Printing with a USB/Parallel Printer port connection on an HP LaserJet 4000 series

I have a Laserjet 4000 that is connected to Windows 7 via a usb/parallel port connection. Until earlier today I have always been able to print without a problem. Today however I can documents from the Internet to the printer and when I look at the printer the operating system claims the printer is offline. What do I have to do to be able to print once again?

Hello gener920,
Welcome to the HP Forums.
I am sorry, but to get your issue more exposure, I would suggest posting it in the commercial forums, since this is a commercial product. You can click here for the link.
http://h30499.www3.hp.com/hpeb/
Thank you for posting on the HP Forums.
I worked on behalf of HP.

Similar Messages

HP laserjet 1200 using windows7, cabled to the printer with a usb to parallel adapter

HP laserjet 1200 using windows7. My computer has USB ports, but no parallel port, so the computer is cabled to the printer with a usb to parallel adapter. Sometimes works fine, sometimes system states printer as ready, but will not print. Reboot hardware and on restart, I got one page to print. Next attempt to print puts the document in cue, but just sits there -- no error message. Finally, after multiple restarts, I got it to print (have no idea how), but now I had to print 20 pages one page at a time. It will not print more than one page, even if I select to print 20. Next time I start the computer I don't know if the printer will print. Do you need to use the same USB port each time, Or are the USB to parallel adapters undependable?
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Hey renradd!
Unfortunately, parallel to USB adapters can be undependable. Other than a new printer, I'm not sure what would provide you with a fix for this problem. You might try another adapter if you have one, but if that still doesn't work I would look into a printer that your computer could support.
Hope this helps!
If I have solved your issue, please feel free to provide kudos and make sure you mark this thread as solution provided!
Although I work for HP, my posts and replies are my own opinion and not those of HP.

I have an iMac running OS X 10.8.3 and have connected an Epson Workforce 2540 printed that is allegedly Airprint enabled. I can connect and print with a USB cable but can't connect via Airprint. My colleague running 10.7 can. Is this a feature of 10.8?

I have an iMac running OS X 10.8.3 and have connected an Epson Workforce 2540 printed that is allegedly Airprint enabled. I can connect and print with a USB cable but can't connect via Airprint. My colleague running 10.7 can. Is this a feature of 10.8? Any ideas for a fix?

iOS devices use AirPrint to connect to a supported printer. OS X will use Bonjour to locate and connect to the same printer.
With the Epson connected to your wireless router, when you open Print & Scan and click the plus button to add, does the Epson appear in a small box with a heading of Nearby Printers?
If not and a window appears showing Default, Fax, IP and Windows in the toolbar, do you see the Epson with the Default view selected?

Officejet Pro 251dw won't print with applications inside Parallels 9

I've used HP printers with my Mac computers for years and had no problems, even when I was working with Windows XP and Windows-based applications inside Parallels Desktop on the Mac. All I would have to do to have the Windows-based software capture the printer (connected with a USB cord) was to click on a drop-down menu item under "USB." Recently I upgraded our OS to Mavericks and had to upgrade Parallels from Version 6 to Version 9. A week ago we had to replace our old HP Deskjet 6500 printer, and we chose the Officejet Pro 251dw. We connected the new printer wirelessly to our home network, and we were able to print from both our desktop iMac and our MacBook Pro with no difficulties. But when I needed to print something from PrintMaster 12, a Windows-based desktop publishing program running on Windows XP inside Parallels Desktop 9, the job wouldn't print, and I got a message that the printer wasn't connected. After doing my own troubleshooting, I spent several hours on the phone with Parallels tech support, including having them connect to my computer over LogMeIn and change all sorts of settings, but the best I could get was that the printer queue report said that the job was printing, but the touch screen on the printer flashed rapidly back and forth from "printing" to the date and time, with a large red X next to the date-time read-out, and still no job printed. After having two or three first-level techs and then a second-level engineer working on the setup, the Parallels people finally gave up and said that the problem must be in the settings inside the printer and that we'd have to have someone who works with printers.adjust them. Has anyone out there had this sort of problem working with Parallels Desktop 9 and the Mavericks OS? It wasn't just the desktop publishing software; the same thing happened when the engineer went into the Windows XP printer settings and tried to print a test page.

