C'mon, guys! (was: DeskJet 640c under Tiger)

In article <d.langford-ya02408000R1907051222210001 DeleteThis @news.ukc.ac.uk>,
d.langford DeleteThis @ukc.ac.uk (Duncan Langford) wrote:

> Installed Tiger, and the HP has stopped working properly. Yes, I've read
> the HP web page, and deleted my old DeskJet print queue, and generated a
> new one; 'USB' isn't available as an option unless the DeskJet is plugged
> in, and then the only relevant choice is specifically 'USB DeskJet 640c'.
>
> BUT - after this, it still prints with every other line screwed up...
>
> Does anyone have any ideas? I'm reluctant to junk it (having just bought
> new cartridges) but there's not a lot of point in keeping it when it won't
> work!
>
> In case it's relevant, a G5 under 10.4.2



Can't help. OS 9 here but I will relate my experience.

When I got the G3 I run now, I had a 680c. I initially copied over
the extensions from the older 7500 expecting all to work. For the
most part all applications worked fine - except the printer which was
acting weird or not at all.

I went to the HP web site and found there was a new driver for OS 9
plus a special OS 9 updater - nothing for X by the way. The
instructions on how to install it were ambiguous but after re-reading
several times and some trial and error here is what i had to do.

1) Remove all of the old drivers.

2) Run the installer for the new driver.

3) Quit out of the installer at the point it says that it is ready to
be selected in the Chooser. If you don't stop there you are screwed.

4) Restart with thefresh driver that has not as yet been associated
with the Chooser.

5) Run the driver updater.

6) Restart again.

7) Now select the driver in the Chooser.

From that series of events all was OK.

It seems that the drivers grab some kind of association with
theoperating system. You cannot use a driver that was previously
associated with an earlier OS. The instalation process creates this
association and dedicates the resultant driver with the OS.

The second patch for OS 9.2.1 and 9.2.2 could not be run if the driver
had been associated with theChooser. That creates some other link
that prevents the updater from running properly. It had to be a
freshly installed driver that had not as yet been associated with the
Chooser.

It seems that a whole new driver for these variations of the OS would
make sense but that was not HP's thinking, and anything of that era is
officially no longer supported by HP - or so they claim.

While I have no experience with X this may give some insight into my
own problems with HP drivers and how I had to jump through hoops to
make the older printer work.

Now, I also have a HP 3550 on my USB line and that was also no waltz.

After getting it home and installed I had problems. I went to the HP
web site and found that they had a new OS 9 driver for it that was
different from the one on the CD.

Again I dumped all drivers and ran the new driver downloaded from the
HP web site. It appears that some functionality was lost in the
process (some menu choices) but it seems these were what was causing
the problems - not working right for all possible variations of
installation) so they were removed. The cut down driver works fine
now.

I use the newer USB for dress jobs and the older one for the every day
stuff.

Best of luck with it.

DMK
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