iGhost
Level 2 (204 points)
Mac OS X

Q: Printer prints fine once then turns to printing pages of random characters

Hi, I have an HP Laserjet P1606DN connected to our iMac running the latest version of El Capitan, and it is now consistently having an issue with printing.

 

It has worked fine for years without issue, even under El Capitan, but after an automated software update happened one night the printing suddenly changed.  Now I can print only once without issue, but as soon as I print again, it just spits out endless pages with a few random characters across the top.  If I turn the printer off and back on I can once again print once without issue and then its back to the random pages again.  The problem is consistent.  I have tried using different toner cartridges as well a different cables to connect to the iMac and nothing seems to make any difference. 

 

Any help is greatly appreciated as this is our business computer.

Posted on Aug 1, 2016 12:08 PM

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iGhost

Q: Printer prints fine once then turns to printing pages of random characters

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  • by iGhost,

    iGhost iGhost Aug 26, 2016 10:05 AM in response to iGhost
    Level 2 (204 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 26, 2016 10:05 AM in response to iGhost

    Update:

     

    I performed a disk repair using disk utility and the problem went away for about a day.  During that time we printed dozens of pages successfully.  After that day or so, it went right back to having the same issue. 

     

    We have another printer of the exact same model on another iMac which works perfectly fine, and so we switched the two printers around to see if the problem still occurs and sure enough the printer which normally functions fine began spitting out the pages of random characters. 

     

    I replaced the printer cable and reinstalled the drivers several times, neither of which made any difference.

     

    I am convinced the problem is within the OS itself at this point, but I am still confused why the other computer with the exact same OS and exact same printer performs perfectly and this other one is giving us all these problems.