Rocky8,
This is a little outside our area of printing, but I'll try and help you the best I can. My question for you is the printer showing up under the USB menu in Parallels. If it's not showing up then you need to determine why the USB connection isn't showing up in your Parallels USB menu. This could be a couple of issues, but the one that I think might be happening is the version of the USB port your using. Can you verify that you're not connecting the printer via a USB 3.0 port. Try plugging into one of your other USB ports to see if the printer will show up in the parallels USB menu.
BT
Working for HP and here to help!

USB parallel printer adapter

I have a HP Pavilion notebook. I bought a USB Parallel Printer Adapter to connect it to my two printers
HP Deskjet 540 and
Hp deskjet 820Cse, Professional series
but I cannot make the printers work. Since the printers are old, HP is unable to help me. Could anybody tell me how to make these printers work with my wireless HP Pavilion (laptop)?
Thanks

Which HP laptop and what version of Windows? I know Windows XP had usb to parallel drivers included natively. Vista and Windows 7 are tending to move away from support for "legacy" ports like serial and parallel. What port are you trying to install the printer on? I am using a usb to parallel adapter to an older parallel port printer together with a wired printer server with one usb port and it works fine with XP, Windows 7 and Mac OS 10.6 computers on my home network. I actually set up the printer on each machine through the print server, which appears as a network device. The print server plugs into the router with an RJ-45 cable.

HP Laserjet 4100 and Belkin USB Parallel Printer Adapter

I'm a brand new Mac user. I wanted to connect my Mac to my existing HP Laserjet 4100 printer. To do that, I had to purchase a Belkin USB Parallel Printer Adapter. I saw that Mac wasn't supported by this adapter, so I called Belkin and they said it was supported. Tried to set it up and failed. Called Apple for help, was on the phone for quite a long time, and no luck. Went to HP site to load drivers, and no luck. I contacted HP online and was told this product is no longer supported.
So right now when I try to print, I get a message that says the printer is offline...but it's not. Anyone have any ideas for a workaround?
Thanks so much for any thoughts.

I think you should be a little more patient in trying to find a solution. I have an HP Laserjet 4ML from 1992 that I still use every day.
In my case, I purchased an HP Jetdirect external parallel print server and have the printer connected to my router that way.
You may also want to power off the printer, reset Printing System, and then power on the printer and re-Add it in Print & Fax.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1341

G4 powerbook doesn't recognize epson 3000 using usb parallel printer adapte

i downloaded and installed driver per instructions from epson (epson10860). my epson 3000 does not appear on the list of printers in the mac print setup utility. (selected epson usb in window after selecting "more printers." i'm using a usb parallel printer adapter. anyone know why it's not recognizing my printer?

the parallel adapter is the most likely problem, and it probably will never work, as from what I've ever seen, OS X does not support parallel connections.
Your best bet is to buy a new printer.

Printing from a 32 bit client in a 64 bit environment (laserjet 4000 n with windows 7)

I have a HP laserjet 4000n connected to a 64 bit windows 7 machine. Another client (32 bit) on my network wants to print to that printer. I saw on the support website instructions for how to do this:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&taskId=110&prodSeriesId=...
So far, I have installed the 64 bit driver (just re-installed and I can print from the 64 bit server).
I then downloaded the 32 bit driver files (for PCL 5) and saved them.
I then went to the printing properties of the printer and chose advanced drivers and checked the box "x86". The instructions called for finding the file "hpcuXXXc.inf". In the printer driver folder, there were 2 subfolders - one marked 64 bit and inside that folder was a file "hpcu112t.inf" (file ends in "t" not "c") - so I chose that file and pressed ok and got the following error message:
The specified location does not contain the driver HP LaserJet 4000 Series PCL5 for the requested processor architecture.
I then downloaded more drivers (for PCL 6 - even though my printer is labelled PCL 5). This time, I got no 64 bit subfolder (only one folder labelled windows vista). However , there WAS a file labelled "hpcu112c" this time - so I chose that and still got the same error message.
Help!?
Thanks.
Janc

