What could make a printer go out of control and print various symbols page after page?

That could happen if the file you're printing is too intense for the printer's memory.

The interface cable may not be securely connected. Turn off the printer and computer. Disconnect and reconnect the cable on both the printer and computer. Make sure the printer is directly connected to the computer and not through a pass through device such as a switchbox. Make sure the printer cable is fully-shielded and meets the printer's specifications (a Belkin cable with a length of 6 feet or less is recommended). Try printing a screen from a DOS prompt. If the DOS print screen is garbled, try using a different printer cable. If you are only experiencing the issue when trying to print from Windows (but the DOS print screen prints OK), make sure you are using the correct driver.

a glitch in the feed from the pc. The PC uses PCL (Printer Control Language) to communicate with the printer and if a character (byte) drops, the rest of the communication can be skewed until a reset sequence is received.

usually it's just a glitch w/ the computer codes sent to the printer, like some other dude said. if it's that, then all u need to do is somehow save what u were gonna print & reboot ur computer

Virus

deamonic posession.i suggest you take it to sunday mass & sprinkle the inkjets with holywater & stay the whole mass!

terrorist