How to prevent printing gibberish?

[volt26]

I noticed this issue in many different enterprises :

 

once in a while, a user will send a print request to his network printer and all he will get is tons of sheets with 1 line of gibberish.

 

Each time, I solve the issue by removing the printer from the computer and reinstalling it.

 

But... I wonder why it happens in the first place?

 

The printer was obviously the right one because the user was able to print a few hours earlier on the exact same printer. Yet, reinstalling the driver fixes the issue. I thought it could be driver corruption but our computers are frozen under deepfreeze (most of you are probably familiar with this software). So if the driver was corrupted, a simple reboot should fix the problem yet it doesn't.

 

All in all, I know how to fix the issue when it happens but I would like to know if I can PREVENT it. Is it possible?

[MatthewL]

What printer is it in question, how is it connected, what driver are you using and what OS is the machine?

 

Is it just one user the users the machine or is it multiple?

[mdench]

have you checked for a new updated driver? that you can install on your print server? seen it on ours where the driver on the server crashed caused it print gibberish once the update was applied the issue went away

 

same printer every time?

does it happen to other users or just this one?

printer make / model?

server O/S?

[SYNACK]

Can also be a crashed printer, just pull the power on it and restart it, it will probably solve the problem temporarily. Usually RAM going which you can replace on large printers.

[volt26]

What printer is it in question, how is it connected, what driver are you using and what OS is the machine?

 

Is it just one user the users the machine or is it multiple?

 

It can be ANY user, from ANY computer and for pretty much ANY printer (well, we have only HP printers so I can confirm all printers are networked Laserjet HP printers). All OS are under windows 7.

 

The problem occurs rarely but when it happens, it MUST be solved the way I previously written (remove printer and add it again). Knowing that, it means it probably has something to do with drivers.. But if the problem is a bad driver, why does it become bad in the first place if it was perfect a few hours earlier?