I use a HP2550L Postscript laser printer connected locally (and shared to the rest of the network via Samba).
Printing direct to the parallel port from the likes of Final Writer 97, Pagestream, etc, often results in a problem like you described. Or some data seems to get to the printer, but it never prints. Like all of the file hasn't been transfered?
If I print to a local file, (which can then be viewed with Ghostscript as a print preview), the file can then be copied direct to the parallel port, and it always prints fine.
Perhaps give that a try?
