Deskjet 890c

Question

Could not find board best fitting my problem so picked this one.
Like me, my PC (HP 533W) with XP Pro and printer (Deskjet 890C) are old. But they have served me well. Yes, I do have a new Windows 8 laptop and hate 8. Installed Windows Classic and now I'm happy (well, happier).
Here is the problem. In the last couple of weeks  I find that I cannot always print MS Word or Excel documents using the latter PC/Printer. The printer feeds paper but does not always print.
In Excel, it will print most pages, but not all. If I try to print just the missing pages, it just results in blank sheets being fed.
Test page prints OK, printing from Outlook Express is OK.
Have pulled the plug on the printer, pulled the RS-232 cable, Shutdown the PC and then restarted all. Still getting the same results. Did notice a couple of times the printer just began feeding paper without any printing taking place, would go for almost 50 sheets before it stopped.
It appears the transfer of file data from the PC to the printer is somehow being corrupted or lost. Last problem was an Excel file of 20 pages, it skipped 6 random pages when printing, just blank pages. When I tried to print the missing pages individually, they still came up feeding but not printing.
Don't chastise me but am still using MS 97 which works for what I need to do. Have never had a problem till now (except for forcing friends and associates to send me MS Office files not ending in x.
By the way, if I send the same file data to a newer 309g HP printer (via wireless) everything prints fine. But the wife isn't happy with my interrupting her work.
The old PC and printer is in my office and hardwired.
Can someone suggest if it might be fixable or am I going to have to dump the printer.
At my age I don't have that much time left , just want to keep the old stuff going (like the car too).

Answer 1

Hi w7wll, sorry to hear that you are having issues getting your printer installed on your Windows 7 computer. I do have a suggestion for you. If you connect the USB cable to the printer and to the computer (make sure the printer is powered on), you should get a pop up saying that it found new hardware. Ignore this message and close it out. Go into your Control Panel, Hardware and Sound and click on Devices and Printers. From here you should see at the top of the page to ADD A PRINTER. This will give you an option to Add a Local printer or Add a network,wireless or Bluetooth Printer. Please select Add local printer. Next screen will already have a bullet in Use an existing Port so lets leave it the way it is and click next. The final window will ask you to select the manufacturer of the printer so lets scroll down the list and select HP and on the right side scroll down the list and select the DeskJet 9800 printer and click on Next at the bottom. The printer name should already have the Deskjet9800 so please just click on next. Now it should install the printer and ask for a test page.
If this does NOT resolve the issue, please feel free to write back.
Thank you
Click the “Kudos Thumbs Up" at the bottom of this post to say “Thanks” for helping!
Please click “Accept as Solution ” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.
W a t e r b o y 71
I work on behalf of HP