HP Laserjet 4 driver  

My thanks to SVTDOT-I followed that procedure and my printer came up right awayl

I have a lserjet 4 plus that didn't work on my new dell laptop running Windows 7 Home Preminum and purchased a usb to parallel port from staples. I tried maybe 100 different ways to make the printer work and finally I think I got the solution. The main thing is to have the cable device loaded first under unspecified IEEE-1284. Then the following:

1. Disconnect printer cable from computer and printer
2. Manually Load HP Laser Jet 4 plus Printer Driver from Windows Update without printer attached
3. Restart computer
4. Plug USB cable and make sure it loads IEEE 1284 driver
5. Plug parallel port into printer
6. Turn printer on
7. Make sure HP laserJet 4 Plus is online
8. Print Test page

Thanks-I got my printer to work, and have printed and saved your post.

I've loved my Laserjet 4 plus for over 2 decades. It has worked great thru many versions of Microsoft OS's. I think I might have had it prior to Windows 95 (yes it's that old). I always got it to print, even now - sort of.
My issue is that the first page that it prints is mostly blank except for the first line of incomprehensible garbage. I doesn't affect the document, which starts on the second page. I've wasted hundreds of pieces of paper. Fortunately, I can lower the manual paper feed and send it thru several times. It saves a sheet of paper which is not the issue when you buy it by the case. It's having to do it EVERY SINGLE TIME. I've been doing it for years and I'm tired of doing it. I'm no novice, I received one of the first four IBM PC/1's shipped to Michigan. The serial number was in the low 200's. It only had 16K of ram - expandable to 64K (RIGHT ON THE MOTHERBOARD - YIPPIE). Floppy drives weren't quite invented yet. Anybody else remember the cassette port on the back of the 1st gen ones? It worked, I had to make my own with a radio shack mono cassette player.
Anyway, back to my issue. Any ideas or suggestions will be welcome, I've tried just about everything for years. I'll try some of the 'ideas' I found in this thread but they are to get it to print, can't hurt to try.

You've probably already done this, but try a Cold Reset on the printer. It seems to be a way of resetting to the default settings. The process is quite simple. Make sure the printer is disconnected from everything apart from the electricity supply and is switched off. Depress the “On Line” button and keep it depressed whilst you switch on the printer. Leave it depressed until “Cold Reset” appears on the LED. You can now release the button and allow the printer to continue its start process until “Ready” appears. Switch off again. Then connect it to the computer and turn it back on.

I've never done that until now. That might have done it. I'll post again tomorrow after I've printed something.
It's late (early), time for bed since it's my birthday. This would make the nicest present I got in years.

I just printed this page and got the wasted first page. Thought the reset worked. I probably tried it before but wasn't sure whether I removed the centronix cable, I'm sure I did this time.
I don't buy a new one because this on works except for the wasted first page. I can't afford a new one either.