I DON'T WANT MY USERS SEEING SUPPLIES LEVELS! (SCREAMING CAPS intentional! :-)

[BWB8771]

I have spent waaayyy too much time researching how to keep the end users on my small Active Directory domain from seeing "low" toner levels. As a testament to HP's genius, these alerts are responsible for end users changing toner cartridges prematurely. Helps-out HP, but wastes our money. I could live with the occasional wasted toner, it's the users calling emailing me to "let me know" the toner is "low".

As I understand my predicament, I will probably have to undo all my server shares/sharing of the HP printers, since I installed the printers with the full HP drivers, which makes it impossible for me to turn off SNMP on the printers now.

I have attempted to disable the notifications via the methods provided in the pop-up alert windows on each workstation, but my/the de-selected notifications reappear seemingly the moment I turn the corner.

I'm hoping someone know a way to keep me from deleting all the printers off the print server, and then adding them back after I've disabled SNMP on the printers. I fully understand there may/will be loss of some functionality and features, but I'm thinking we can probably manage.

The two workgroup printer models I would primarily like to find workarounds for are the 4730 and 4540 (both MFP types).

HELP!

[rthonpm]

You just have to love HP's strategy of adding a consumer feature to a business machine. Instead of deleting the drivers off the server, go into the port settings and choose Configure Port. From there you can turn off the driver's SMNP setting. Then just cover yourself and turn off the service on the MFP. The only thing you lose is the ability to get status reports with this turned off, no other features should be affected.

From there, if your server is configured correctly, the client workstations should pull the new setting the next time they go to print.

[BWB8771]

Thank you thank you thank you... and that's BEFORE I find out if your solution is my answer.

I promise to post back what kind of mileage I got! :-)

[aab1]

On my HP CLJ CM3530 you can specify what % remaining is considered "low". Perhaps set the "low" threshold to 0 or 1 percent?

[BWB8771]

I did just that (1%) but we are, for the most part, "paperless" so we only print about 40-100 pages per day, so that 1% will last us quite a while - just long enough to drive someone to prematurely replace the toner cartridge(s) just to shut up the alerts! BRILLIANT, HP! Just freakin' BRILLIANT! No, really, that was a stroke of genius.. but, apparently, HP never ran with a serious/professional focus group before going worldwide with some employee's suggestion-of-the-month (-year/-decade).

[rthonpm]

HP really makes no distinction anymore between a business use device and a home consumer device. That strategy has led to a lowest common denominator strategy of dumbing down their higher end products. Obviously, in most professional environments you don't need everyone from the CEO to the interns knowing toner status, or to receive prompts for them.

At one time, HP was the leader in printers. Now they're no better than a Brother or Samsung or any other commodity based brand.

[BWB8771]

This worked beautifully!

You just have to love HP's strategy of adding a consumer feature to a business machine. Instead of deleting the drivers off the server, go into the port settings and choose Configure Port. From there you can turn off the driver's SMNP setting. Then just cover yourself and turn off the service on the MFP. The only thing you lose is the ability to get status reports with this turned off, no other features should be affected.

From there, if your server is configured correctly, the client workstations should pull the new setting the next time they go to print.