HP 2600 - Won't Work On Network

[FN-GM]

Hi,

 

I have been messing about with a HP LaserJet 2600 and trying to get it to work as a network printer and it just doesn't want to play. I have installed it on our print server (Server 2008 x32) and it will not send jobs from the print server. If i send something to print it says its printed but it disappears into thin air. If i plug it in via USB it works a treat. I have tried using all sorts of drivers including the Universal ones. I have also tried a Firmware Update.

 

We have some HP LaserJet 2605 and these work flawless, i am using the 2605 driver for these. I did try to use the 2605 drivers on the 2600 but it wouldn't have it. Its just the 2600 that gives us trouble.

 

I have heard many people moan about these printers and networking. Does anyone have any ideas please?

 

Thanks

[m25man]

Don't waste your time these are not suitable for server based network printing.

They never supported Vista until almost a year after it was released, HP only support this as a workgroup printer.

The 2605 is a different beast with more RAM and native PCL support and can be driven from a server queue however I wouldn't recommend it myself. Others here will argue the toss.

 

I have a 2600 myself which I have owned since new, we all have the driver installed locally and print directly via tcp/ip port defined on each machine.

 

You may find some solace here, http://support.microsoft.com/?id=2000007

 

The cleanspl.exe tool fixes many spoiler related issues in xp/2003 but use it with care because you can trash a print server easily with it.

Edited September 7, 2010 by m25man

[morganw]

We've got two of these, one of which is working on a Windows 2008 32bit print server. I'm about to add the second. My colleague downloaded the driver so i'm not sure where he got it, I assume just whatever is the latest XP driver on the support site. One of these was for use with Apple Macs and I can't locate the driver to operate this through the windows print queue, but I can work it by connecting directly to the printer via Bonjour or HP IP printing whereby it seems to conjure a driver from nowhere.

I can probably email you the Windows driver i'm using as I think it's left on the desktop at the moment.

[FN-GM]

If you could get the driver over to me it would be great.

 

@m25man thanks for your post we are desperate for network colour lasers. I am going to try a little more

Edited September 8, 2010 by FN-GM

[LosOjos]

Got one of these in my office and the only way I could get my machine to find it on the network was to run the HP Setup utility and letting that locate and install it, using the IP address on the printer just would not work

[glennda]

This Printers are rubbish!! we have a few here and they cause most of our print problems!! they also will not print anything from FMS - which is good as one on them is sitting in the finance office!!

[Gerry]

Try disabling "Bidirectional support".

[morganw]

I went to test it today and it doesn't print, it just says printing but nothing comes out. I'm sure this worked before, and it will print a test page from the server.

Sorry for the false hope, these printers are a waste of time and money.

[AngryTechnician]

Even if you do get it working, we found the driver had a nasty habit of crashing the spooler service every few days. You might be able to protect your other printers by using driver isolation, but for us it wasn't worth the hassle.

[FN-GM]

Try disabling "Bidirectional support".

 

What is it please?

[Sylv3r]

I guess we've just been lucky - got around 8 or so of these across the network in our suites shared via on our Windows 2003 Print server - no issues with them in the 3 or 4 years we've had them

[Gerry]

The "Bidirectional Support" tick box is located on the "Ports" tab in the printer's properties. Beware, it may crash your print spooler service... This usually fixes the disappearing printouts problem for me. You'll have to do it directly on the server, as I've found the tick box is greyed out in the Microsoft Management Console.

[FN-GM]

Thanks for that. Tried this one out and it still doesn't work.

[round2it]

we have 2 of these and they just would not work correctly on a 2003 printserver standalone they are great no problems at all.

sorry but i think you are not going to get these to work just cut your losses get something else

[mac_shinobi]

Am just curious if using the ip addy of the printer and adding it directly onto a client so it prints directly to the printer instead of through the print server, is that exactly the same when using either a RAW port or LPR port ( when using the LPR port I would check to see if there is any que name required and tick the require byte counting tick box )

 

I know with server 2003 sbs ( and possibly other versions ) after updating to SP 2 they have improved / changed SNMP and the printer shows offline etc - not sure if this will help with your issue regarding unchecking the SNMP tickbox in the port configuration window

 

Best practices and known issues when you install Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 on a Windows Small Business Server 2003-based computer

 

quoted from above ms kb :

 

User environment issues

 

 

• 937231 ("Help and Support" feature is missing after you install Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP2 on a computer that is running Windows Small Business Server 2003 ) "Help and Support" feature is missing after you install Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP2 on a computer that is running Windows Small Business Server 2003
  
• Some print queues have a status of "Offline" after you install Windows Server 2003 SP2. This problem occurs if the following conditions are true:
  
  • The print queue uses the Standard TCP/IP Port port type.
    
  • In the properties dialog box of the port, the SNMP Status Enabled check box is selected.
    
  • The printer does not support SNMP.
    

  In this situation, the particular print queue tries to communicate by using SNMP. This behavior occurs even if the printer does not support SNMP. Therefore, Windows determines that the print queue is offline.

   

  To resolve this problem, follow these steps:

  1. Click Start, and then click Printers and Faxes.
     
  2. Right-click the affected print queue, and then click Properties.
     
  3. Click the Ports tab, click Standard TCP/IP Port in the list of ports, and then click Configure Port.
     
  4. Click to clear the SNMP Status Enabled check box, click OK, and then click Close.
     

 

If the printer has a web gui then I would go on there and just check everything is enabled ref printer services etc ie RAW, LPR, DIPRINT, etc and double check which raw port is configured for printing as you can change the raw port used through the web gui from 9100 ( default ) to something else ie 9101, the manual should also advise of what the que name for an LPR port type should be, generally PRINT or the likes

[diggory]

Even if you do get it working, we found the driver had a nasty habit of crashing the spooler service every few days. You might be able to protect your other printers by using driver isolation, but for us it wasn't worth the hassle.

 

We had the same problem. The 2600 would keep kicking the print spooler off-line. We took it off the printer server eventually and resolved never to put it on again (ran locally after that with few issues).

Running windows 2003 for our print server.

[FN-GM]

What do you guys think if i use a USB print server with a 2600?

[j_carlyle]

This baffled the hell out of me. Standard printing from a virtual 2003 32bit did exactly the same. Print, goes then nothing

 

Luckily we have pcounter. Created a pcounter port and bobs your uncle it works fine.

 

Good luck

[glennda]

I now have one of mine that the deputy head has in his and his pa's office - they would like it to only print in greyscale - but does the 2600 actually want to oh no of course it doesnt and will still only print colour!!! oh the joys of printers!

[FN-GM]

I now have one of mine that the deputy head has in his and his pa's office - they would like it to only print in greyscale - but does the 2600 actually want to oh no of course it doesnt and will still only print colour!!! oh the joys of printers!

 

Use universal drivers it will.

 

You do know if you print gray scale the colours still get used? every time a print job is sent all the colours are loaded. They are then dumped if not used. Its a massive waste if all you print is black and white. I would go with a mono instead to be honest.

[David_PCN]

Also try AUTO for the LPR namings...

If you need a reasonable colour laser, the Bothers aren't a bad deal, although lack SNMP feedback on some devices.