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:
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
Skype: brian_hoort