Locking up when printing in MS Word

Hi,
Installed my old HP 842C inkjet printer at my in-laws today. They have Win 98, and this printer replaced their older Epson Stylus 600 printer which was dying. Using the HP CD that came with the printer, it installed fine, and printed out a demo sheet.

Now, when trying to print anything from MS Word, the whole system locks up; something the old printer never did before. Connections (LPT1 thru a parallel cable) are fine. Also printing out anything thru Notepad prints fine. Just not MS Word. The tiny tiny printer icon at the bottom of the MS Word windows starts animating, but then stops when it locks up.

When I ctrl-alt-del, "spool32" is not responding most of the time. Other times, the actual MS Word doc is not responding. It's never both. I'll end task, and the screen will still be frozen for a good 2 minutes, and then MS Word will disappear, and everything will unfreeze. Mouse never locks up, but mouse cursor will stay at what it was during the lockup. Can't even open anything/minimize anything, or even click the start button.

Here's what I've checked so far:

--The hp is the default printer. I uninstalled the other one.
--Windows recommended changing the print spooling from EMF to RAW. No luck there.
--Also changed from "spooling after first page" to "start printing immediately. "
--Tried changing to "print directly to printer. "
--Tried uninstalling and reinstalling the printer.
--Checked cabling.
--No errors on printer itself
--Notepad text files print fine.

Only other thing I can think of is when I check the 'properties' of LPT1, it has in parentheses "Epson Printer Port." Not sure if this has anything to do with it or not, but I tried removing LPT1 so I could reinstall it again, but it was saying that a printer was attached to it, even though I uninstalled the HP one more time.

I'm somewhat computer savvy, but this one's stumped me a bit. Anybody have any ideas on what I should look for.

Thanks a bunch !!!

Paul Mendes
cintoman@cox.net

 

Uninstall your HP printer and then detach the cable from the back of your computer. Reboot, uninstall LPT1 and then reinstall it.

Just a thought....but will keep searching!

 

I've just come across a few sites that suggested changing the font and try to print again.

Just another thought....