HP2600 locks up when printing multiple copies

[lsronline]

I have an HP 2600 in our office that sometimes locks up when setting the "Number of Copies" to anything greater than 1. The first copy will generally print but the printer then locks up. I have also experienced this when multiple users have tried to print at the same time. All users print through a LAN.

The fix has been to have the users clear their print que and reboot the printer. Then try printing again.

When the printer is locked up it doesn't display any error messages and appears to be idle. The print que shows that the document is printing.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Chris Hanna

 

[LawnBoy]

I'd suggest you use a print server. Having multiple users directly connecting to the same printer can cause all kinds of weird problems.

 

[hpwizzard]

Since this printer uses a host based driver rutine it is not that well suitable of handling any large jobs or a significant amount of jobs from different PC's without putting a heavy load on those. If just one of those clients has problems because of a complex job being sent (typically PDF or graphics), lack of memory or a incorrect driver setting, the printer itself will halt until that job is finished or cancelled.

Is there any pattern in what kind of document causes the printer to lock up ? Remember the printer does not support real PCL commands or direct PS printing.
Try to disconnect/disable printing from some of the PC's to see if the occourence of the problem lowers.

 

[lsronline]

hpwizzard,
A majority of the printing is actually PDF documents so you are probably on the right track. There only 4 users in the office and the problem doesn't seem specific to one computer. Can you think of any tweaks on the client side that would make printing a little less stressfull.

I'm also wondering if another complicating factor may be that we also spend most of our day connected to our HQ via VPN. Is the additional PPTP overhead a problem? Just a thought.

Thanks for your responses.

 

[hpwizzard]

If you are worried about the connectivity via VPN you could increase the time out settings on the printer so it would act more "patient" towards eventual dropouts in the connection or a few lost packages (Check the network config page of printer to see if that is an issue).
Since you mention .PDF documents is often being printed, try using another appliction to print from (I have seen Adobe's Acrobat Reader causing weird printer lag before)
Not advertising too much... Id say you could try printing from an alternate .PDF reader like Fox reader (

http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php).

The application prints and view .PDF files much faster than Adobe's own applications.