HP 1515n Printing Issue

[L3OUGH]

Right here we go:

 

We have a number of these HP 1515n Colour Printers around the school. When our finance manager rang and reported that she was getting two "PCL XL error" print outs when printing in colour. I thought it would be an easy fix. I tried the usual fix which normally works with these, which was; popping onto the print server/manager and telling the printer to start printing immediately. This didn't work, the errors didn't go away.

 

You can go to any other colour printer around the school and it prints fine. Pop to ANY 1515n though and we get errors!? I can't work it out? Something to do with the RAM? Not enough? I don't want to buy RAM without being sure it will fix the problem.

 

Error 1:

PCL XL error

Subsystem: TEXT

Error: InsufficientMemory

Operator: TEXT

Position: 2269

 

Error 2:

PCL XL error

Warning: IllegalMediaSize

 

Any ideas?

 

Thanks for any responses in advance.

 

Liam

[bandgeekmafia78]

Are you using the PCL5 driver? If not, give that a go.

[L3OUGH]

Yes, we are on the PCL6 driver. Could be it be that the printer just doesn't have to might to handle it? Hence the insufficient memory error?

[bandgeekmafia78]

I guess it depends what is being printed... if its something large like a .PSD file it might be able to spool due to a lack of memory. If it's just word documents etc. then its a bit of a mystery.

[L3OUGH]

It's nothing more than a .PDF? One page, the only colour on it is the businesses header. If it can't spool that then it's going out the window.

[bandgeekmafia78]

Can you convert the PDF to a Word document and see if it prints that way?

[L3OUGH]

Possibly, haven't tried that if I'm honest. Even if it does I can't really say that's a fix for her. I think it must be something to do with the printer, it's fine on other models. Just not idea what it could be.

[Miscbrah]

Our HP1010s do chug out on 'large' (>1mb) .pdfs. Take out all local/net printers and the spooler when they do too!

 

Not all that helpful, but in our great printing saga of Sept 2012 I found that the Universal PCL5 driver, the Universal PCL6 driver or the model-specific driver would be what any particular kind of HP printer wanted. Nothing much to go on, but at least something that worked for me.

[L3OUGH]

Thanks for the input, we were running all model specific drivers not to long ago and then switch to Universal PCL5/6 and switching between them doesn't help. I'm going to remove the printer and the driver package and re-install and see if that makes a difference. May be a corrupt file somewhere. Doubt it but hay.

[Guest M0MST]

Oh how I hate our 1515n's. They have had a battering and one has done nearly 200,000 copies.

 

Anyway, had similar issues where by anyone selecting more than one copy of a document would only get one copy, no matter which software or computer. Only saw a few of your memory issues, admittedly that was when printing via OSx to these devices. I also had a nightmare getting the driver to update for some reason, With the latest driver they have had a new lease of life, much more responsive and apart from consumables haven't been near them for nearly 6 weeks now. I have attached a screen shot of the latest driver I could find.

[L3OUGH]

Eurgh, more drivers!? Only just finished sorting things out with what I thought were the latest ones! Appears I'm behind again, already! Thanks for the input MOMST. I don't think I'm going to mess much more, I've found a quick fix. If the member of staff prints the document as an "Image" it works fine, no errors. As the errors only appear when trying to print big documents. Print say a Word document with some colour on, the printer does it fine without issue.

 

So, I'll monitor the issue for a while, if the errors keep appearing I may have to try the newest driver like you say!

[Guest M0MST]

If you decide the try the latest driver let me know, I managed to extract the correct one for server 2008r2 and xp 32 bit. If you ever need any spares let me know ill have 2 of them going as I'm installing a managed print solution in Jan and they will need to go out of my way

[L3OUGH]

Ahhh, getting rid of all your printers? Your not having a central print area for all staff and students by any chance are you? Almost like a printing station?

 

+ Brilliant, thanks for the offer. If I'm honest I've never had any issue with them parts wise.

[Guest M0MST]

Yup, the lot are going. Replacing copiers and ending up with around 8 devices, new print solution with following me printing, swipe cards etc etc. Over 5 years my calculated saving is nearly 40% even with an increase in volume and price increases, due to the nature of our place there is alot of colour and photo printing, no more worrying about ordering supplies and fixing them all, I'm sure it wont be as good as it sounds, but I'm giving it a go anyway.

[L3OUGH]

Someone contacted us about a solution similar to the one you described. The other Techie here has advised us to stay clear, as his last place had one installed and it didn't go smoothly. Students activating what they were hoping to be work turned out to be highly confidential information. He said it was a shambles. So we are staying clear for a while yet. But I definitely think the concept is brilliant! I wish you the best of luck!

[Guest M0MST]

That just sounds like a poor install to me, shouldn't happen. Everything has gone via ESPO and GPS so if there are any issues they will have the book thrown at them. I did my research as well, this solution is in several large local schools and seems water tight. I may eat my hat now but once its in I will review how its gone.

[Miscbrah]

Hmmm... We had a similar setup at our old place, linked to biometrics, set up by contractors. It was SO TERRIBLE I went to SLT twice to get it removed. You'll get more 'pipe error' than you will actual jobs out the things. Demonstrable waste of money, terribly implemented and expensive catastrophe.

 

Not saying yours will be of course, just adding another cautionary tale/scare story.

[L3OUGH]

That would be an interesting read to see how you get on! + Could of been a poor install. Personally I don't think our place is big enough to take advantage of what it could offer, and we are happy as we are, no real massive issues we can't sort. Watch the Print server go down now and I'll cry.

[Guest M0MST]

Hmmm... We had a similar setup at our old place, linked to biometrics, set up by contractors. It was SO TERRIBLE I went to SLT twice to get it removed. You'll get more 'pipe error' than you will actual jobs out the things. Demonstrable waste of money, terribly implemented and expensive catastrophe.

 

Not saying yours will be of course, just adding another cautionary tale/scare story.

 

Any hints to which company

[L3OUGH]

Any hints to which company

 

Having seconds thoughts?

[Guest M0MST]

That would be an interesting read to see how you get on! + Could of been a poor install. Personally I don't think our place is big enough to take advantage of what it could offer, and we are happy as we are, no real massive issues we can't sort. Watch the Print server go down now and I'll cry.

 

You have cursed it now. We are small ourselves, only 180 pupils and I work on my own, so I hope its not going to give me much of a headache,

 

If it wasnt for all of the colour printing, it wouldn't be beneficial to us but with our print volumes its , I have heard bad stories about biometrics, as well as seen it used successfully up the road, so just waiting to see what happens.

[Guest M0MST]

No, too late now just interested which company, When I put this out for tender we had some non GPS/ESPO companies come in, never seen anything like it in all my life, I could have gone and watched Tottenham Hotspur, got an ipad and an all expenses paid trip to spearmint rhino for me and some of my colleagues if I had taken up his quote. Alarm bells were ringing immediately. I worked very closely with the LEA on this project, and our supplier was suggested by them within their framework Edited December 20, 2012 by M0MST

[L3OUGH]

Well sounds like you've done your research. I hope that everything goes smoothly and indeed it doesn't give you to much of an headache.

 

Also that is a small school! Don't you think you'd it beneficial to have another techie?