How can I get my printer to quit printing jibberish? -

I have a Dell desktop and a Dell printer. I have tried a different printer too and have also tried reinstalling my Dell printer. Every time I want to print something, it starts to print pages and pages of jibberish. I have also gone into printers from the start button but there are no printing jobs to clear. I m guessing its on my hard drive. I have Windows XP if that matters. Got any suggestions?

That problem is usually the result of the wrong printing language being sent to the printer that it does not support. Most often it is receiving Postscript data instead of PCL, or possibly some other form, and will print pages of jibberish just like you described (usually you will see something in the beginning of the first print line on the first page that tells what type of data it is sending, i.e. %PS, %PDF, etc.) There are several possiblities that it may be: 1. Your printer is not Postscript compatible and the wrong driver was installed and setup for Postscript instead of its native language/emulation (check the printer properties/setup to see if there is anything to select or un-select). 2. Most printers can handle, and will automatically detect, which language is being sent and switch accordingly. So A) your printer is not Postscript capable, or B) your printer is Postscript compatible but is not setup for automatic detection and may need to be reconfigured, or it may need to be manually set to Postscript emulation (since we don t know what model yours is, it s hard to give more details). 3. There are two different language drivers available for your printer and you need to install a different one. Knowing what model of printer you have and which driver you ve installed would be of help. Best of luck.

1. Does the printer test page print correctly or is it gibberish too? If the test page prints fine but a specific program does not print correctly. a. Try basic program like wordpad. If it prints fine then remove and re-install the program you are having issues with. b. If wordpad prints gibberish. Remove all drivers for your printer through add/remove programs. Download the most up to date XP drivers for your printer. Un-hook your printer from PC until the install program tells you to. Then plug in when instructed. If the quot;add new hardware wizardquot; comes up cancel out and continue with the install from your download. Now test. If none of this works try another printer cable.

this can be a number of things, but first do a self test if this is ok then it is not the printer. First remove all printer software and disconnect the printer. reinstall the software and when told connect the printer. If this still is not a cure try another port or cable. If there is still a fault it is the logic board on the printer and not worth repairing

It seems that the drivers for the printer are not installed correctly. If you do not have the printer software CD, go to Dell s web site and download the drivers you need. Before running the downloaded driver software, go into Add/Remove programs (via Control panel) and uninstall the printer software.

Have you checked your troubleshooting section in the printer s help section? Might be a solution. Could be the driver needs updating. Go into Device Manager to see if any indication driver is bad. Did you run a printer calibration to see what printer does?