Phychopomp1,
Windows 7 64 bit is able to run 32 bit programs. However, some programs will have issues.
Have you checked your programs against the Windows 7 compatibility list: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=2394
This should tell you if they are compatible or not with Windows 7 64-bit.
There are compatibility settings that you can try once you have installed the software also. Right click on the shortcut and choose properties, then go to the compatibility tab and try the various OS settings.
If those things fail, then you should try Windows XP Mode (convenience link: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx). This will allow you to install your programs in a virtual copy of Windows XP SP3 using Windows Virtual PC. Once XP Mode is installed, when you install your software into it, you will get a shortcut to use the program from your Windows 7 start menu without even seeing the XP Mode window.
Hope this helps,
David
Windows Outreach Team – IT Pro
http://www.microsoft.com/springboard

I want to use my jetpack 890L as a wireless router to allow wireless printing with a canon laser printer. Is this possible, and does the jetpack support WPS?

I want to use my jetpack 890L as a wireless router to enable wireless printing with a canon laser printer. Is this possible, and does the jetpack support WPS?

I’ve used several wireless printers with a 4510 and 5510 Jetpack and they all print just fine. The MHS890L does not support WPS. The WPS Wikipedia article briefly addresses the reason why you should not use WPS. If you’re having trouble setting up your printer the manufacturer has a toll free support line to help you. Your Jetpack has the Wi-Fi Password on the bottom, under the battery, and or in the LED display.

Can't print with airport usb connection only

i have spent the last 3 days searching for help to fix my problem - PLEASE HELP!!!
using:
imac osx 10.6.8
canon image class mf8350cdn
airport extreme base station
I cannot seem to print wirelessly with my imac using just the USB connection on the airport router. I can print with the printer locally when it's "hardwired" directly to a usb on the back of the imac. I can print if i connect a cat5 network cable from the printer to the airport. i can print wirelessly with a PC when the printer is connected with a usb to the airport. i just can't do this with my imac via the usb connection on the router. my error message is a Canon CMFP Printer Driver telling me printer is not responding - check the power.....try sending again.
I believe i have tried everything!!! While i am newer to mac and not the greatest at networking, i have manipulated every setting to match up with all of the online help i can get (trying to not have to send this question!!) and no luck.
i have deleted printers and jobs, reinstalled everything, i changed the cable, downloaded the latest drivers from canon and apple, i updated the firmware on the printer. i even reinstalled my osx and confirmed all is updated on my imac.
i don't want to scan or fax this way - so that is not my issue -- it's just plain old printing using that usb port.
i need all of my other ports on the airport for other things, so i cannot sacrific this one for printing - i just want to use the usb as my printer connection to print with all of the machines i have.
hope my question makes sense and that someone will take the time to give a reply.
thanks!!
p.s. the closest discussion that matches my issue seems to be this one:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/12367897#12367897
but, i still can't seem to get there..........

The most comprehensive set of troubleshooting instructions for printing problems involving Airport printers is found at:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107418
It is possible your printer simply cannot be made to work in this manner, and is more often than not a problem with multifunction printers.

Will a USB-parallel adapter cable connect my MacBook to an OLD PC printer?

I have a very old laser printer of high quality and want to connect it (not wirelessly) to my MacBook. Does anyone know whether a USB-parallel adapter cable would do the job? Thanks,

Oh, a wrinkle: the printer has a cord coming out of it meant to plug (female) into a PC (male). So I'm wondering what to do. Any suggestions?

How can I print from iPad to a Brother printer with a TP-link tl-wps510u connected to it without using a computer? It doesn't detect the printer.

I have a Brother printer that doesn't have wifi, but I bought a Wireless Server Print to connect to it. I want the iPad can print directly to the printer without using a computer, but the iPad doesn't detect the printer. Is that possible?

javigomez88 wrote:
I know that Brother has an app that works with its wireless printers, even if they are not airprint. My printer isn't wireless, is a wireless print server attached to the printer what is able to make this printer wireless. Could this app be a solution or only would work with the wireless Brother printers?
The Apps usually only work with wireless printers, though if its free, there is no harm in trying, and see if it gets picked up, but its doubtful, as the print server would need to transmit in the same protocol the Brother Print App is expecting from the supported wireless printers.

