Print Code Error LW 16/600PS

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Level 1

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Print Code Error LW 16/600PS

I have an Apple LW 16/600PS printer hooked up to 2 different computers as follows:

1) Via Apple Talk to a Power MacIntosh 7200/120

2) Via a parallel cable with a Parallel-to-USB cable connector to an HP desktop PC

This approach has worked fine for several years. I just purchased a new HP PC running Windows 8. When I set up the new printer connection on the PC, it asked if I wanted to print a test page.....I said "Yes". It somehow was corrupted, causing my printer to run through more than 2 trays of paper, just printing 1 line of text at the top of the page. I cancelled out of the document, removed the printer configuration from the new PC and started over again.

Once I restarted the PC and had a new configuration in the control panel for the printer, I went ahead and printed a 1-page document; however, the printer started up again with the corrupted file, again spewing trays of paper.

Somehow, this corrupted file is still resident in the printer memory. How do I clear it out of memory so I can get a fresh start?

Thanks,

Billvonr

Windows 8

Posted on Feb 28, 2014 2:05 PM

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Answer 1

Jan Hedlund

Level 7

22,153 points

Mar 1, 2014 4:18 AM in response to bvonr

Hi,

>Somehow, this corrupted file is still resident in the printer memory. How do I clear it out of memory so I can get a fresh start?

What happens if/when you switch the printer off and then on (via the power switch)? Normally, one would expect this to clear the memory.

Does the printer properly produce a startup page when turned on (you may want to test this without any printer/network cables attached, too)?

>Via Apple Talk to a Power MacIntosh 7200/120

Does the LaserWriter 16/600 PS work OK when attempting to print from this Macintosh computer?

>Via a parallel cable with a Parallel-to-USB cable connector to an HP desktop PC

If a problem only occurs when trying to print from this PC, you may want to check the configuration settings. If possible, verify that you can use the USB-to-parallel adapter with another (older) Windows PC. With access to an AAUI to RJ-45 adapter (such as the Apple Ethernet Twisted-Pair Transceiver M0437), or an Ethernet-to-parallel port print server, you could possibly even try to connect the printer to the new PC via Ethernet (TCP/IP) instead in order to check whether that would lead to any change.

Jan

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Answer 2

bvonr Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 1, 2014 1:47 PM in response to Jan Hedlund

Jan,

Thanks for your very helpful response. In answer to your questions:

1) When I turn off the printer and then back on, it resets itself (ie, goes through the normal start-up cycle and gives me a 'ready' light). When I send a 1-page word document to the printers from the desktop PC, it immediately starts dumping paper again, so I just open the paper drawer, the printer gives me the 'out of paper' light, and I shut off the printer. In a minute, I can turn it back on and it has reset itself to 'ready'.

2) The printer does not produce a start-up page when it is powered up. I believe this feature was turned off some time ago.

3) I printed a document from the MacIntosh computer, it printed perfectly. No problems on the Apple Talk side.

4) I checked my files on the Belkin USB Parallel Printer Adapter cable, it only indicated Windows compatibility up through Windows XP. So I called Belkin and was told they have no updated drivers for Windows 8. Could this be the source of the problem?

5) I connected the USB Parallel Printer Adapter cable to another PC (HP Pavilion Slimline, running Windows XP). Printed out several documents (Word, Excel) with no problems.

So the problem is only on the Windows side and only with a Windows8 environment. This prompts me to ask a couple of more questions:

A) Is it the adapter cable or do I need updated print drivers from Apple to address Windows OS8? If the latter, are these available from Apple?

B) If it is the adapter cable, and no updated drivers are available, do I have other connectivity alternatives? I'm a neophyte when it comes to the acronyms and terms in the last paragraph of your reply above, but I do notice that both the printer and HP desktop have ethernet cable ports. Does this possibly provide another means of connectivity?

Thanks for your help, I look forward to your reply.

Billvonr

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Answer 3

Jan Hedlund

Level 7

22,153 points

Mar 1, 2014 3:09 PM in response to bvonr

Billvonr,

>Is it the adapter cable

The USB-to-parallel adapter cable appears to be OK per se (since you can print from the computer running Windows XP). We cannot rule out that the adapter needs extra drivers when used under Windows 8, though.

>or do I need updated print drivers from Apple to address Windows OS8? If the latter, are these available from Apple?

