HP LaserJet P1102w Printing Issues

Hello everyone,

I have a Dell Vostro 200 PC running Vista, along with an HP LaserJet P1102w printer. I've had this printer for less than 2 years and I've had no issues until today, when some documents (mainly PDFs) either do not print or do so very randomly (only the first page, for example).

Here's an example of the mishaps: I start printing an 8-page PDF (created from a Word document), the printer outputs the 1st page then stops. I delete the document from the printer queue, delete the 1st page from the PDF, save the document which now has only 7 pages, then restart the printing. The printer outputs the first 6 pages... but not the 7th!!! So I delete the 6 pages that were already printed, save and close the document which now has only one page and reopen it (in the meantime, the task has disappeared by itself from the printer queue). I restart the printing... and nothing happens!!! The printer light is blinking and the queue shows "printing in progress"... After a while, the task disappears again by itself from the list and the printer stops blinking. However, the original Word document prints seemingly without issue.

I've already uninstalled and reinstalled the printer twice, then ran CCleaner, and it doesn't change anything. Each time, the installation goes smoothly, the test page prints without issue, it prints two or three documents normally and then it starts its antics again!

On the advice of a technician from the HP forum, I installed a PostScript printer driver, but that hasn’t improved anything.

I ran the HP Print and Scan Doctor, and it tells me everything is normal, except when I try to print the test page, it doesn't print either!

Regardless of the document type, after a while, it disappears by itself from the queue. Furthermore, I've noticed that the actual size of the document doesn’t match the size displayed in the queue at all (for example, a 381 KB document shows a size of 3.26 MB in the queue!).

When I start printing, the printer dialogue box says either "ready" or "inactive", but in both cases, it can print... or not!!! And sometimes it takes ages to spit out a poor Excel page, while it used to be nearly instantaneous.

Setting the laser printer as the default printer doesn’t change anything.

I also want to specify that all these documents print without issue on my other printer, the HP Deskjet 1050, which is connected to the same PC, as well as on my husband's two printers (home and office).

Moreover, to further test things, I installed the printer on my husband's PC at home, and it works perfectly (test page and printing various documents, including Word and PDF), which seems to suggest there is a communication problem between my PC and the printer. In fact, it seems like the data is taking too long to reach the printer, like when printing a very large file - which is not my case - or as if the printer can only output a certain amount of data at a time.

My versions of Office and Adobe Reader are up to date, as is the printer driver. Moreover, whether I open PDFs with Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat Reader doesn't make any difference.

I've also consulted HP's website, particularly the page regarding stuck print jobs, and I have applied all the proposed solutions, but nothing works. I've searched through numerous forums, including HP's, where a HP representative tried to help me, without success (which is promising!).

In short, I'm losing my mind and don't know what to do!! In any case, no one can blame me for trying on my own before asking for help!

Does anyone have any idea to help me out, please? I’ve tried to be as exhaustive as possible, I hope it’s clear; otherwise, I’m available to answer questions.

Thanks in advance!

Valérie

PS: Since I started having these problems, my HP DeskJet 1050 is also acting up... it starts printing which then interrupts, only to resume after a few seconds... or not! I haven't found a solution on the forums either. Aaarrrgh, I'm cursed, there’s a poltergeist in my computer!!

Configuration: Windows Vista / Firefox 32.0