Trouble printing with my HP Deskjet printer using CUPS and hplip

tl;dr This 1,646 word post describes my frustration with CUPS and hplip. I cannot get my HP Deskjet F4400 set up with CUPS, and all the solutions I've tried don't work.
I'm running Arch Linux ARM on my Seagate DockStar, a small ARM-based "plug computer" that I use as a home server. My printer is the HP Deskjet F4480, which is part of the HP Deskjet F4400 series.
I previously had CUPS set up to share my printer with my home network, using hplip for the printer driver. I never upgraded CUPS or hplip because those versions worked fine, and I didn't want to break anything avoid breaking anything. The versions that I was using had to have been at least one to two years old.
Everything was working very smoothly... until a few days ago. The drive I was running Arch Linux ARM on became corrupt, so I had to install a fresh copy of the operating system. That meant losing all of the working versions and configuration files each application I had installed, including CUPS. I thought I had a backup image of the drive, but it didn't work when I tried to restore it. (Yes, it was stupid of me not to test my backup.)
Setting up CUPS was one of the first things that I wanted to do after reinstalling, since my family depends on the network printing functionality almost daily. Unfortunately, I could not get CUPS to work with my printer correctly. It wouldn't be able to display a list of drivers, HP's setup utility encountered an error adding it, and it threw various errors when I tried to print test pages. I ended up reading hundreds of forum posts, wiki articles, and CUPS/hplip tutorials to try to figure out how to properly set it up. I ended up spending a total of nearly ten hours trying to get the printer to print with CUPS, and it's still not working after all that work.
I'm going to explain in this post some of the many things that I've tried so far. I just removed all of the printing packages from my system and any extra files that were left behind. I'm now going to be installing all of the packages again and documenting everything that I have been trying to do to get it to work. I'll try to include exact error messages and logs where necessary.
1. I first found this article on the Arch Linux ARM website on how to set up a CUPS printer. I didn't really want to use webmin, but I did it anyway so that I could follow the guide. I installed all the packages mentioned except for cups-pdf, since I didn't need print to PDF support. Everything installed smoothly, and I configured CUPS and webmin to allow access to other computers on the network. I started to notice problems in the instructions - /etc/rc.d/cups was actually /etc/rc.d/cupsd, /etc/printers.conf was actually /etc/cups/printers.conf, and webmin didn't actually add anything to the printers.conf file. I uninstalled webmin at this point because I didn't need it, and I decided I wasn't going to follow that guide with incorrect information.
2. I then tried to set up the printer on my own using the CUPS web interface listening on port 631. I clicked the Add Printer button and it switched me to the HTTPS web interface. I then logged into the root account and was presented with the list of printers. My printer was listed as "HP Deskjet F4400 series (HP Deskjet F4400 series)", so I selected it and continued. I saw a list of printer models (PPD files) ending in CUPS+Gutenprint v5.2.9. There was no entry for my printer, so I tried the "HP DeskJet Series (en)" one. I set the default options and chose Maintenaince->Print test page. I then got a ridiculously simple error: "Unable to print test page: No such file or directory". How do I even know what file or directory it's referencing? I read online that it may be because I'm not in the lp group, but root is indeed in there. I saw in the error log "Avahi client failed: -26". I started dbus and avahi-daemon just in case, but I still got that silly error. I restarted cups and the same error message occured.
3. I researched online that pretty much the only way for my printer to have a driver would be to install hplip. Before installing hplip, I uninstalled CUPS, leaving cupsd.conf but deleting printers.conf. Then I installed CUPS and hplip together, with hplip requiring foomatic-db, foomatic-db-engine, and foomatic-filters. Everything seemed to install correctly. I started CUPS again and then ran hp-setup -i to try to install my printer. I selected USB and it found my printer, hp:/usb/Deskjet_F4400_series?serial=[printer serial number here]. I entered a simple name and then was told that no PPD file was found for the printer but that I could specify one manually. There were none I could find online; everywhere it just said to install hplip. I used the find command to find "f4400" and finally found 2 compressed PPDs located at /usr/share/ppd/HP/hp-deskjet_f4400_series-hpijs.ppd.gz and /usr/share/ppd/HP/hp-deskjet_f4400_series.ppd.gz. I gunzipped both of them and pointed hpsetup to the hpijs one, knowing that I was using the hpijs one when it was working before. It told me "Description for the file: HP Deskjet f4400 Series hpijs, 3.12.6". Hooray! I selected to use it, but then setup failed: "error: Printer queue setup failed. Please restart CUPS and try again." Ugh!
