Laserjet P3015 intermitent delayed printing

**walterman** · 03-28-2015

I serviced an HP LJ P3015 for a customer of mine, they called me because when they send a print job to the printer it does not always print within a timely manner. I was told by the end user that sometimes they will send a job to it and " an hour later it prints out," or if they turn it off and back on it prints out. When I went out there I performed a cold reset, reinstalled the IP info, updated the firmware, ran a ping test and cleaned up the printer, ran some test prints with the customers that were networked to it and they all printed out within an fairly quick and timely manner. I received a phone call from the customer first thing in the morning and they procedded to tell me it is doing the same thing again. I told them to call their network administrator and have him check it out and see what he comes up with, which I hate to do because at this point in time, I really don't know what else to do, and I hate to " pass the buck," I know they are using a PCL6 driver and the computers are on a Windows 7 64 bit system. I thought about changing the drivers to a PCL5 to see if that would make a difference. Any suggestions? Am I on the right track with having them call the network administrator? I have researched the issue ( Google search) and seem to have pretty much covered any suggestions.

**subaro** · 03-28-2015

This machine has a built in network nic card, which could be flaky. It also has slot for an external nic card. check the user manual and see what type of nic card it uses and you can install and monitor the machine for a few days. Is is the same type of documents it hangs on. These type of problems can be varied and lots of going back and forth. The easiest way to get this out of the way is to put in a loaner machine that you know is good and see if the problem re-occurs. what about error logs from the machine, did you print out one ?

**theengel** · 03-28-2015

The question would be, do the jobs go straight to the printer via the network? I mean, is the printer installed on the user's computer as a local printer, using a TCP/IP port, or a network printer going through a server? If it's going through a server, where the IT dept. controls the job, it's very likely an IT problem. At least, this is what I see a lot.

**subaro** · 03-28-2015

or if they turn it off and back on it prints out [ cut from original post].

Usually if the above happens, the machine losses connection and when it restarts it regains contact from the print queue and prints the files. So in this case it would be telling me that the printer is losing or dropping the connection. If on the other hand the machine was powered off and on and no print or communication, then i would be looking at the print server or computer side of issues there.
If there are other printers in that location, they can send the jobs to those to see what happens. Also check the network card speed setup, and change from auto to 10/100 full duplex or see what options are there.

**walterman** · 03-28-2015

Thank you for the insight, you all bring up some valid points. I did not print out an error page, just the config. page. I will speak with the customer on Monday, and see if the issue has been resolved via the IT department, and print out an error page. If I need to take further action you have given me some things to try, I will let you know what I come up with.

**Darren** · 03-28-2015

Hey All: I'm new to this site so if I goof up, my oppologies in advance. I've seen weird problems occur from the formatter board flakeng out due to solder failure.
This problem has probably been discussed with this model before here but if not, here is what I do when I'm fairly certain that the problem originates from the printer. In many cases, by baking the board in a 375°F oven for about 8 minutes in a cookie sheet. I support the board with pieces of wood from areas where there is no solder or components. When the 8 minutes are up, I shut off the oven and let it cool down for 15 minutes with door open before I handle the board. Obviously, do this back in shop and perhaps bring a known good board to put in it's place.

**walterman** · 03-30-2015

Thank you, Darren, I have heard of this method, however, never tried it myself.

**Wild Bill** · 03-30-2015

This is a P3015 not P3005 . P3005 are the ones with that bad formatter/solder issue. P3015 have many firmware updates. Go ahead and update the firmware. If you still have the issue change the driver to PCL5, we've had problem s with the UPDPCL6 don't know if that's the one your using.

**walterman** · 03-30-2015

Thank you, all, I went back today, called their IT dept., swapped out the patch cable,tried different ports, switched out print drivers from PCL 6 to PCL5, ran continuous pings and they would drop out. So, at this point I have ordered a formatter board and assuming that will solve our issue, I will post the results.