Unplug the power to the printer, then plug it back in.

Yes, Randy, Thanks for your reply. I've done that (repeatedly); the trouble is I have to keep doing it! The problem is intermittent, and what's bugging me is the amount of paper that's wasted. The last printer would spit out paper one sheet after the other, after it had printed a line of symbols at the top...even after I had canceled the print jobs.

I guess I was hoping to find out why it was happening and if there's a way to stop it so I don't have to deal with it any more.

I know exactly what you're talking about since my hp does the same thing sometimes. Makes for a lot of scratch paper with gibberish at the top.
The first thing I do is grab and pull all the paper out, turn off printer, and reboot the computer.
My theory as to why is that this is data that has been sent to the printer, become corrupted either from canceling a print job and these are remnants left over or the computer running low on memory resources when the printing job is started.
Restarting the computer refreshes the memory and rids leftover gibberish and gives you a fresh start.

Thanks Randy, I appreciate you taking the time to back up your reply. I'll continue to do what you suggest, even though I wish I didn't have to. My oldest printer (also an HP) didn't ever attempt anything like that and I was sad when it died. It's hard to ''upgrade'' when there are quirks like this.

I wonder if you might consider trying what this guy suggests. Worth a try perhaps.

Here is a link that might be useful: Would/could this idea help you?

Thanks owbist, I'll give it a try. I wish I didn't have to, since we ''just'' installed this printer two days ago. It's not that I'm having trouble with this particular printer, it's that I'm still having trouble and this is a new piece of hardware. Ah well.

Owbist, how do you find these interesting articles.

Jane

Simple really Jane, in this instance Randy's first reply is quite often the fix. No one else jumped in with ideas or thoughts so I went searching using 'Office 6310 problems' as my parameter. Then you sift through for a likely scenario.

Once upon a time Google was great and returned searches as it should. These days money muddies the waters bringing sites selling stuff to the top so you need to go deeper to find your answers.

In this instance I knew Claire's frustrations because I had a Lexmark printer that simply quit half way through a print job. The cure was to remove the CAT5 internet cable - now who would ever think of that? And that was the cure Lexmark eventually recommended, it will be a long time before I buy another Lexmark product because it turned out they had numerous models with that defect and no cure.

Well, NOW you tell me! Owbist, I had a Lexmark we finally junked because we never could figure out how to get it to work properly. (I think it actually worked for about 45 minutes.) Oh brother.

Ah but Claire, your problem may have been the 'Error 1200' for which Lexmark never had an answer. The cure for that needed long fingers because the cartridge carrier failed to return to it's docking position and needed to be pushed (jabbed) hard to click into place allowing the printer to recognised that fact it was there.

I still have this doubtful printer and both those issues are resolved but it only prints black now LOL. We have it hooked to my wife's computer so she can print her Red Hat emails and stuff off.

Obwist, I had that exact thing with a Lexmark Z715 right out of the box. They called it an "alignment problem". They sent me a new one and never wanted the original back so I Freecycled it to someone for parts. The replacement has stopped printing too. From what I've read, it probably clogged up from not using it often enough. Sandy