Printeing Slow and/or Unresponsive

[pataz]

Printing Slow and/or Unresponsive

I have a networked HP LJ4100n printer and from time to time Windows PC users complain that the print jobs come out slowly or hang all together.

Usually when this happens I go to the print server and stop and restart the print spooler service but in this case that has no effect. I can see the jobs in the queue but they just sit there.

Turns out physically power cycling the printer corrects the problem temporarily for a day or two.

I have tried loading a different driver- PCL5 and PCL6, on the server with no change.

I have tried a new cat5 cable with no change.

When I try to ping the IP of the printer I get no reply and Jet Admin doesn't see it either while this is going on. It works fine at times as well. Could the JetDirect print server be going out?

Thanks,
pataz

Any insite into this would be appreciated.

 

[Tedster]

could be caused by a variety of things.
Bad memory, bad spooler, bad drivers.....
or the printer is disconnecting itself from the server.

 

[pataz]

Thanks for the reply Tedster.

Drivers-- I have tried 2 different drivers, PCL5 and PCL6 drivers. I have tried reloading the original PCL6 driver as well.

Spooler-- I have 2 different print server computers. One has the PCL6 and the other has the PCL5 driver. All behave the same when the problem ocurrs. Can't print to or ping the printer, etc.

As far as disconnecting from the server, how do I test for this? It seems there is a disconnection from the server but at what point?

Memory-- I guess I could buy new memory... Is there any way to test this without buying new memory?

Thanks again.
pataz

 

[pataz]

I guess what I could use is if someone out there can point me in the direction of a good method or utilty to use in troublshooting printing issues that would be helpful. Hopefully I can take it from there if nothing else.

Thanks,
pataz