HP ColorLaserJet 3700 Spewing Pages

[Kyle Stedman]

Hi,

We run 3 HP Color LaserJet 3700 printers. One of them tends to just spit
out pages until the tray is empty, after it receives a job. It doesn't
appear to be any specific app that does this, it just happens randomly, but
frequently (not every time).

We tried PCL and PS drivers, no difference.

Anyone know what might cause this?

Thanks,
Kyle

 

[Tony]

Kyle
Every time I have seen this behaviour in a printer it has been driver related,
I am sure there are other causes but not in my experience.
Do you have more than one driver loaded for this printer?
If so, I suggest you uninstall them all and re-install whichever driver works
OK for the other 2 printers. When uninstalling, do not delete the printer from
the control panel/printers, but use the uninstall routine from HP or from Add
Remove programs (I am assuming you are using a Windows OS). Also flush the
print queue before you do this. If that does not work, search the HP website
for a utility that removes driver remnants, this is a problem with some HP
drivers (not sure whether this printer is affected or not). You can usually
find this in the FAQ section of the relevant printer support page.
Tony

 

[Kyle Stedman]

Thanks Tony.

Should I more likely be concerned about the server-side drivers? (Sorry,
I realize my info below wasn't comprehensive).

This printer has "spewed" when a number of different clients have
printed to it (20 clients have the ability to print to it). Drivers are
uniform in version between the Windows 2000 clients, and the server
running Server 2003. We first tried the PCL drivers, which spewed. Then
switched to PS drivers, which have spewed as well.

Should I uninstall and re-install all server-side drivers for this
printer? Do you recommend PCL or PS?

The other 2 networked 3700s in the building are on PCL drivers, as are
their clients.

Thanks,
Kyle

 

[Tony]

Kyle
If the problem occurs with more than one client as you say then I would be
suspicious of the server drivers.
I would uninstall all printer drivers on that server.
It is important to be absolutely sure that there are no driver remnants or
pointers anywhere in the registry and you may need to get an IT person to look
at that. Then re-install one driver at a time, testing between each install.
I am not the right person to advise between PCL and PS but if the other servers
are OK with PCL I would stick to that. One point to note is that HP will often
recommend using PCL5 rather than PCL6 if you are having driver issues, they
have said to me on many occasions that PCL5 is more stable than PCL6 (that may
be old information and they may have updated PCL6, I do not want to denigrate
HP for whom I have a high regard).
Tony

 

[Kyle Stedman]

Thanks Tony, your advice and pointers are greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,
Kyle

 

[me]

Kyle
If the problem occurs with more than one client as you say then I would be
suspicious of the server drivers.
I would uninstall all printer drivers on that server.
It is important to be absolutely sure that there are no driver remnants or
pointers anywhere in the registry and you may need to get an IT person to look
at that. Then re-install one driver at a time, testing between each install.
I am not the right person to advise between PCL and PS but if the other
servers
are OK with PCL I would stick to that. One point to note is that HP will often
recommend using PCL5 rather than PCL6 if you are having driver issues, they
have said to me on many occasions that PCL5 is more stable than PCL6 (that may
be old information and they may have updated PCL6, I do not want to denigrate
HP for whom I have a high regard).
Tony

I may be barking up the wrong tree, but it wouldn't do any harm - have
you tried changing the cable? The driver issue is probably more likely.
I used to have two printers sharing a parallel port with a manual
switch, and if you forgot to change it you got pages and pages of
nonsence.