Question : Problem: HP LaserJet 1150 printing gibberish, new drivers don't help

I've got a printer that is having some odd issues. It's an HP Laserjet 1150 using the latest PCL5e drivers from HP (which were just updated to try and solve this problem) and is connected to the windows XP machine via a Parallel cable. Basically it was working fine until a few days ago when an adobe file was printed, and now regardless of how many pages a document is the printer will only print out one page and it will be filled with various symbols and letter (gibberish).

What I've already tried:
- Deleting drivers by powering down printer, restarting print spooler, and removing the driver from the server properties window
- Updated to newest drivers
- Checked the Spool folder in System32\spool\printers and there were no spooler files to delete

I can print a test page just fine to this printer and it shows up correctly, but no other documents. When I try and print an Adobe document of 13mb, it spools over 230mb to the printer before printing a page of gibberish. Word documents and e-mails don't have the same spooling issue but still print out in gibberish. I can print to a different (networked) printer without issue so it shouldn't be a problem with the spooling service.

I'm officially out of ideas so any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

Answer : Problem: HP LaserJet 1150 printing gibberish, new drivers don't help

Seems the printer is ok. You said you can print a single page from Word, but not multiple pages. Does the Word file you print consist only of TEXT or contains some Graphics/Pictures? I suggest you try printing multiple TEXT only pages.

If you succeed in printing multiple TEXT only pages, but fails with pages containing Graphics/Printer, then the memory in your printer maybe too low.

If the above does not help, try the following:
1. If you have a spare Parallel Printer Cable, try replacing your existing cable.
2. If you have a spare PC/Laptop with a Parallel Port, move your printer there and see if the same problem arises.
3. If you can get a spare RAM for your printer, try replacing it.