Lexmark C4342 - settings

[Koldov]

I'm going to leave the rant for another day, but at lunchtime I walked down the corridor to find a couple of guys from our print provider with a brand new Kyocera MFD... I didn't know this was happening, but I'll just leave that there for now as it was a straight (ish) swap, just the next model up and they cloned all the settings, I didn't even need to change the driver.

 

They also mentioned changing and removing a couple of others, so although I was out for the afternoon I thought I should go back to get a heads up on any carnage I was going to walk into tomorrow...

 

Anyway it turns out they've swapped all the old Kyocera Ecosys printers in the ICT suites for Lexmark C4342, but I didn't think it would cause any issues so I went about swapping the drivers on the print server before I went home.

 

Haven't had to do this for a few years and I had to download the drivers (as they didn't leave a disk), but couldn't install due to restrictions on the server, however managed to extract them with 7Zip from the .exe, then when trying to add them from the .inf nothing appeared. I found another file that instead of installing extracted a different set of files, managed to add the drivers and chose them in the printer settings.

 

However every time after that when I opened the properties a message came up about installing a certificate...?

 

Then I found out that obviously they couldn't clone all the old Kyocera printer's settings apart from the I.P. (so at least I could get into the web interface) although I can't tell if there is an 'admin' log in as I can't see anywhere to add in job accounting codes.

 

I also managed to half install it on a client, but as soon as I went into the properties it asked me about the certificate again and I can't have that on clients.

 

I really don't need it to do anything special, just print from the network. Anyone got any experience with these printers to save me spending ages tomorrow working it all out myself from scratch?

[Koldov]

It has also started to crash the Print Management MMC whilst looking at the printer properties since installing these drivers....

[GaryPad]

Ouch! MS likes all Type 3 drivers to be signed these days (after the PrintNightmare fiasco). Old drivers are probably not signed. See if you can find a Type 4 driver for the Lexmarks. Otherwise shout very loudly at your print provider! Kyo drivers will not be compatible with Lexmarks so you can't just leave them in place.

[Koldov]

Interesting... that's the second time I've seen Type 4 drivers recommended recently. Have they suddenly become useable?

 

Last I heard they were very basic and you couldn't use advanced settings like fold/staple/booklet etc. So I've steered clear for now as that would get me lynched around here!

[GaryPad]

"Have they suddenly become useable" ... debatable! The idea is that Type 4 are effectively managed by a text file and all the heavy lifting is built into the o/s. That means the attack surface of the printer driver is almost zero. Unfortunately manufacturers don't see the need to invest in print driver development anymore because they did all that years ago. Type 4 drivers, whilst maybe not as fancy as Type 3 (although they could be if the manufacturer could be bothered) should still have the same accessory support for finishers, folders, punchers etc though. If you install a Type 4 "Class" driver (i.e. it works for a whole range of models and uses bi-directional chat to work out what the device on the end of the line can do) it then reconfigures the driver options automatically. It's worth checking on the Lexmark website as they might not have bothered going through Microsoft's validation programme and instead offer it from themselves direct.

If you can find a signed monolithic driver - i.e. model specific - that will invariably look better and have all the options (and be more "usable" ). Also try the Microsoft Update button which is on the "Choose your printer from the list" dialog as part of adding a new printer.

[Koldov]

Well, that's annoying... but relevant to this thread, so not going in 'Annoying Things'...

 

I got it to work, unfortunately as it was nearly a year ago I've forgotten quite how!

 

But a while ago somebody mentioned that the 'Job Accounting' wasn't working and 'did I know it can be printed to without a code' (no I didn't because I thought they would have had a way to set this up - even though I knew they couldn't do a straight 'settings' clone from the old Kyocera machines). I think I was so glad I got it to work I moved on to the next thing pretty quickly and didn't look back.... I did research it for a bit every now and then when I had time, but never could Google the right question to get the answers I needed...

 

I don't use these printers and the company that came and installed it didn't mention anything, so I got in touch to ask them. After assurances they would 'look into it' I never heard anything back and even after accosting a couple of engineers (who didn't know how to do it) I was none the wiser... then I was told it's a 'user' configurable setting and therefore not supported under contract and therefore any information would be on a 'best effort' basis!

 

Well, yesterday I was researching how to do something else and found the actual thing I needed!

 

In Lexmark speak, it's not called 'Job Accounting' but 'Configuring Departmental Codes' and isn't in the traditional 'settings' it's in 'Apps > Device Quotas'...

 

This morning I spent a while figuring out how to set it all up ready to implement it and got this...

 

 

So either they don't know how to do it (unlikely for a 'print' support company) or they know how to do it, but also know they have supplied it without a hard disk so it can't be enabled.

 

I'm sure the previous Kyocera ones came with a hard disk as standard...

[3s-gtech]

I doubt it’d void anything to bang an old HDD in there https://infoserve.lexmark.com/ids/ifc/ids_topic.aspx?root=v54781690&topic=v50548483&productCode=Lexmark_C4342&loc=en_SG

I’d remove any partitions first as who knows how it’ll manage existing ones.

Edited February 16, 2024 by 3s-gtech
More info

[Koldov]

I thought I'd look at this again over the Easter holiday, unfortunately looking at the install video it appears the 'original' Lexmark 500 GB sata hard drive comes as a kit with stand-off and dual power/data cable. I don't want to bodge it, so probably not worth the effort.

 

https://infoserve.lexmark.com/ids/idv/video.aspx?category=Color+Printers&productCode=Lexmark_C4342&topic=v54445160&vId=CS730_CS735_CX730_CX735%2flexmark-installing-printer-hard-disk-video&ar=16%3a9&ap=1&l1=1&l2=4&sh=863&sw=1280&loc=en_XM