Ethernet cable and usb cable both connected. Why

[Hansen88]

Hello, we were at a car dealership and all their printers were connected with ethernet cables and usb cables at the same time. I am wondering why you would set up like that? Thanks for any explainations

[PrintWhisperer]

Re: Ethernet cable and usb cable both connected. Why

Car Dealership...HUGE red flag. Look for custom dealership software (Reynolds and Reynolds/ADP (now CDK).

The network channel may be highly modified including special firmware for the Dealership software and they wish for USB printing outside of the Network interface. (Assuming this USB cable goes to a single PC and not somewhere 'exotic').

Just a thought.

[copiertec]

Re: Ethernet cable and usb cable both connected. Why

It could be because of certain software they use for their printers, such a Dealer track, etc., but most of the time it works via the Ethernet. In my experience most car sales persons have no idea how a printer works and they just plug in anything to it if it does not print.

[Hansen88]

Re: Ethernet cable and usb cable both connected. Why

Car Dealership...HUGE red flag. Look for custom dealership software (Reynolds and Reynolds/ADP (now CDK).

The network channel may be highly modified including special firmware for the Dealership software and they wish for USB printing outside of the Network interface. (Assuming this USB cable goes to a single PC and not somewhere 'exotic').

Just a thought.

Thanks,This looks like what they have going on. Do you know if the special firmware can be removed? Other searches I did they were not successful in removing all traces.

[PrintWhisperer]

Re: Ethernet cable and usb cable both connected. Why

Thanks,This looks like what they have going on. Do you know if the special firmware can be removed? Other searches I did they were not successful in removing all traces.

Is there a problem with the customized unit that requires returning it to factory firmware?

Does the device have to work with special software and keep it's modified FW?

If the device is rebranded by ADP or CDK then it was sold by them and not by the manufacturer (OEM). There could be settings to prevent these 'special' machines from being used by others.

You can try to re-flash it with standard FW, worst that will happen is it will not accept it due to model coding.

[Hansen88]

Re: Ethernet cable and usb cable both connected. Why

Is there a problem with the customized unit that requires returning it to factory firmware?

Does the device have to work with special software and keep it's modified FW?

If the device is rebranded by ADP or CDK then it was sold by them and not by the manufacturer (OEM). There could be settings to prevent these 'special' machines from being used by others.

You can try to re-flash it with standard FW, worst that will happen is it will not accept it due to model coding.

The customer does not want to deal with CDK anymore and they called us in. Taking care of the printers are no problem but we never dealt with a car dealer,so this is all new. As the printers are now they will only use cdk's toner. We cant seem to even install new drivers. Says it cant see the printer even though we can ping it and also works on some drivers that are installed. May not be possible but we thought if there was a way to bring it back to a factory HP. Lot of things going on that we need to figure out. Way more than we knew when getting into this deal.

[PrintWhisperer]

Re: Ethernet cable and usb cable both connected. Why

Yes CDK customizes the device to it's own model designation so it won't be recognized for driver, toner, and other 'model dependent' things.

You can get around the driver thing by setting the Standard TCP port IP address directly (no discovery) and using any equivalent HP driver (hand select) but sometimes CDK firmware causes print command interpreter issues. (My first case was ADP rebranded Kyo printer throwing CF codes using Kyo driver) but they stopped using Kyos a few years back.

I do not know how you can get around the toner cartridge ID issues, you need an HP tech who knows toner tricks for them.

***Post on Spiceworks Printers and Scanners forum, perhaps The Repairatrooper will chime in, he is an HP expert.***

NVM, asked and answered:
Remove CDK firmware from HP 608

Looks like a dead end just as CDK intended.

[Hansen88]

Re: Ethernet cable and usb cable both connected. Why

Yes CDK customizes the device to it's own model designation so it won't be recognized for driver, toner, and other 'model dependent' things.

You can get around the driver thing by setting the Standard TCP port IP address directly (no discovery) and using any equivalent HP driver (hand select) but sometimes CDK firmware causes print command interpreter issues. (My first case was ADP rebranded Kyo printer throwing CF codes using Kyo driver) but they stopped using Kyos a few years back.

I do not know how you can get around the toner cartridge ID issues, you need an HP tech who knows toner tricks for them.

***Post on Spiceworks Printers and Scanners forum, perhaps The Repairatrooper will chime in, he is an HP expert.***

NVM, asked and answered:
Remove CDK firmware from HP 608

Looks like a dead end just as CDK intended.

Thank You for the information.