Brother MFC 8840DM Spurious Failed To Print Message

[colin.nelson]

Here is a frustrating problem. We have a Brother MFC 8840DN attached
directly to our network which has a Linux server at the heart of it.
The PC's on the network run Microsoft Windows XP Professional.

The printer was set up using a local TCP/IP port with a URL and the
supplied Brother Driver Distribution Tool was used to install the
printers on the PC's requiring it.

All seemed well until, for reasons unknown (i.e., we cannot pinpoint a
particular time or change to trigger it) users started getting an error
message "Document has failed to print" appearing in a balloon by the
systray. However, the documents *do* print in each case. Updating the
driver to the latest version did not resolve the problem.

I brought this to the attention of our hardware provider who could not
think of a solution, so I brought it to the attention of Brother
themselves. Their technician instructed me to set up ports as local
TCP/IP with the IP address of the printer. The message persists still.

And so I bring my cause to the Google Groupers of the World in a bid to
definitively address the issue.

 

[plew]

Here is a frustrating problem. We have a Brother MFC 8840DN attached
directly to our network which has a Linux server at the heart of it.
The PC's on the network run Microsoft Windows XP Professional.

The printer was set up using a local TCP/IP port with a URL and the
supplied Brother Driver Distribution Tool was used to install the
printers on the PC's requiring it.

All seemed well until, for reasons unknown (i.e., we cannot pinpoint a
particular time or change to trigger it) users started getting an error
message "Document has failed to print" appearing in a balloon by the
systray. However, the documents *do* print in each case. Updating the
driver to the latest version did not resolve the problem.

I brought this to the attention of our hardware provider who could not
think of a solution, so I brought it to the attention of Brother
themselves. Their technician instructed me to set up ports as local
TCP/IP with the IP address of the printer. The message persists still.

And so I bring my cause to the Google Groupers of the World in a bid to
definitively address the issue.

The printer was in sleep mode & didn't wake-up in time? I've had the
"failed failed to print" when I didn't turn-on the printer earlier enuf
but the computer just tries again around 1 min later, depending on what
the printer driver/os is set at.

Could also be a loose cable or something like that?

 

[Tony]

Here is a frustrating problem. We have a Brother MFC 8840DN attached
directly to our network which has a Linux server at the heart of it.
The PC's on the network run Microsoft Windows XP Professional.

The printer was set up using a local TCP/IP port with a URL and the
supplied Brother Driver Distribution Tool was used to install the
printers on the PC's requiring it.

All seemed well until, for reasons unknown (i.e., we cannot pinpoint a
particular time or change to trigger it) users started getting an error
message "Document has failed to print" appearing in a balloon by the
systray. However, the documents *do* print in each case. Updating the
driver to the latest version did not resolve the problem.

I brought this to the attention of our hardware provider who could not
think of a solution, so I brought it to the attention of Brother
themselves. Their technician instructed me to set up ports as local
TCP/IP with the IP address of the printer. The message persists still.

And so I bring my cause to the Google Groupers of the World in a bid to
definitively address the issue.

Not sure of your system configuration but are you able to do a test by directly
connecting the printer to one user PC?
If this works without the error then you do not have a printer hardware problem
and probably not a printer driver problem. That would mean it is a server
related issue.
At least you would then know which type of expertise to seek.
Tony

 

[plew]

Not sure of your system configuration but are you able to do a test by directly
connecting the printer to one user PC?
If this works without the error then you do not have a printer hardware problem
and probably not a printer driver problem. That would mean it is a server
related issue.
At least you would then know which type of expertise to seek.
Tony

Another problem may be the queue size on the printer, if any. If
more than 1 person is sending printjobs at about the same time,
someone has to wait; and if the printer queue for each computer
is on the local computer with no queue at the printer itself,
an error would probably popup as there would be no response from
the printer regarding the 2nd printjob.

My Brother 5250dn is directly connected onto the network with
each pc having its own local print queue; there is just me,
a desktop & a laptop with only 1 computer being used at any time.
The 5250dn doc says I can setup a some printer ram for a
printqueue at the printer. The OP need to check the manual for
his printer.

 

[Tony]

Another problem may be the queue size on the printer, if any. If
more than 1 person is sending printjobs at about the same time,
someone has to wait; and if the printer queue for each computer
is on the local computer with no queue at the printer itself,
an error would probably popup as there would be no response from
the printer regarding the 2nd printjob.

My Brother 5250dn is directly connected onto the network with
each pc having its own local print queue; there is just me,
a desktop & a laptop with only 1 computer being used at any time.
The 5250dn doc says I can setup a some printer ram for a
printqueue at the printer. The OP need to check the manual for
his printer.

