Weird behaviour from new HP P2055dn Printer

[Andie]

I am having problems with a brand new HP 2055dn printer. Intermittently, it is printing oddly from PowerPoint. We get wide black bands on the page instead of the slide, or a wide unprinted margin. I have checked the documents, and they have printed fine elsewhere. Then yesterday I went to check this issue out, printed a document and something different came out (nothing showing in queue before). Then printed again, and my document came out; I then changed document and printed again, and my previous document came out again, then printed again to get the last one sent. Writing this, it sounds like there should be a logical explanation, but I was right next to the printer and the only time it printed seemed to be in response to what I'd sent, rather than there being someone else printing too. Any ideas?

[Gaz]

How is the printer connected?

What driver are you using?

Does it do it from a cold boot?

Is the ram OK? (left hand side panel)

[Andie]

How is the printer connected?

What driver are you using?

Does it do it from a cold boot?

Is the ram OK? (left hand side panel)

 

1. Physically an RJ45 to a Netgear switch that is linked back to the main Netgear switch and the server. Server 2003, XP clients. Laptop connecting wirelessly to the server and printing through that. Printers installed using a VB login script.

 

2. My secondary school support installed it, from new last term, so probably the driver that came with the disc.

 

3. Need to check and 4. Need to check.

Edited January 17, 2012 by Andie

[Gaz]

I have experienced this before but it was on a printer that was connected via USB to a router. A firmware upgrade of the router sorted it.

I'd go down the route of diagnostics, trying via USB or install ethernet driver onto pc locally and trying that way.

I'm not entirely certain its a driver issue although the bands on the page would indicate it. The back log of printing is the weird part.

Like its not clearing the ram out of what was previously sent.

Also check the event log for errors. HP laser printer error codes

http://printertechs.com/tech/print-defects/print-defects-index.php

Also try PCL5 instead of PCL6

Edited January 17, 2012 by Gaz

[Andie]

We've changed the driver. The only PCL5 available is the universal print driver, so we had to go with that. We have also changed a setting to do with how the print is spooled: in the printer Properties>Advanced tab, in the middle section, we changed the button from Start printing after last page is spooled to Start printing immediately. So far so good. But only time will tell.