Margin problems P2035 printer on 8.1 pro/64 bit

[p3u2t_er0pla8y]

Have never posted on a board before. Hope I got the right one and am doing it right.  Tried looking through what was already posted and had a very difficult time finding a post that addressed my concerns.

Just had my computer guy install Windows 8.1 Pro/64 bit & Home & Business 2013. 

When printing a document with 1/4 inch margins all the way around,  one side comes out with almost a 1/2 inch margin and the other is about 1/16th inch regardless of whether or not it's set on portrait or landscape.  Same is true for documents having other size margins - they're "off" about the same amount as well.

When I got the computer back I noticed the problem.  My computer guy hasn't got a clue what the problem is.  He said he used the drivers from the HP website.  To be safe,  I removed and reinstalled the P2035 drivers from the website twice while re-booting imbetween and after. 

Also noticed that the choice of paper type list is much more limited than before, and there isn't the option of choosing between 300dpi & 600dpi for any given document.

I've got hundreds of marketing pieces that are archived and useless unless I'm able to get this issue corrected.  Because I'm very computer illiterate, could you please keep your advice as simple as possible. 

Don't know if it's an HP driver or 8.1 Pro or Home & Business 2013 problem.  Is there a way to determine which is the culprit? 

When I was using Winows  7 Home Premium/64 bit  and Office 7 I didn't have any trouble whatsoever!

(BTW, so far my HP OfficeJet 8600 Pro is printing just fine.)

[dansdaduk]

>> ... Don't know if it's an HP driver or 8.1 Pro or Home & Business 2013 problem.  Is there a way to determine which is the culprit? ...

... or the printer itself perhaps?

Many laser printers have means of adjusting the "registration" of the image on the physical sheet (often different X and Y adjustments, with different ones for each cassette tray), usually via items on one of the front panel menus (or via the Embedded Web Server or Toolbox equivalent).

I've no idea whether or not this applies to your printer model.

You can check the PCL5 printable area on your printer using the Print Area tool in the PCL Paraphernalia application, available via http://www.pclparaphernalia.eu

This should enable you to determine whether or not the device itself needs adjustment, and eliminates your printer driver from the test, since the tool generates the PCL control sequences directly, rather than making use of the printer driver.

[p3u2t_er0pla8y]

Thanks so much for responding.

I'll share this info with my computer guy as when I read it i went brain dead.

Don't think it's a printer problem because the only variable that changed was the software for the hard drive and everything else stayed the same.

I suppose the printer could have become wacky over two days not being connected.... who knows;  anything is worth a try!

[Josh_Kemmer]

Delete first the printer in your computer so that you will have a fresh start. Then follow these steps:

a.Connect the network cable to the printer.

Make sure that the printer IP address or hostname is available.

NOTE: If you do not know or have the printer IP address, print a configuration page that contains the printer IP address. For instructions see the user guide that came with the printer.

b.Open Devices and Printers.

c.Find the printer.

d.Select Add a printer.

In Windows 8/8.1, select The printer I want isn't listed while Windows is searching for available printers.

Select the Add a local printer... option.

Select Create a new port, select HP Standard TCP/IP Port option from the drop-down list, and then select Next.

Type the printer IP address (or Printer host name) and select Next.

Select HP from the Manufacturer list and then carefully scroll through the list to find your printer.

NOTE: If your printer is not listed, see Method three: Install the driver using Windows Update or when connected to a different subnet.

Select the printer driver and then select Next.

Use the default or type a new printer name and then select Next.

NOTE: If prompted, select Do not share this printer and then select Next.

Select Set as the default printer, and then select Print a test page, or select Finish to complete the installation and close the window.

Check out this link for more installation options:

http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docLocale=en_US&docId=emr_na-c03470332#N10084

[p3u2t_er0pla8y]

This looks like another great piece of advice. 

Will share it with my computer guy.  Hope to get my puter back to him in a week or so as I've a few little things left to do in reorganizing things.  Please know your effort to assist is appreciated.

[p3u2t_er0pla8y · Accepted solution]

FINAL RESULT: In response to my initial question.

Finally went to HP tech support (compted the consult as a courtesy) and they spent many hours trying to help me over two days.

On the website there's the regular HP driver for the P2035 to down load, and there's also a Universal Driver that can be downloaded and that looked like it included a feature with the PCL option when I watched him doing the install. (My computer guy did a clean install of the regular driver download.)

HP did a clean install of the Universal driver which now allows access to more features on the printer (paper types and dpi choice) but it did not totally repair the margin problems. The margin problems for landscape docs seems to have been corrected but there are still problems on the portrait docs printing short on the left side whether printing a word doc or pdf.

HP said the problem was a Microsoft problem with “wordpad.” (My computer guy said this doesn’t make sense to him.)

HP said I had 3 choices:

1.   Live with the problem

2.   Buy a new printer to alleviate the problem since the P2035 purchased in 2010 is so old. (HP
           website doesn’t reveal original manufacture date for this model that I could find; Date first
           available at Amazon.com shows June 17, 2003.)

3.   Contact Microsoft since the problem is a Microsoft problem with “wordpad.”

Microsoft was willing to help me for a charge of $149.00 that would give me a year’s worth of tech support and would be refunded if they didn’t solve the problem.

Can’t afford a new printer (also have two newcartriges left.) 

Didn’t want to pay Microsoft. (Let them find another way to pay the wages of their offshore employees rather than giving badly needed jobs to US workers.)

I decided to live with the problem for now as for new portrait docs I can adjust the margins when I set the document up in the first place.