6Foot2 Posted October 7, 2011 Posted October 7, 2011 We have three HP Colour Laserjet 2600n printers. All of them are showing the same issue: They will accept print jobs but will not print them unless the spool service is restarted. They were working on XP Pro: SP3 but we have now deployed Windows 7. I have tried the printer driver as recommended by HP and the Universal Printer Driver. I have also tried changing the Print Processor/Default Data Type combinations. All to no avail. All other printers on the network operate properly [normally] Print Server OS: Windows 2008 Standard: SP2: 64 Bit Client OS: Windows 7 Pro: SP1: 64 Bit Can anyone suggest a way forward with this? Thanks.
MrEprise Posted October 7, 2011 Posted October 7, 2011 We had similar problems with our 2600s when using any of the HP drivers. In the end I tried the driver available on Windows Update; This eliminated many of the problems we had and allowed the printers to work as expected. 1
6Foot2 Posted October 7, 2011 Author Posted October 7, 2011 Thanks. I have only recently applied Windows Updates to this server. One of those updates does seem to have improved the situation as I could not get the printer to deploy at all before! Do you know which update [KB number] kicked things into shape for you. If I know which one it is I could download it and install it manually.
MrEprise Posted October 7, 2011 Posted October 7, 2011 The one I installed was listed as "Driver update for HP Color LaserJet 2600n" which admittedly was meant for Windows Server 2003. According to the Microsoft Update catalog however, there is an updated driver for Windows 7/Server 2008 which comes under the name of "Hewlett-Packard - Printers - HP Color LaserJet 2600n" which might work just as well.
SYNACK Posted October 7, 2011 Posted October 7, 2011 You need to install the latest drivers from the vendor site. This has been an issue since Vista where it is no longer tollerant of shocking drivers. Windows update does not update the drivers only the Windows software. Try the HP universal drivers, lots on here seem to dislike them but I have had less problems with them than any other drivers.
MrEprise Posted October 7, 2011 Posted October 7, 2011 Windows update does not update the drivers only the Windows software. Since when? I've not had to use HP's terrible drivers for a few years now.
SYNACK Posted October 7, 2011 Posted October 7, 2011 Not the version that I have used, if you mean the automatic driver grab stuff in the new versions of windows then yea it checks with windows update, you can also use the update catalogue but I have never had it automaticcly update an printer driver on anything that was not directly connected via USB.
ricki Posted October 7, 2011 Posted October 7, 2011 Hi Try a pcl 6 or 5 driver. I think off the top of my head we ended up swapping to pcl5 but I am not sure. One of them crashed the print spooler on the print server. It took us a bit to find the driver that did not crash the spooler but it might be worth doing a couple of checks before you start. 1) Check that you have enough space on the c drive. 2) Try moving the spooler file to another drive 3) Do a chkdsk on the drive. 4) Change the driver to a different version Richard 1
6Foot2 Posted October 7, 2011 Author Posted October 7, 2011 (edited) ...Try a pcl 6 or 5 driver. I think off the top of my head we ended up swapping to pcl5 but I am not sure... I have just tried the PCL 5 driver. It does submit the jobs to the queue [and the jobs leave the queue] but noting appears at the printer. This is very frustrating because the server will print test pages/text documents etc it is just the Windows 7 64 Bit clients that will not. When the genuine HP driver is installed the documents sit in the queue but don't get printed. Using the web interface [addressing the printer via its IP] I can see the configuration page and print configuration reports so I know that the network can see the printer at that level. I tried adding the printer to the station using the IP address. That caused the station to hang. I am at a loss for what to try next. On your other points: Plenty of space on C:\ [32.5 GB free space] Move the spool folder: I can do that but not right now as it will affect the other printers. I will give it a go next week [not hopeful for a good result] CHKDSK on the disk: I have started CHKDSK on C:\ and E:\ and I will have to wait for when that finishes [i doubt that it will move me forward] CHKDSK can't run until the server restarts so I have scheduled the check of the disks. Thanks for the suggestions. Edited October 7, 2011 by 6Foot2 Add detail to the post.
Cache Posted October 7, 2011 Posted October 7, 2011 Have you tried unticking the "Enable Bidirectional Support" from the port properties of the printer? That helped with the 2600's here. 1
6Foot2 Posted October 7, 2011 Author Posted October 7, 2011 Have you tired unticking the "Enable Bi-Directional Support" from the port properties of the printer? That helped with the 2600's here. No. I haven't tried that yet. Something new for Monday.
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