The LaserWriter 16/600 PS does not seem to be supported by Microsoft under Windows 7 or 8, but that may only mean that printer drivers are not included, not that a solution is impossible. I doubt that Apple would provide Windows 8 drivers for an older printer.

>If it is the adapter cable, and no updated drivers are available, do I have other connectivity alternatives?

The LaserWriter 16/600 PS has a special AAUI Ethernet port. In order to use standard Ethernet cables, an external AAUI to RJ-45 adapter is needed at the printer. You should be able to find one on the Internet. Look for something like the Apple Ethernet Twisted-Pair Transceiver, model M0437.

>both the printer and HP desktop have ethernet cable ports.

The HP desktop would have an RJ-45 Ethernet port. One would normally connect all Ethernet devices involved via the LAN ports of a router.

>Does this possibly provide another means of connectivity?

The LaserWriter 16/600 PS is capable of handling TCP/IP over Ethernet, so setting it up as a network printer connected to the HP desktop computer should in principle be possible. However, the Windows 8 printer driver or configuration problem must still be solved. A quick web search appears to indicate that there may be methods and workarounds for this, but be prepared to experiment.

You may even want to consider connecting other computers (such as the Windows XP machine) via Ethernet as well.

One more thing, do keep the Power Macintosh 7200/120 under all circumstances. It may be especially valuable whenever access to the printer utility is required.

Jan

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Answer 4

bvonr Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 4, 2014 11:12 AM in response to Jan Hedlund

Jan,

Thanks for your latest reply. I've looked around trying to see if there is another adapter cable available, but no success, and the maximum length of a direct USB-to-Parallel printer cable seems to be 6 feet, which is far shorter than what will work for me.

Looking at the Windows 8 software on my new PC, the list of available drivers does not even list Apple as a printer manufacturer. Are drivers available from Apple for my printer that I can download? Also, I'm wondering if there are HP model printers that would use the equivalent to the Apple driver. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

There are plenty of Apple Ethernet Twisted-Pair Transcievers (M4037) readily available on e-Bay; however, from what you have described above, I really need to solve the driver issue first.

Thanks,

Billvonr

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Answer 5

Jan Hedlund

Level 7

22,153 points

Mar 5, 2014 12:37 PM in response to bvonr

Hello again,

>Are drivers available from Apple for my printer that I can download?

The latest downloadable drivers from Apple may have been for Windows NT:

http://www.info.apple.com/support/oldersoftwarelist.html#doswin

However, I am not sure whether the above files are of any use here (especially not since some following Windows versions contained drivers for Apple printers).

Also, I do not know whether it would be possible to somehow use drivers from your Windows XP (version?) under Windows 8.

>I'm wondering if there are HP model printers that would use the equivalent to the Apple driver.

Possibly, but remember that the fact that an Apple printer may have used an HP (or Canon) engine, does not automatically mean that the software is the same.

HP, Ricoh and others appear to have 'universal' printer drivers available for download , but it is unknown to me whether these are at all applicable in a case like this.

Are there any 'generic' PostScript drivers under Windows 8 that you could try?

>There are plenty of Apple Ethernet Twisted-Pair Transcievers (M4037) readily available on e-Bay; however, from what you have described above, I really need to solve the driver issue first.

It would probably not be a bad idea to buy a transceiver anyway. A working solution could depend upon TCP/IP printing (LPR), and you may have to carry out various experiments.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TA35778

http://support.apple.com/kb/sp482

Jan

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Answer 6

Jan Hedlund

Level 7

22,153 points

Mar 6, 2014 8:10 AM in response to Jan Hedlund

Addendum

If you just wish to test printing to the LaserWriter 16/600 PS from the new HP PC (without using Windows 8), an appropriate version of Ubuntu (Desktop) could perhaps be an alternative. Ubuntu supports many devices, and the 16/600 PS being a PostScript level 2 printer should not be a problem. You could install Ubuntu onto a second hard drive, or run it from a USB stick (or even directly from a live CD/DVD).

Jan

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Answer 7

szakál

Level 1

10 points

Jan 14, 2016 9:21 PM in response to bvonr

it spews paper because windows thinks that it's sending to a non-postscript printer. you can either change the printer driver settings in windows to being postscript, or you can change the laserwriter, from the mac laserwriter utility, to expect non-postscript commands. (hp laser jet 2 emulation?) and you can even change this separately for each port, and have different options selected whether the little chrome switch on the back of the printer is up or down. (very handy if you want to swap between different computers.)

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