fatmanskinny
Premium
join:2004-01-04
Wandering
 ·Comcast Digital Vo..
 ·Comcast
| HP LJ 5000 is printing random characters over many pages
A user had this issue with her LJ 5000 and I upgraded the driver from PCL 5 to PCL 6 and the issue was resolved.
Now, a few weeks later, the LJ 5K is printing random characters (only a few per page) and it prints out many pages any time she sends a print job to it. The user's print job never comes out correctly.
Any ideas?
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The Dv8or
DSLReports Forums -- The Mouse House 2.0
Premium
join:2001-08-09
Danbury, CT
clubs: | What kind of file is causing the issue? Sounds like a translation problem. I often have these issues with PDF files, but rarely Word files.
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Joe12345678
join:2003-07-22
Des Plaines, IL | reply to fatmanskinny
did you try swapping the jet direct card / try updating it's firmware? |
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cypherstream
Looking forward to the future of things.
Premium,MVM
join:2004-12-02
Reading, PA
clubs:
2 edits | reply to fatmanskinny
Did you try the post script driver?
I have some HP printers that only work across all apps with the PS driver. Some others only work with PCL 6, some PCL5e. It's a mixed bag, there's so many drivers to install.
The MS drivers
HP PCL5e
HP PCL6
HP PS
HP Universal
Both 64 and 32 bit flavors (on a Win2003 64bit file & print server)
It gets to be a little obnoxious. I have the problems like PCL6 works in Word & IE, but prints extra bold lines and really large overrun characters on excel spreadsheets & PDF's. PS Driver fixes it. I've had some printers that only printed black or white - no grayscale. Again drivers fixed that. |
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LazMan
join:2003-03-26
Angus, ON | reply to fatmanskinny
Years ago, when I used to do HP support for a local dealer; we'd see this fairly often... Mostly symbols at the top left of each page?
Trying dropping to an LJ4 driver; or check spool settings (don't know what OS your user is on...) |
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fatmanskinny
Premium
join:2004-01-04
Wandering | She is on Windows XP Pro. |
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TK Junk Mail
Go ahead, make my day
join:2006-07-30
Ocean Gate, NJ
| reply to fatmanskinny
The LJ4 driver is a good idea if it has the features you need.
Maybe delete the printer, all HP printer drivers (and especially all drivers for printers that are no longer installed), then reinstall the PCL5 driver.
Delete the printer drivers by going to the Printers & Faxes --> Make sure no printers ar highlighted --> File -> Server Properties --> Drivers tab and remove the printer drivers with the remove button.
Maybe also uninstall any HP software from Add/Remove programs if she had like an all in one that is no longer hooked up to the PC.
Maybe also rename her local Windows profile and start fresh as a last resort.
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fatmanskinny
Premium
join:2004-01-04
Wandering
·Comcast Digital Vo..
·Comcast
| Thanks TK. So far, she is good again. I did some troubleshooting per HP's site including having her perform self-test print jobs without being connected to the computer.
They all printed fine. When she reconnected the printer cable and performed test prints through Windows XP Pro, they worked fine. So something weird is going on.
She also mentioned that "printer maintenance" prompts come up on the printer display itself but was told by someone else (not sure if this was another tech) that she didn't have to worry about it for a while.
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Satan is always busy. He makes bad things look good and good things look bad! Watch that Devil. |
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TK Junk Mail
Go ahead, make my day
join:2006-07-30
Ocean Gate, NJ
2 edits | The printer maintenance message means you need a "maintenance kit" which is a new fuser unit that snaps in the back, and new paper rollers. Very easy to do. HP recommends "installing" a maitenance kit every 200,000 pages I think on the larger printers.
You can ignore it, but the longer you go the more risk of frequent paper jams and the fuser self destructing. No big deal if that happens though, but you would just need to get the new fuser from the maintenance kit installed before you can print again.
Edit: Check my blog and webpage for more helpful printing tips!
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fatmanskinny
Premium
join:2004-01-04
Wandering
·Comcast Digital Vo..
·Comcast
| said by TK Junk Mail  :Edit: Check my blog and webpage for more helpful printing tips! I will do that. Thanks again.
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Satan is always busy. He makes bad things look good and good things look bad! Watch that Devil. |
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Somnambul33t
L33t.
Premium
join:2002-12-05
Mullica Hill, NJ
clubs:
·Comcast
| reply to fatmanskinny
happens often. older 5000 series has horrible, horrible drivers. i just reset the LJ each time it does this and clear any active documents from queue and it's fine every time.
if it were a jet direct card it'd most likely spit out an error code on the lcd every now and then |
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Chet
@pacbell.net
| reply to fatmanskinny
Is this printer connected directly to the computer or is it networked? I used to have a similar problem with a LJ2100 years ago. It was networked via a parallel port print server attachment to a router and the problem would manifest itself whenever people sent print jobs to the printer without powering it (the printer) up first. Upon power up, the pages of garbage would appear and they'd power it down to attempt to fix it but to no avail. The only way to fix it would be to go into the print server setup and clear the print jobs out first, power up the printer, and resend the jobs. |
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