PCL5 or PCL6 HP drivers?

[edutech4schools]

I understand that PCL6 is not an update to PCL5 and is completely different but wanted to know which tends to give less errors / problems.

I am installing onto a server2008R2 box. Clients are XP, Win 7 32&64 bit. Most printers are HP3600n's.

Thanks.

[SYNACK]

I've been using the PCL6 for ages and it seems to have worked fine across all sorts of hp printers. The only issues I have had was when it was going through a linux based network print server which choked on PCL and could only handle the text based PS driver.

[stuartp44]

If you have SIMS i would suggest you use PCL5 as it has caused a lot of problems for us, mainly when reports are run.

[DAZZD88]

PCL6 generally works fine for us, the only issues we have is when it cannot understand a font or something in a document and it spits out a PCL XL error. PCL5e however will just substitute the font.

[AyatollahPies]

If you have SIMS i would suggest you use PCL5 as it has caused a lot of problems for us, mainly when reports are run.

Yep, and it's even more of a pain when printing cheques in FMS.

[localzuk]

I'd say go for PCL5, it is stable and works more than PCL6 in my experience, especially with FMS as AyatollahPies says.

[m25man]

PCL6 Std & Enhanced Modes were designed to support the HP's bias towards GDI based windows printing which requires less hardware on the printer and more resource usage on the host.
In general if your using Host Based Printing you will want to use the PCL6 solution, if however you are sending to queue based servers and the printers have the support for PCL5 especially as has been stated DOS level printing from SIMs etc then I would be inclined to use PCL5 instead.

The biggest issue here is that the 3600N is a Host Based GDI Printer, it never liked being managed by Windows Print Services and the endless stream of forum messages like these...
Windows 7 and HP Color LaserJet 3600N - HP Support Forum that only go to illustrate why GDI Printers really are not suited to classroom based print queues.

There will be loads of people on here who will be jumping up and down saying there is nothing wrong with my 3600Ns..
but to be honest, most of them on here have simply thrown everything possible into the blender, been through dozens of driver/spooler configurations until they have found something that works for them.

The chances are, if you dumb it down to as basic as you can PCL5 and install both 32bit and 64bit drivers on the 2008R2 print server you should get by.

The correct way forward is not to buy GDI based printers if you want to queue manage them, as they will eventually come back to bite you in the ****s..

[SYNACK]

In general if your using Host Based Printing you will want to use the PCL6 solution, if however you are sending to queue based servers and the printers have the support for PCL5 especially as has been stated DOS level printing from SIMs etc then I would be inclined to use PCL5 instead.

Eek, even our shonky MIS has killed off downlevel printing. Maybe you would be better off with the v5 stuff or maybe even some good old dot matrix's for SIMS

[IanT]

I use PCL6 Drivers

[mtillbrook]

the only time ive had problems with HP's is with some of thier really new models, Server 2008R2 and XP clients using a PCL6 driver. XP didnt' like it and are much happier with PCL5.

Generally HP drivers are pretty good though!

As far as FMS cheque printing goes - does anyone know if its any better now in the latest version of FMS or is it just the new icons they have changed?

[MatthewL]

I would personally use PCL6, less problems with it.

[AyatollahPies]

the only time ive had problems with HP's is with some of thier really new models, Server 2008R2 and XP clients using a PCL6 driver. XP didnt' like it and are much happier with PCL5.

Generally HP drivers are pretty good though!

As far as FMS cheque printing goes - does anyone know if its any better now in the latest version of FMS or is it just the new icons they have changed?

I believe the latest change is merely cosmetic, so if it's still running a version of Crystal Reports that is older than your parents, then the answer is no. Re-install the printer drivers is how we are usually fobbed off. It does the trick for a month or two, before someone ruins a load of cheques again.

Most annoying fault I have ever had to deal with.

[Michael]

I would always install PCL5 by default and only install PCL6 if required.

With 2008 R2 you need to install x64 drivers first, and then x86 drivers otherwise it will not work.

You could optionally install all four, seeing as you have many HP3600's:

HP 3600 PCL5 x64
HP 3600 PCL5 x86
HP 3600 PCL6 x64
HP 3600 PCL6 x86

Windows will automatically install either the x86 or x64 on the workstation, but you as an admin could specify PCL5 or PCL6 per printer.