I can’t recall how many times I’ve been on a customer site and needed to print something, only to find that the printer was some obscure model that used a driver only obtainable from some password protected website in China, that just so happened to be down. After talking with a coworker, he brought me in on a little secret – the HP LaserJet 4 driver will almost always work (and it’s included by default in all recent versions of Windows)!
Reluctantly, I tried it. To my surprise, it really did work. While using this “universal print driver” doesn’t always yield the best and most correct formatting options, it almost always prints a readable page and can be very useful in a pinch.
To select the HP LaserJet 4
- When given the option to select a model for your printer, choose ‘HP’ in the manufacturer window and then select ‘HP LaserJet 4′ in the printers window.
In my experience, the HP printers tend to do a better job with this trick (obviously) but I’ve had success with Konica Minolta, Canon, Dell, and a host of other brands. I wouldn’t recommend doing this for anything too important, because as mentioned, formatting and margins can sometimes become an issue. But for that quick print of a reference document, it sure comes in handy.
That’s all! Thanks, and happy computing!
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