HP 720C printer stops printing

[penman]

Help!  I don't know if I am posting this question in the right area but here goes.  I just connected my old HP720C printer to my new laptop which runs Vista. I purchased a USP to IEEE parallel printer cable and the printer is setup (by Vista) and shows ready.  However, everytime I print the printer goes into action but then stops printing after one or two lines and then the printer light starts blinking and I get a error message on the computer.  Does anyone know what is wrong?  I don't know if it is the computer or the printer.  The printer worked fine before.    Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

[Jonathan]

There are several things that can cause this same error.  Here are some things that can often get around the error:

1 - Download the latest Vista version of the printer driver from HP and install that
2 - Try to start over and re-setup the printer with the following steps:
      I - Unplug the USB printer cable from both the computer and the printer
      II - Uninstall the printer from the printers menu
      III - Restart the computer, and turn off the printer
      IV - Plug the USB printer cable into JUST the computer and wait a minute or 2 for it to configure automatically
      V - Plug the USB cable into the printer (while printer is off) then turn on the printer.
      VI - Re-install the printer

If neither of those seem to help, the adapter may just not work properly with your printer.  Let us know if it still doesn't work and we'll see if there's something more we can do.

[mark]

Printer spooling can occasionally cause that issue as well, especially with older printers.  Basically your computer assumes that your printer has all of the information that it needs, and the rest of the page gets dropped. 

You can disable spooling by going to the Printers folder, right-click on the printer and select Properties.  On the Advanced tab, select "Print directly to the printer" (instead of the default "Spool print documents...")  Click OK, make sure the print queue is empty, and try printing again.