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Greetings NAGers: I apologize for the length of this post. We have dozens of HP LaserJets, and have for well over a decade. Starting around December, we have been under an evil spell, and it seems to be spreading. Every couple weeks we get another report of the problem from a user who previously never had the problem. The symptoms are varied depending on the app it occurred in, but center around the idea that the printer is not responsive and the computer becomes unresponsive waiting for a response from the printer. You don't have to print for this to occur, but printing or looking at printer properties often triggers the problem. Online it has been suggested that the printer enters a low-power sleep mode, and then cannot wake properly. This explanation coincides well with our experience. A typical report from a user would be that the user was happily using Word when they tried to print. Selecting File - Print, the printer that should be displaying in the printer selection dialog is missing - the dialog is blank. If you click on the drop-down box to choose a printer other than the default, the other printers are listed. If you choose one, you can print to it fine. Another example: the user runs Word - Word is immediately unresponsive, and after a timeout, displays an error: "Microsoft Office Word: The printer has not yet responded, but the Microsoft Office program may be able to proceed without printer information. Do you want to continue to wait for the printer?" If the user selects Yes, Word hangs and neither the printer nor Word ever become responsive. If the user selects No, Word is useable, but then behaves as in my first example for further printing operations. Googling reveals that many others are having this problem and have worked with HP, as we have. Solutions/experiences are mixed. People suggest a wide variety of "fixes", which work for some, others claim they don't work. According to posts online HP has replaced formatters and a variety of other fixes, none appear to be a true fix. HP has sent us a font DIMM with extra RAM, which they claim also updates the firmware - we're testing that now but others on the newsgroups have tried this and failed. We've updated firmware with help from HP - didn't help. Others online report having tried different driver versions - no go. It isn't specific to Word, it can happen in any app from a test print to notepad. It's also not limited to LJ2015s: we've experienced it on an LJ2300 and HP Business Inkjet something-or-other (this is the only non-laserjet to exhibit the problem). Online users report the problem on a variety of HP printers. We thought it might be that these are all on USB - but the 2300 is LPT. Online posts confirm others get it with LPT as well. Power-cycling the printer fixes it temporarily. Rebooting Windows does not consistently fix it. All users are running Windows XP. All of them are directly connected to the computer via USB or LPT; none of these are on the network directly with JetDirect cards. Some are connected to Dell desktops; some are Dell or IBM portables. The printers have a wide variation of formatter and firmware versions, from years old to the present (HP gave us their latest firmware; it didn't help). Some users get it almost daily, all day long; others go a month without it happening. It is not reproducible. The idea we keep coming back to is that we've had many of these printers for a long time with the problem never occurring. Starting in December - whammo. One by one it started. What has changed? Could it be a Microsoft Update? If so why didn't they all break at once? A lengthy discussion threat about this problem, with no clear resolution, is here: http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do? admit=109447626+1235594115346+28353475&threadId=1163881 Are any of you also experiencing this problem? I imagine there are tons of HP LaserJets, and especially 2015s, on campus. We seem to have it the worst on the 2015s, though we have several 2015s that have never had the problem reported. I truly am sorry for the length of this post, and am very appreciative for any advice you may have. We're pulling out our hair on this one. Brian Hoort Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics Computer Service Michigan State University (517) 355-4701 [log in to unmask] Skype: brian_hoort