HP 2300 prrinter tells me that it is "out of paper".. but it's NOT

[EngineeringGuy]

I installed a new motherboard in my computer, and now my HP 2300 prrinter tells me that it is "out of paper" even though there is plenty of paper in the machine.... it says the same thing if I try to use the manual tray (#1). The printer will print test pages and other info if I request it from the front panel menu.

[ovation]

so is it only when you print to it then? if there was a mechanical issue , odd that it would still print other pages from the machine. if only printing maybe try and reinstall the driver , or see if the driver has a "device" / "device settings" tab , and see if you can update it there so the driver will see the printers trays , accessories , etc....

                                                                                          otherwise i cant recall if those two functions , sensors , are tied to the same wire harness, maybe check your connections , possibly a bent pin on the board?

[EngineeringGuy]

I tried an experiment.... I had a Parallel to USB adapter from another computer. I connected the HP 2300 to the adapter (the adapter is plug-n-play), and plugged it into the USB port and the printer immediately started working fine!! 

I would rather use the computer parallel port directly, but I wonder if I have the proper driver for Windows 7 Pro? Any suggestions on the proper driver... It's hard to know which driver to use since this is such an old printer and there is little documentation still available.

( You may be wondering why I'm still using this printer... I use it to make printed circuit boards.. the old printers can be set to lay down a very heavy layer of toner, which works great as a printed circuit board ecthing resist.)

[SHThompson · Accepted solution]

The out of paper message is a generic message you get when the PC can't communicate with the printer.

I would start with checking the Port configuration in the Motherboard BIOS.

Have you checked the HP website for a Windows 7 driver?

[EngineeringGuy]

Thanks for the information... I find it a little strange that an "out of paper" error would indicate that the computer can't communicate with the printer, but that gives me a explaination of what's happening.  I will have to look into the parallel port on the computer..  this is a new motherboard and I have never tried to use the port before... maybe it's defective!?

The driver I found was "HP Universal Print Driver for Windows - PCL5 64 bit"  V6.1.0.20062 ... Nov 2,2015

when I looked for a driver specifically for Windows 7 Pro, HP just told me to "select another device".

As I said (above), the parallel to USB adapter works with the printer, so I can use it that was if all else fails.