4. I restarted CUPS and went into the hp-setup process again. It gave me the same printer queue setup failed error. I don't know if these entries in the CUPS error log are related or not, but these errors relating to foomatic showed up. I restarted CUPS again and this time used the non-hpijs file with hp-setup. This one was called "Description for the file: HP Deskjet f4400 Series, hpcups 3.12.6". It failed again with the same error and the same entries in the error log. I found lots of posts online about this error, but none seemed to have a solution that would work for me. Now I tried running hp-setup in debug mode with -g. Here is what it said before the error. I then tried to Google "debug: addPrinter() returned (0, Unable to connect to CUPS server)". I saw on an Arch bug report to install dbus-python and python2-gobject, as well as create a symlink for /usr/bin/python2 to /usr/bin/python. It didn't work - same error.
5. I then tried to add the printer to CUPS via its web interface. Now there were two listed, HP Deskjet F4400 series (HP Deskjet F4400 series) and HP Deskjet F4400 series USB [printer serial number here] HPLIP (HP Deskjet F4400 series). So, hplip added the second one. I tried both of them, but after clicking Continue the page started to hang. I got another stupid, undescriptive error. "Unable to get list of printer drivers: Success". I saw the same foomatic errors in the error log as before. I then started reading the ArchWiki page on CUPS, located here. I tried the blacklisting usblp. I tried changing the permissions on the device node, although this starts to become ridiculous that it is even required to do that. Nothing was working; the printer installation still didn't work with hp-setup or with CUPS. Then, I found what I was looking for: the exact error I had on the wiki page! It said for "Unable to get list of printer drivers" you should "Try to remove Foomatic drivers." WTF? Foomatic is required for hplip, and hplip is required for my printer. I can't do that. Forum posts say to try that or do the permissions or usblp thing. Nothing is working.
6. I tried various other things to get it to work, even though I knew they probably wouldn't make it any different. I copied the PPDs from hplip to another folder and uninstalled hplip and foomatic. I then added them to /usr/share/cups/model and CUPS successfully found them and set up the printer. I reinstalled hplip and foomatic since they're needed for those PPDs to function, and I tried printing a test page. It failed. I tried using the CUPS web interface to modify the printer driver; nope, that wasn't going to happen: "Unable to get list of printer drivers: Success".
That concludes the list of some of the things that I have tried so far. I really want to get this printer working, but right now I am really fed up with CUPS and hplip. It's things like this that make me hesitant to recommend Linux to anyone else. So much manual configuration and tinkering the inner workings of things is required to do tasks that would be quite simple on Windows. For example, I can plug this printer into my Windows 7 machine right now, wait for the driver to automatically be installed and configured, and have a test page in my hands less than a minute after I first plugged in the USB cable. I can share the printer with any other Windows machine on the network by checking a single checkbox.
But back to my problem with getting the printer to work on my DockStar. I just uninstalled all of CUPS, hplip, and foomatic again and removed all of their files. I can walk through things to try that you guys post and then give you full logs of everything - just give me exactly what to do and install and the exact order to do it all in. I just don't know what to do at this point and am so frustrated with this that I'm about to give up.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get this printer working? I know this was a very long post, but I just wanted to explain everything that I've tried and how nothing worked. I really hope that we can figure this out so that I'll be able to print, and maybe it'll solve a few other people's problems with their printers, too. Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for the help.

