After installing Windows, did you re-install the printer and it's driver exactly as if you were doing it for the first time (ie as per the printer installation instructions)?

With most USB printers that usually means disconnecting the USB cable and turning the printer off. Then start the driver installation but don't re-connect the USB cable or turn on the printer until you see an on-screen message asking you to do that.

 

This printer connects via a parallel cable, not usb. My original installation disk doesn't seem to work anymore, so I downloaded the software from the Brother site.

Tried it again yesterday - even tried using their driver uninstaller, but all that did was make my computer unbootable, so I had to use system restore to get it back. Tried it twice and the same thing happened, so I don't know what that uninstaller does, but it sure messes up a system. Did another reinstall of the brother software, but everything is the same - just spits out blank paper until I shut it off manually and delete the print job.

I'm stumped. Don't want to throw out a perfectly good printer, but don't know what else to try.

 

Whenever problems arise with printers etc. a good place to start is usually the drivers which you should be able to get from Brother Solutions Center: HL-1230: Downloads: Others

The printer must be installed in some way for it to execute the print cmd from your pc and installed as the Default printer, otherwise it wouldn't even cough out any pages.

 

This was amongst the FAQs in the link that I supplied Using the parallel port, print out is corrupt or blank pages : Brother which describes your problem and their fix.

 

Hmm... didn't see that. I will try it and post whether successful or not.

 

OK, went into the bios and the only thing I could find was:

Parallel Print Mode which is currently set to SPP

The available options for this entry are: SPP, EPP, ECP, EPP+ECP

I tried to do some reading online and it seems to me that the current setting of SPP is correct. I know I have never had to change this manually before to get the printer to work.

Any thoughts?

 

I had a problem with another model of Brother printer where it would spit out unlimited amounts of blank pages, although that was a much newer USB model. I was able to fix it by using a different driver, usually a model newer or so (some experimentation is obviously required). I am unsure if this will work for you, but I think that it is worth a shot.

 

Installing incorrect drivers can compound a problem and I'd advise creating a restore point before trying FlyingScotsman's suggestion and that way, you will have a reference point to return to should you need to experiment, but given that you have tried practically every other fix known to man/woman at this point, then there's nothing really to lose in trying it.

As this problem only manifested itself after the XP reinstall, perhaps a reinstall of XP may be the solution.

This program Belarc Advisor - Free Personal PC Audit run with the printer switched on may pick up on something that you know should be there, but isn't.

If all else fails then going back to the FAQs and clicking on the Contact us link lower down the page, may be the only solution that is left. :banghead:

 

Yeah, not sure about trying other drivers as this printer has worked previously on this machine. I tried Belarc, but it did not find anything. I have submitted this to Brother directly and I'll see what they have to say.

 

Let us know if they come back with a solution that works.

I had a look through the manual before my last post, but there was nothing to cover your fault and their online "ECP" solution could be a bit dated for the current Parallel Printer Mode (?)

Have you considered a XP reinstall or are you going to leave that as a last resort ?

 

Brother gave me the usual uninstall/install recomendation, followed by changing the cable. I played around with the cables and now it's working. Guess I should have tried the simplest thing first! Just didn't think there'd be a problem with the cables as nothing has moved before or after I reinstalled XP. Shows what I know.

Thanks for everyone's help.

 

At least it's sorted and when an unexplainable fault crops up out of the blue, it can be a bit daunting.

I once had a similar problem with a tv scart cable, loss of picture quality, nothing changed but change of cable did the job. Didn't know they had a shelf life :smile:

 

I used the driver for HL-1430 on a Windows 8 pc - that solved my problem with the printer printing blank pages.