My printer only prints gibberish and keeps spitting out multiple pages until I remove paper.... HELP!

The print job is not formatting properly for your printer. It keeps corrupting and will cause the printer to spit out multiple pages with either gibberish or unusual fonts of varying size.You may need to recheck the software you've written the bar codes and make sure your using the correct code 39 font to create your barcodes.

This was due to the TFTP (PXE) setting on the printer set to on. No more wasted paper at startup/wakeup after changing setting to off.

Uninstall the printer.Unplug the USB for the printer and reinstall the driver.Careful that you use the right disk

If the printer is picking up multiple sheets of paper, follow the recommendations below:

• Keep more than 10 sheets in the In tray.
• Ensure media is not loaded too far and extending past the In tray.
• Store all media in a dry, cool place. Humid climates will see this issue more often.
• Do not print on media that has already been printed on. The dampness of the ink will cause pages to stick together.

If the printer continues to pick up multiple sheets of paper, follow the following troubleshooting steps below:

1. Remove the media from the In tray.
2. Fan the edges, re-square the media, and reload the media properly into the In tray.
3. Slide the paper width guide to the right until it stops at the edge of the media, then push the paper length guide towards the paper until it stops.
4. NOTE: Not all HP Deskjet printers have rear access doors. Skip this step if your printer does not have a rear-access door. Remove the rear-access door (if applicable) and clean the internal rubber rollers with a soft lintfree cloth moistened with distilled water. Wait until the rubber rollers dry and replace the rear access door.
5. Verify that the correct media size and type is selected in the printer settings along with the appropriate quality.
6. If this issue still persists, try a different type of paper.

ok clear it

I have had this happen before, this could be you need to change the drum kit on the printer itself, check the indicator light.

This could be a driver issue. Without knowing exactly how your printer is connected to the network I'm making a rough guess here.

There is a Universal HP Printer driver that could be tried as well as the PCL5, PCL6 and Post Script drivers.

I've had issues with the PCL6 drivers before doing this and I usually install the PCL5 drivers instead.

2 possible solutions.
1 The paper itself. Check that the paper tray is not overfull. this can cause multiple sheets to feed through. Also make sure that you use good quality paper suitable for the particular type of printer. Always keep the paper dry Damp (not wet) paper will also cause the sort of problem you describe. another good reason for not keeping to much paper in the paper tray. Paper will keep better in the packet than in the tray. Always store the paper in the packet in a warm dry place. I keep mine near a radiator and away from the Air con.

2. The printer driver. Download the latest driver for your printer from the manufacturer and update the printer driver, via the control panel/printers. If you don't know how to do this you can simply uninstall the printer and then install it again using the new printer driver.

Good Luck
Carrieone

Are you sure it's not the drivers (or the program using the drivers)?  Try installing a ps driver and see if printing to it will solve your problem.  If so, just uninstall and reinstall.

If that doesn't work for you, try a new cable.

If that doesn't work, you're probably looking at a new formatter board (expensive).

You can test some things by pressing menu buttons, then item buttons till you get to :

1. Information
2. Configuration Page

If that prints fine, go to:

1. Diagnostics
2. Print Test Page

I think that's the name of the test pages, I can't remember now, I'll have to check at work tomorrow morning.  Let me know if I got it wrong.

HP  for some reason has been having this problem for a long time. keep deleting the jobs, it may take awhile ( up to 5 min)
but it will go away.
I work a lot with HP's, so I've seen it a few times.