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General discussion

Help ! Hp Desk jet Model 3745 /3325 printing problem

Sep 26, 2005 11:51PM PDT

I am using a HP deskjet Model 3745 on my home computer network. 2 PCs are connected. Both using Windows Millenium with all patches etc., up to date.
PC1:-First machine config: P4 2.0Ghz, 128Mb ram, 40Gb HDD, 52X Cdwriter, FDD, 15'' monitor.
PC2:-Second machine Config: Celeron 1Ghz, 128Mb ram, 40Gb HDD, FDD, 15'' monitor.
Both are connected directly.
The printer is connected through USB port of PC1 and mapped to PC2

Printing is perfect from PC1 but when printing from PC2 it prints in brown / dark red color even though I have enabled ''print in grey scale - use black cartridge'' in the printer option.

This happens at random. I have no idea when it will print properly. I print legal documents on stamp paper and it becomes a total waste if the printout comes out in red/ brown!!

''Hp support'' says that they cannot guarantee proper printouts on the network as it is on USB Port ??

This problem happened with Main PC where the printer is connected for which the advise has been Reinstall the driver as the driver may be corrupt.

Fact is this printer is in use for the last 3 months with no problems but suddenly it has become un-usable.

there have been no system crashes, both PCs are on UPS, anti virus, spyware, ets., are all up to date !

Please help !!!

** Last time I reinsatlled the driver (24/9/2005) it gave an error message insufficient memory (120 Mb) but allowed me to complete the install. Could this be the problem ? But the same has worked for last 3 months.

Discussion is locked

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That's a random OS. Here's why.
Sep 27, 2005 12:09AM PDT

The DOS based Windows such as 95/98/ME all have a nasty 64 kilobyte memory pool that when it runs dry could cause a report like "This happens at random. I have no idea when it will print properly. I print legal documents on stamp paper and it becomes a total waste if the printout comes out in red/ brown!!"

There is no fix planned. This OS is from an era of computing where we accepted we would have to reboot every few hours and "not do too much."

Try this. Reboot to free up resources at the beginning of the process. If there is a print server on one of these older OSes, reboot it first.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but no fix is planned and HP may not offer any education about this old issue. Here's a link to articles about memory use and optimizing this old Windows: http://aumha.org/articles.php

Worth noting is a "complex" printout could trigger this as well.

Bob

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Re: Memory ??
Sep 27, 2005 10:17PM PDT

Thankyou for your brief.

I was previously using HP 640C desk jet printer on the parallel port and for 3 years there were no such problems.

This printer also is 3 months old for last 2 1/2 months worked perfectly well.

There are no multiple programs running. Only MS Word 2000 to draft the document and then print.

HP support says " In USB port printer they cannot guarantee printouts from the client PC ??"

So I am not sure if this is a memory problem. Also this system is used only for drafting legal documents and no additional programs or TSRs are running except AVG anti virus and Zone Alarm.

There has been no additional programs loaded.
As per HP support suggesstion driver was uninstalled and reinstalled and it worked for 3-4 days.
Now back to the same problem.
Could it be a problem with the printer itself ??

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Still the issue.
Oct 17, 2005 9:24PM PDT

You claim it worked before, but I see more people installing more software such as firewall on these DOS based OS's and not realize the extra load will cause new issues.

You changed the setup so have to rethink the cause.

There is a reason why this old OS is fading away.

Bob

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Printing in brown colour.
Oct 17, 2005 5:01PM PDT

Hi!,

I am getting the same problem.
Reasion I concluded is your main computer to which the printer is attached is using colour cartriage when take colour print, and uses black and white cartriage when u use black and white print, but nothing is like this with other computer on network.
The other computer on network always uses the colour cartriage, even if u select grayscale-black&white option, and the fact is your colour cartriage is about to empty. Just refill your colour cartraige u will get rid of this problem.

U have only 2 systems on your network so don't have much problem but I have 15 systems so I am having a bit problem. All computers except one is using the colour cartriage. Thus colour cartriage is getting emply early.

If any body have solution of this problem kindly advice.

Thanks in advance...

msnegi98

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Printing using the colour cartrage
Jul 6, 2006 12:35AM PDT

In my experience this happens when the account printing does not have admin rights on the PC that the printer is installed on. Try it with 2 accounts on the same PC (remove the colour cart) and try forcing it to black. You will find that if you don?t have admin privileges in uses the colour cartage no matter what.

I don?t consider sticking users in a local admin group so they can print, a valid fix but it might help you.

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Windows ME has no such feature of admin accounts.
Jul 6, 2006 7:00AM PDT

Only in NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista does the concept of security and admin accounts start to show.

Bob