Color Laserjet 2700n on 2008R2

[gerardsweeney]

Hello, all..

I've started migrating our printers onto a shiny new 64 bit 2008 R2 driver, and I've run into a big problem with the Color Laserjet 2700n.

It appears that it's only supported by HP's Universal Print Driver - which causes non-admins no end of pain. It takes roughly 40-50 seconds for the printer GUI to appear when you select File Print in Word/Excel etc.. Oddly enough that's far from acceptable.

I did find some PCL6 drivers which work - but they're mono only, which is really useful.

Has anyone had any joy getting this pile of junk to work with R2?

Cheers,
Gerard

[PeterW]

Are the Windows inbox drivers no good?

[gerardsweeney]

Assuming you mean the ones that appear once you go to WindowsUpdate, then nope - they're the ones that produce the mono-only... Even though under properties it shows "Color: Yes".

[PeterW]

Hmm strange I'm sure I have used those ones before!

[Sylv3r]

I'm having a similar issue trying to get HP 2600n printers on our Server 2008 R2 domain. Printer just refuses to print.

[gerardsweeney]

Apparently using the HP Color Laserjet family driver works, but then I have the issue that I need to share this out with 32bit XP clients, so I'm not sure how that goes?!?! Answers on a postcard

I tried putting on the 2600 drivers and they consistently crashed the spooler service on my 2008 server - so they were removed pretty damn sharpish. I'm just glad nobody was onsite when I was doing this!!!

PeterW - in terms of the 2700n drivers, I would be EXTREMELY grateful if you could provide any pointers on getting this to work.

Regards,
Gerard

[dhoward_westexetc]

I used a Server 2008 SP2 32-bit print server with a HP Color Laserjet 2600n, and that works a treat. I didn't run the installer, I just added the driver using the add driver wizard.

One other point - disable bi-directional printing on each 2600n queue, not sure if the same applies for the 2700n as we have none of that model. 2600n's do not like bi-directional printing one bit.

[gerardsweeney]

I used a Server 2008 SP2 32-bit print server with a HP Color Laserjet 2600n, and that works a treat. I didn't run the installer, I just added the driver using the add driver wizard.

That's good to know that the 32 bit driver at least behaves as well as the 32bit driver for Server 2003. Sadly it's not the case when sharing between 64bit server and 32bit XP clients.

A couple of days ago, though, I used the CP2020 drivers on one of the printers - and (touch wood) it appears to be working.. I'm going to leave it a few days and see how they behave. Fingers crossed!!!

[dhoward_westexetc]

That's good to know that the 32 bit driver at least behaves as well as the 32bit driver for Server 2003. Sadly it's not the case when sharing between 64bit server and 32bit XP clients.

A couple of days ago, though, I used the CP2020 drivers on one of the printers - and (touch wood) it appears to be working.. I'm going to leave it a few days and see how they behave. Fingers crossed!!!

I use the PCL6 UPD for the CP2025, and it is fine. I try to use the UPD where possible, though the 4700s don't seem to like it for some reasons, even though it is marked as compatible. The printouts are mono. I use the 4700n Server 2008 driver instead.

Note: the Colour Laserjet 2600n driver is actually a Vista driver, but it also functions fine on Server 2008 32-bit, Windows 7 and XP clients. Which is kinda what we need really. There is no entry for Server 2008, only Vista 32-bit.

[gerardsweeney]

I use the PCL6 UPD for the CP2025, and it is fine. I try to use the UPD where possible

I originally used the UPD. I then discovered that non-admins logging on 32bit XP would have HUGE problems. The main one being..

Open Word
File
Print
Wait 30 seconds(!)
Click no at the warning that the printer has stopped responding
A further 20 seconds and the printer dialog box will appear.

If you're an administrator then it works fine - sadly not an option in our environment.

[dhoward_westexetc]

I originally used the UPD. I then discovered that non-admins logging on 32bit XP would have HUGE problems. The main one being..

Open Word
File
Print
Wait 30 seconds(!)
Click no at the warning that the printer has stopped responding
A further 20 seconds and the printer dialog box will appear.

If you're an administrator then it works fine - sadly not an option in our environment.

Never been an issue for us, but then we use PCounter ports..