Originally posted by Gabriel
With respect to my fellow members,
Try activating the printer with HP DJ 550 Driver (System driver).
This driver works with almost every DJ series printer - yes it lack some of the "advanced" (and mostly un-needed) options.

This is a simple workaround - I do agree that if the cable is BAD than this proposal won't help you.

Good Luck,
Gabriel
Agreed Gabriel it will work for every parallel printer that is of deskjet specification - it is what HP will have you try to discern between printer faults and software faults... but I haven't tried it with a usb printer.