Strange problem with IP printing

shayser

I have about 20 users on a LAN IP printing to a HP laserjet.

If two or more users send a job to the printer at the same time the job doesn't conform to the printer settings.

The main setting is to print the first page to tray 3 in simplex and to print subsequent pages to tray 2 in duplex. What happens when more than one user prints is that the first page prints to tray 3 in duplex.

I've tried prioritising the individual user print jobs in the driver to put some time between the jobs (if that's what assigning priority actually does) and I've also tried printing directly to the printer.

Anyone ever come across this type of thing?

whizbang

render print jobs on client ??

platinums

if this sounds retarded i apologise, but, you have it setup for IP Printing so theres no real priority, the printer will print as its delivered.

A Print server on the other hand will act as gateway and do the correct prioritisation, therefore, print a full job in completion before heading to the next.

Small test would be to install the printer on a server and connect the 2 affected clients to it, then try your simultaneous print again.

(im taking for granted that by "LAN IP printing" you meant every PC has the printer directly connected via a Network/IP Printer Port?)

druidhill

Does the problem persist when you do it within an application for that specific print job i.e.

You have two users about to print a word document each to the printer. When you go to File -> Print and manually set the print tray behaviour on those two specific jobs to the equivalent of your main setting (print the first page to tray 3 in simplex and to print subsequent pages to tray 2 in duplex), does the unexpected behaviour still occur?

shayser

Thanks for the replies. I haven't looked at this for a couple of weeks now.

I set up the printer on a windows 2003 server and shared it. Added the shared printer to a couple of clients. I put the printer on pause, then released the documents when two jobs were cued.

Still the same problem.

There are other effects. Pages from the two jobs intermingle, occasionally. Other times, first job can print ok, i.e., first page to tray 3 in simplex, subsequent pages to tray 2 in duplex BUT the following job ignores the first-page instruction to go to tray 3. Instead it prints to tray 2 in duplex. It's like there is no separation of jobs, it just continues on from the previous job printing to tray 2 in duplex.

I updated the firmware but no change.

I also did a macro in Word to "manually" select the trays every print job.

I installed the driver twice, i.e., two separate printers in the printer folder with the same IP port. On one I told it to print to tray 3 only (called it the Letterhead Printer), the other to print to tray 2 only (called it the Plain Paper Printer. Then I created a word macro to print the first page to the Letterhead Printer and all subsequent pages to the Plain Paper Printer. No joy.

This is happening with two separate printers that are the same make and model - HP Laserjet P3005X.