Printer Will only Print one document at a time

[Preston]

We have 2 Xp Pro PC connected to one Lexmark Z53 in a small biology office. For some weird reason the printer will only print one document at a time. If 2 people are logged on and they each send 2 documents only 1 document from one of the users will print.
Does anyone have any idea why the documents are not queuing up as they should?

[Geoff]

Spooling is disabled?

Printer -> Properties -> Advanced.

Make sure it's not set to 'Print directly to the printer'.

[mark]

We have a similar problem with an HP2300 - spooling is set correctly.

I always thought it was the driver.

[NetworkGeezer]

Silly question but how are you connecting the 2 PCs to the one printer.

Print Server tied to network server
Direct connection to one PC shared to other
Data switch box (hey it could happend)

[eejit]

I've had this too. I think going from the default PCL driver to a postscript one bypassed the problem (rather than solved it)

[MrDylan]

We first had this problem on our HP2300s.

I've found in the past that Checking or Unchecking (can't remember which, and it may actually vary) the 'Enable Advanced Printing Features' box can fix it.

It's found at the bottom under the Advanced tab of the printer properties.

I also (memory is terrible) can't remember if you need to do it on the server or the client, if indeed it is a network printer.

[Norphy]

I've found similar with a lot of newer HP printers. If you uncheck the Enable Advanced Printing box, it makes them a lot more reliable, especially with Windows 2000 clients. I also found that as long as you're logged on as an administrative user it doesn't matter if you uncheck it on the server or on a client, setting it on one sets it on all.

[Preston]

at the moment the printer is connected to one of the machines (both connected to the whoel school network) and then the other machine is set to default to that shared printer.

Ill check out the spooling shortly....run off my feet atm with these damn exams.

"Where is the remote for this DVD player? the exam starts in 2 mins"

[MrDylan]

"Where is the remote for this DVD player? the exam starts in 2 mins"

Reply: [Sorry,] access to that information is above my payscale.

Did you try the Advanced Feature box?

[Michael]

Have you checked that the spooler service local to each machine is operating correctly?

You say also that the printer is connected to a workstation and then shared (which is fine), however if you're using a parallel connection, try using a USB connection (if the printer supports it) or visa versa.

Talking of USB, some VIA chipsets can cause a lot of slowdown when printing through USB.

[Andrew_C]

We've had similar issues. Slightly different in that if you asked for multiple copies you only got one. Ours is being put down to Canon software recently installed, but no one is sure yet!