Had similar issue with my HP Deskjet F4500C All in one printer, here's what I did:
make sure these packages are installed or install them
pacman -S cups cups-pdf hplip pyqt3 python2-pyqt
pacman -S system-config-printer-gnome
rc.d cups start
To add device and install hp driver:
1. Run ‘hp-setup’ as root.
2. Click ‘Show Advanced Options’ button and check-enable ‘Manual Discovery’.
3. Enter IP address 192.168.59.63 in the ‘…device ID…’ entry and click ‘Next’ to install driver.
run system-config-printer as root, to add printer
# system-config-printer
click “Add”， Select Device -> Network Printer -> input the IP address of the printer such as “192.168.1.3″, click “Find” -> “Process”
you should be ok from here, if not some further steps:
If you encounter the following error:
File “/usr/share/system-config-printer/newprinter.py”, line 1531, in getNetworkPrinterMakeModel
debugprint (host + “: ” + args)
TypeError: cannot concatenate ‘str’ and ‘list’ objects
You should comment out the error line at 1531 of newprinter.py, and then continue to add the printer.
4). Finally, you can run hp-check to see what problems exists for the printer.

Can't print with PC but can print with Mac!?

Please save me from going crazy!
I'm trying to turn my USB printer into wireless and have tried EVERYTHING and put in HOURS of work with all different types of print servers, devices, etc.
I bought an Airport Express and loaded Bonjour into my Windows 8 machine. It detects my printer, connects to my Express but simply doesn't print! I've tried EVERYTHING with editing my ports, changing it to LPR instead of RAW, etc. but with no sucess. When I connected my MacBook to my Express, IT PRINTS with no problems!!!
I can't for the life of me figure it out and my Windows machine needs to be able to print as I'm using it for work.
Any suggestions, tips, clues as to what I'm doing wrong? Apple Care and bringing it into a store gets me nowhere. Please help! I will pay someone $50 dollars via PayPal as your reward for helping me figure this mind boggling problem out!
Thank you!!!
Gregory

USB printers are a pain.. it might not work at all from windows.. that is just the reality.
USB printers are local printers that plug into your computer.. save your $50.. and the cost of the next couple of sets of ink cartridges or toners and go and buy a network printer. ie one that is designed to work in a network.
If you want to pursue this..
1. How did you name the Express.. and its wireless?
Names should all be short, no spaces and pure alphanumeric.
2. What printer is it? If you plug it in via USB to the computer does it work?
3. Once you have it working plugged into the computer change it to print to IP of the airport express and see if that works.
You can do this without bonjour..
See this video for example of setting up printing to Extreme (same thing) by printing directly to the TCP/IP port.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTN1g846dRE
It is windows 7 but 8 should be much harder .. naturally MS took away the easy access to everything .. but it is still there for the most part.

Problem printing with HP Photosmart 7520 printer. Same bad result independent of advanced settings.

How can it be that, no matter what settings (advanced, custom, PS manages color, Printer manages color,...) I get the same terrible result for a reference photo (dull, colorless)? It is as if the PS CS6 is not controlling anything with these settings. Is there something else I need to set to make this work? (Old HP Photosmart 7960 works fine, but they stopped manufacturing new photo cartridges). The 7520 all-in-one makes copies of graphics with excellent, accurate color rendition so it is something with the settings for the printer. The device can print good color. HP support says its Photoshop settings. I don't know what it is.
Thanks for your help.
-Jeff

Hi Pirazok,
Welcome to the HP Forums.
I am going to give you a document that deals with when the Printer Does Not Maintain Wireless Connection. This document covers a wide span of troubleshooting steps that I think may help with the issue you seem to be having.
If the troubleshooting does not help resolve your issue, I would then suggest calling HP's Technical Support to see about further options for you. If you are calling within North America, the number is 1-800-474-6836 and for all other regions, click here: click here.
Thanks for your time.
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

Printing with a USB/Parallel Printer port connection on an HP LaserJet 4000 series

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for