Thick paper in tray, mf254 calling for plain

[pez]

Bit of a fiddly one - we've had an MF254 (g00-x4) at a car dealership that runs an application called Power to print customer invoices and job cards for the techs. The job cards are loaded into t2, and the tray is set to Thick2 (fusing issues if not). Power is configured to send job cards to tray 2. The PCL driver correctly identifies tray2 as having Thick2 paper in the Paper Tray Information under the Configure tab, and I am able to use Reflect Device Settings in the Paper Settings for Each Tray section on the Basic tab of the Prefs.

The Power support tell me that it doesn't send any paper/media type info when printing, just the tray selection. There are no print options when selecting Print from Power, the user selects print from a menu option and the report is printed without any other user interaction.

When the user prints from Power, the job arrives at the copier which displays the "Please set paper size for 2nd Tray or select a Paper Tray. Paper A4, Plain Paper" message. The user can then select a tray to release the job.

I've been able to replicate this behaviour in Notepad - If you configure the copier in the same way (Thick2 in a tray, get the driver to reflect that), then open Notepad and go to Page Setup from the File menu - select the tray that has the thick paper in it and then attempt to print without opening the Prefs for the device - I see the same message appear on the copier. If I open the Prefs from the Print dialogue in Notepad I see Tray 2 selected, but it displays Plain Paper as the Paper Type instead of the correct Thick2 (if I open Paper Settings for Each Tray I also see that Tray 2 has Plain Paper as the Type in the Printer Driver Settings section). Something about this interaction is changing the type to plain.

Suspect that if I can figure out the combination to stop Notepad from changing the prefs t2 paper type to Plain Paper, I'll get Power working correctly.

I've tried various combinations of settings, with Paper Settings for Each Tray check box ticked and unticked under the Settings tab in the Properties, but can't seem to get the copier to send a Thick2 job to the copier without manually going back into the prefs in Notepad to change the type back to Thick2 (which is not possible in Power as it doesn't present the Prefs to the users).

Has anyone seen this type of behaviour and found a way to prevent the application/driver from changing the paper type?

[copytechtrouble]

We have the exact same machine here in our workshop and yeah I'm getting the same issue as you.
So I created a new print driver for the same machine (test printer) and set it up to pull from tray 2, Thick-2 and set to reflect device status.
In notepad if I just go to file and print (without the changing anything in page setup) and select the new test printer it works from tray 2 think-2 without issue.
Maybe that would work for you ?

[pez]

Thanks for checking this. Unfortunately the Power application is set to use t2 for these job cards, but doesn't present a Prefs window at any point from which the users could select t2 and ensure the paper type was correct.

edit: sorry, I think I misread that. Yep, I've just tested that (setting up another printer in Windows which is set to T2 Thick 2 in Basic as default) and then used that in Notepad and it works. Now to try with Power.

edit2:but then they still need to be able to print plain to t1 in Power (Power is configured to send certain reports to t1 and the job card reports to t2). If I default the driver to t2 thick 2, when changing Notepad back to t1 in Page Setup I'm seeing the driver Prefs keep the default paper type of Thick2 and only changing the tray to t1. Wondering if the reports can be configured to use different drivers.

[Synthohol]

isnt there an override/force setting for driver vs machine tray settings?
or was that in the newer models?
or was it just for the bypass?

i had a shop that their POS software prints a thick custom size postcard then an invoice in the same batch job on letter size.
problem was the software couldnt release the thick setting and wanted thick paper set for the invoice.
the letter tray was plain but had to set it to thick as well so it did not require user intervention to force the job on screen.
does their software use prescribe commands and tray calls or just windows printing?

[pez]

Power has a print management tool that allows a user to select one of the Windows printers for printing, so it looks like just Windows to me.

I've played around with the Bypass Tray Overwrite Settings for Print PC, but if I tell the copier that the bypass is thick2, and set the copier to Machine Default it still receives the Plain job and then sits there until a user manually allows the print. If set to Driver Default it prints using Plain Paper settings and doesn't fuse correctly.

Anything in the softswitches that can just ignore the media/paper type altogether from a print job and just use what the copier has in it?

[Synthohol]

not that i ran into.
when i called tech support on the shop i mentioned they said it was the software that needs to be fixed as its just printing the code as it sees it.

also i found using the actual printer preferences and ignoring application preferences sometimes works. ive seen sort (collate) cancel eachother out when set to both app and p-prefs

[copytechtrouble]

Power has a print management tool that allows a user to select one of the Windows printers for printing, so it looks like just Windows to me.

I've played around with the Bypass Tray Overwrite Settings for Print PC, but if I tell the copier that the bypass is thick2, and set the copier to Machine Default it still receives the Plain job and then sits there until a user manually allows the print. If set to Driver Default it prints using Plain Paper settings and doesn't fuse correctly.

Anything in the softswitches that can just ignore the media/paper type altogether from a print job and just use what the copier has in it?

I'm not sure if it will help you or not but SW 145 allows for some changes to the by-pass tray if it detects the wrong paper size and also SW 069 allows for the print driver to override the machine settings. they are both about paper size, not type, but SW 069 might be worth a shot?

[pez]

Thanks everyone for looking into this.

Figured it out (I think)! My default setting in the driver Preferences was always Basic/Tray: Auto and Basic/Paper Type: Plain.

As soon as I defaulted the paper type to "Not Specified" and set that as the default, Notepad allowed me to change between the trays using File/Page Setup and used the correct paper type setting for the tray. I've also tested this in Word with the Page Setup option there (file/print/Page Setup) to change the tray rather than using the driver, and that now works as well. Will apply this at the customer in the morning and report back whether it works or not.

If I click the DEFAULT button on the bottom of the Basic tab in the Preferences, it sets the paper type to PLAIN, I think that's caused my issue here.

[pez]

I can confirm that if the application doesn’t present the driver prefs, but can be configured to print to different trays, and you’ve got anything other than plain in one of those trays, then you’ll need to default to Auto tray and Not Specified as Paper Type on the Basic tab in the Prefs from the Control Panel. It looks like the default following an install is always plain.