R2 server + HP 4100 laser Printers. Anyone managed to get this combination working?

[superatticman]

Hiya

 

We still run a number of HP Laser 4100 printers on our network. They are slightly old hat now, but have proved to be extremely reliable and reasonably economical. We have just upgraded our printserver to 2008 R2. Only problem is, HP only produce a 'Universal Print Driver' for this printer and OS. This driver seems to work fine on the 4200 series but is very erratic on the 4100 series. Sometimes pages print from certain applications, at other times they don't. Have had a dig around elsewhere and it would seem the majority of suggestions centre around replacing what are now fairly old printers.

 

Anyone else have this combination and have you managed to get it reliable?

 

Regards

[meastaugh1]

This combination definitely works, 4100 and 4200 were no problem when I migrated, as far as I can remember. Have you tried disabling Advanced Features, Print Optimisations, Mopier Mode?

[ChrisH]

We have these printers and they work fine, if they are not listed when adding the printer use the window update button.

[superatticman]

Will give these suggestions a go.

 

Out of interest, when installing the printer via 'look for driver online', do you get both X64 and X86 drivers? Obviously the printer requires the X64 driver on 2008 R2, but we have been adding the X86 driver as an additional driver.

[ChrisH]

We're purely x64 so we don't have those complications.

[MatthewL]

Can you install it just using the HP LaserJet driver that is built in or one of the other built in HP ones? I have found these to be more reliable than the universal ones in the past.

[superatticman]

This combination definitely works, 4100 and 4200 were no problem when I migrated, as far as I can remember. Have you tried disabling Advanced Features, Print Optimisations, Mopier Mode?

 

Was this with the Universal Print Driver downloaded from HP's website? (which covers both 32 and 64 bit versions)

 

Or from the 4100 64 bit PCL6 driver included in 2008 R2?

[meastaugh1]

This is using HP's UPD PCL5, albeit a relatively old one (5.4) on a standard TCP/IP port. I have 32 and 64-bit editions of the driver installed as most of our clients are still 32-bit.

 

Advanced printing features is disabled on advanced tab.

[Cache]

I have 4200's working and downloaded the driver from the Microsoft Update catalog (Microsoft Update Catalog) - might be worth a look to see if you can find a better one in there?

[superatticman]

Thanks for the advice on here.

 

Next challenge is to get the Laserjet 5's working with R2 AND Office 2010. No....bad idea. Time to retire the 5's with dignity.

[john]

Thanks for the advice on here.

 

Next challenge is to get the Laserjet 5's working with R2 AND Office 2010. No....bad idea. Time to retire the 5's with dignity.

 

They probably will work fine they last forever those classic HPs

[superatticman]

Yep, the 'Fives' were great machines. Probably the best mono laser all things considered.

 

We managed to get them working from 2008 R2 with the uni driver. But there were some problems with certain fonts printing, this may have even been after we upgraded to Office 2010.

 

To be honest, getting ink carts for them now is proving to be uneconomical, so we are tending to standardise our mono fleet with 4200's. These are getting on a bit too, but have proved to be excellent servants through the years.

[MatthewL]

The old LaserJet's were cracking machines compared to today's junk. I have used LJ 4, 5 and 6 and ended up with a 4 quite cheap which I sold on due to size and speed more than anything. The 4200's are cracking too, when ever I've had a newer on i.e. P2015, P2055 fail driver wise the LaserJet 4 or 5 driver always fixed it. The machines were built properly and now its just plastic in them all which doesn't last on a printer which is used on a daily basis.

[superatticman]

Agree strongly with that. A lot of the newer stuff seems pretty poorly built in my opinion. Maybe just a sign of the throwaway society we have become.

 

We have tried to rationalise our printer fleet to laserjets and colour laser MFDs. Those inkjets cost a fortune over the long run.

 

Currently we have:

 

Laser Mono

 

HP 4100 A4

HP 4200 A4

HP 8150 A3

 

These have all been excellent and we continue to buy in the 4200's second hand.

 

 

Inkjet Colour

 

Officejet 5400 and 8000 A4 printers.

 

Not really impressed. Poor build quality and have suffered failures. Not a patch on the previous Business Inkjet 1100s and 22xx series. Rapidly being replaced by Colour MFD's.

 

 

Colour MFD's

 

Currently using Ricoh Aficio SP C242SF of which are proving stable and reliable. These are being put out to replace the inkjets.

 

 

We also have a number of large heavy duty Ricoh photocopiers which can print and scan too. These, as well as the MFD's are under support which has proved to be far more effective than 'in house' support spending hours trying to work out what is wrong and then calling in the 3rd party.

[FishCustard]

Another vote for 'old HP LaserJets will survive anything' - we've been standardising our printers over the past few months, ending up with:

 

HP 4250n - these go pretty much anywhere where you need a networked mono printer. I prefer these over the 4200s as they can take the high-capacity cartridges.

HP 4350(d/t)n - these go where the printer will be hammered constantly (i.e. main office, staff IT room). Bonus: they take the same carts as the 4250!

 

HP 1022 - for where a 4250 isn't justified or it just needs to be attached to one PC.

 

HP CP2025n - for networked colour print (i.e. IT rooms). Toner is relatively cheap (if you go for remanufactured) and they seem reliable. If they want to start 'cleaning' after every page and whine about 'misprints', do this.

 

Konica 7450II - two of these colour+A3 beasts for DT. Can be a bit odd at times though, if buying again I'd look elsewhere. No major issues though.

 

We removed quite a few newer printers from service and replaced them with the above - we've had far less hassle with them (and the toner is cheaper too - one of the ones we replaced was around £100 per cart! Madness!)