The OP said that the print jobs are successful, so the printer is printing
correctly. That means the print queue and spooler are working properly,
managing tasks for the printer.
I am not aware of any printer that has an internal queue but I imagine that is
possible, that really means it is acting as its own server I guess. The more I
think about this problem the more I am convinced this is a server issue and my
lack of Linux knowledge prevents me from going further.
Tony

 

[me]

I am not aware of any printer that has an internal queue but I imagine that is
possible, that really means it is acting as its own server I guess.

I doubt the machine in question does, but certainly some come with built
in hard disks to store jobs, so presumably they can run a print queue
from there.

 

[me]

I doubt the machine in question does, but certainly some come with
built in hard disks to store jobs, so presumably they can run a print
queue from there.

Following up to myself, having had a quick look at Brother's website,
and the network guide, and the brochure for the machine, when it does
this, is there a queue of jobs piling up? If so where are they piling
up, in the printer's memory, on the linux server you mentioned?

Another thought is that the computer could just be giving the error on a
timeout basis, ie if it doesn't get a report from the printer that it
has printed within x seconds it will bung up the error message. This
could well happen whilst a job is sitting in the queue waiting for its
go. If so you could extend the timeout settings to prevent this. Buried
amongst the printer setting for my machine there is a printer timeout
setting which is currently set at 300 seconds. XP allows me to increase
this to 32767 seconds, which is probably longer than you need!

If the print queue is being stored on the printer and is backing up, you
can increase its memory, according to the manual you can shove an extra
128 meg ram into it, which should be enough for quite a few black and
white documents.

It reminds me of being at college, before printing something you would
interrogate the printer and see how long its queue was, and sometimes it
was quicker to send the job to a printer in another building or
department, and then go for a wander across campus to find it!


Anyway, what do you think of the machine, how is its build quality and
running costs etc? Its unlikely that anyone can tell us much yet but
they've turned up with a MFC-9420CN which is a similar machine but a
colour laser, which looks like its going to be around £500, so quite a
bit less than other colour laser all in ones.

 

[plew]

Following up to myself, having had a quick look at Brother's website,
and the network guide, and the brochure for the machine, when it does
this, is there a queue of jobs piling up? If so where are they piling
up, in the printer's memory, on the linux server you mentioned?

Another thought is that the computer could just be giving the error on a
timeout basis, ie if it doesn't get a report from the printer that it
has printed within x seconds it will bung up the error message. This
could well happen whilst a job is sitting in the queue waiting for its
go. If so you could extend the timeout settings to prevent this. Buried
amongst the printer setting for my machine there is a printer timeout
setting which is currently set at 300 seconds. XP allows me to increase
this to 32767 seconds, which is probably longer than you need!

If the print queue is being stored on the printer and is backing up, you
can increase its memory, according to the manual you can shove an extra
128 meg ram into it, which should be enough for quite a few black and
white documents.

It reminds me of being at college, before printing something you would
interrogate the printer and see how long its queue was, and sometimes it
was quicker to send the job to a printer in another building or
department, and then go for a wander across campus to find it!


Anyway, what do you think of the machine, how is its build quality and
running costs etc? Its unlikely that anyone can tell us much yet but
they've turned up with a MFC-9420CN which is a similar machine but a
colour laser, which looks like its going to be around £500, so quite a
bit less than other colour laser all in ones.

The printer setup for each windows computer should be checked on whether
the printer is using a local queue on its computer. Prior to my getting
the Brother mono laser, I had a HP 5mp which was connected to my router's
parallel printer port; the print queue is local as the router didn't have
any ram or server for a printer queue. When I sent something to be printed,
& didn't have the printer turned prior to sending the material, windows
would show a "not being able to print" icon on the systray; eventually
the material GETS PRINTED after the HP 5mp is warmed up & ready to print.

My impression is that the local computer does a retry of printing for the
time period as per the windows setup; this also includes the number of
attempts.

 

[Tony]

The printer setup for each windows computer should be checked on whether
the printer is using a local queue on its computer. Prior to my getting
the Brother mono laser, I had a HP 5mp which was connected to my router's
parallel printer port; the print queue is local as the router didn't have
any ram or server for a printer queue. When I sent something to be printed,
& didn't have the printer turned prior to sending the material, windows
would show a "not being able to print" icon on the systray; eventually
the material GETS PRINTED after the HP 5mp is warmed up & ready to print.

My impression is that the local computer does a retry of printing for the
time period as per the windows setup; this also includes the number of
attempts.

I think that you and Timothy are probably correct, the timeout needs to be
changed on either the server and/or on all of the client PC's. It is well worth
doing that to see what happens.
Tony