running Vista Business x32 and the printer I am trying to add is the HP LaserJet 1012. This printer is roughly 6 years old. I plugged in the printer, with out installing any external drivers, in the hope that Vista would recognize it and install it automatically with it's set of included drivers. Vista saw that I had plugged in the printer into the machine, but failed to find any drivers for it.

Therefore, I went to HPs site and downloaded the Vista driver for this printer. I went to "Add a Printer" and added my printer pointing it to the *inf driver file that I had just downloaded. Everything looked ok at this point and I went through the setup screen's. This printer is a USB only printer, meaning it has no parallel or serial ports(do any new printers have anything other than USB anymore?). When I was going through the setup screen, the strange thing is that there was no option for USB under ports, just things like the old parallel LPT1, 2, 3 and various other serial ports. I found this strange and choose LPT1 anyways since that was the default and there was nothing for USB, hoping Vista would resolve this. Guess what, it didn't. The printer is installed and looks ok, but when I send a job to it there is an error and nothing prints and I am sure that it is because the message is not being sent through USB, but LPT1 instead.

Can someone help me? What the heck is going on? Why is USB not in the list of ports?

Thanks.

 

this guy swears this works....

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r18763490-Vista-HP-LaserJet-1012-and-Vista-Heres-How

 

Thanks. I read the thread and will go through the steps now. I didn't think that this was going to be such a problem. The printer has always worked perfectly in XP. My main point of confusion is with "Add Printer" right now. What port do I choose that this printer is on, LPT1, 2, 3 etc????

 

according to his steps, you don't need to pick the port.

The problem is that this printer expects to use an HP proprietary USB port--you may recall DOT4 from XP.

Pretty sure that is why you are using the other printer driver--1015--because it uses the windows usb driver.

 

Errrr. I have something to share. After I install all the HP printer stuffs expressively, the system has been slowed down. I checked this is due to too much unnecessary startup and services(this 1 the culprit). Just want to share that if you face this problem too.

I have no idea on your current problem but I think it is due to the printer is too ancient(6years) and it is unreadable for your new laptop(vista).

 

Wow what a mess. I guess I have been lucky in Windows and haven't had too many major printer driver issues till now. This printer works beautifully with Win XP and the included driver disk. I thought it wouldn't be too much of a problem in Vista but I was wrong. His steps in the thread might not mention choosing a port, but I had to choose something to install the 1015 printer, so I choose LPT1. I guess I don't understand what is going on. What is the HP proprietary USB port? Why isn't the normal USB port an option? I am not familiar with DOT4.

Anyways here is what I did and the results...

1.) Before posting this thread I just plugged in my printer to my laptop. Vista detected that I plugged in a printer and tried to find a driver and failed.

2.) Next, I went to Hp's site and they have a driver for the LaserJet 1012 printer. I used the standard "add a printer" function and pointed it to this driver and used port LPT1. My printer was installed but when I went to print to it there was an error.

3.) Then I posted my question on this board and followed the instructions that gerryf19 found. I didn't even have to go through all the steps. I installed the 1015 printer as described to the LPT1 port and then plugged in my 1012 printer and didn't have to go through any more steps. All of a sudden Vista said my 1012 printer was installed properly. I found that the 1012 printer was installed on the generic IEEE port.

Bottom line, my printer works with my laptop now but doesn't work too great. It certainly is a step back from the printer performance I have with it on XP. For example I was printing a 3 page document yesterday and each page takes very long to print. One page would print then there would be a 20 second wait with the printer light blinking and then the 2nd page would print and so fourth. Crappy performance, but it is good enough since I am not planning on permanently hooking up this printer to this laptop. I just needed it this one time.

 

I thought the printer being older(but not too old) would actually help it work better in Vista as I thought they would have already included this driver in Windows already without manual install of a driver. I guess it can work both ways. I didn't think 6 years was ancient for the printer It is just a basic laser printer and I am not sure what more a newer one of the same type would provide me.

 

not sure what you are printing, but it could be the document you have is too large to fit in the printer buffer...try printing three notepad documents and see if the results differ.

I expect that printer has next to nothing when it comes to memory, and I wonder if the default for the printer is to spool the document or not.

Check the printer settings under properties and change the settings under ADVANCED to see if that helps.

Glad it sorta, kinda, sometimes works

I agree, not unreasonable to expect that printer to work.

The DOT4 is a HP Proprietary usb driver to work with HP usb printers. Epson did the same thing for a while when USB printers first came out, but HP held on to it way too long. It only applied to consumer grade printers.

I think HP hates its customers, I really do.

HP does have a universal laser printer driver floating around that I have used for commercial printers--I wonder if that would work?

 

gerryf19,
I don't think the document was very large. It was an email with limited graphics and 3 pages total in size. The printer has a woping 8MB of ram which, beleive it or not, is more than what I need. I have never maxed out the memory buffer. In fact I seldom print anything anymore, but once in a while and they are usually small documents.

I am not sure about printer spooling. You say that a setting is under properties. What is the setting called and what should I change it to?

So HP used(uses?) a Proprietary usb driver. Do the newer printers use USB natively now?

HP used to be the best in terms of printers. Is that not the case anymore? Boy things change fast. What printer brands do you recommend, or are they all about the same now? I know that I never liked Epson, though many people recommend them. They seem really cheap to me.

 

Sometimes graphics can push the size way up even if they are small graphics. I've got 512 mb on my printer and I still run into issues sometimes.

But your speed could just be using a compatable instead of specific driver.

Spooling
Start > Control Panel > Printer, right click Printer, choose PROPERTIES go to advanced, there are several SPOOLING settings. See if changing them makes a difference.

HP DID use a proprietary usb driver for some consumer grade printers. I cannot say they use them now as I haven't used a HP consumer grade printer for a while. I know that the three I fought with last week all did, but they were all several years old (two or more--I guess you have to give them credit for making printers that last )

As for recommended--it depends.

I am more concerned about models than brands. And features than models.

I am simply not allowed to bring anything but a Brother multifunction --laser or inkjet) machine into the house because the brother has the best fax features and my wife will hurt me if I bring something else home.

HP inkjets tends to have better color quality, but cartridges are more expensive.

HP laserjets last forever and you can get parts for them.

Canon inkjets always leak on me.

Epson always produced better photographs, but inferior type.

Samsungs break

Got a cheap Kinoca Minolta color laser last week that produced the best quality color I've ever seen on laser, but have no idea how long it will last or how easy it will be to get toner.

So, it's kind of a crap shoot.

 

I'm a die-hard Canon fan. I've owned three Canons in the last 8 years, and they have all perfomed perfectly. I suggest looking at the Canon MX850 - it's probably the best multifunction Canon has. It has the large ink tanks (14mL vs 9 mL on the MX860), is network ready (wired, no wireless - you need the 860 for that), works under Windows 7 and Vista, prints beautiful photos, has an ADF... I could go on and on. You can grab a refurb from Canon or NewEgg for about $125.

 

I have always had good luck with HP laserjet printers, then again it is the only ones I have owned

My printing needs are very basic. Next time I go for a new printer I will probably go for a multifunction that has a scanner and photocopier and fax. If I can't get that then I will get another Laser printer. I never print any colored documents or pictures so I don't even have to worry about that. I basically look for price and performance with black and white printing. Also toner/cartridge cost is a big deal.

Thanks for the help gerryf19 +rep.