Help....M4345

[TommyH]

Not sure if this makes a difference but printers are on a Win Server 2k3 and used with an AS400. Reason I don't think this will be a problem will be explained little later. Client has had some of these without any problems. Sorry for the long post but want to be detailed as I am at a loss.

Problem is the printers (multiples with this problem, only one group of users really reporting though) are not resetting after a copy job. If a user walks up to the device and makes say 3 copies. Once the copies are done the printer will stay with the number 3 on the device. You can also just walk up to the device hit a number and printer will retain that number as the number of copies and does not reset after inactive timeout should occur. The printer also does not always print out network prints when this happens. If you walk up to the device and hit the reset button it will print the network prints then. Also noticed an occasional fax will print out with lines vs print this is why I replaced the fax module first.

I believe for some reason the device hangs and does not reset, than someone sends a print job from AS400 which gets stuck in que. Once a single job gets stuck than any other network prints would be stuck in que behind it. Not being at customer site when it first happens I don't know whats the first job in que but when I get there I know the device will not reset itself.

This seems to be an intermittent problem that if you reboot the device it goes away for a couple days than comes back. Here is what I have done in this order with a reboot on each so it appears to work fine but few days later client calls back.

-Fax module replaced.
-Checked and lowered timeout activity to lowest settings and rebooted
-Upgraded firmware
-Did a Disk INT
-Replaced the HDD
-Performed a cold reset and nvram
-replaced the formatter
-replaced the dc controller
-replaced the device with a new refurbished one(this also had same problem thought could be power related as it had same problem)
-replaced power cord
-changed outlet

At this time was thinking weird ok its happening on 2 devices has to be something with environment or this user group. Thought was to switch the printer out with another one that is around the corner (at this time nothing was reported on the other device) so figured would swap it with a good known working one. When I went to get the new device from the other department thats when they stated they have been having the same issue. I than walked around and probbed other departments with this model and noticed some are having the same issues while others are not or just not realizing it.

At this time (last friday) I have one of these models at the shop that has been working flawless for about a year now. I took this to the customer plugged it and brought the first one back to the shop. So far no complaints from the customer will be checking back today or tomorrow. However their device I brought back just started to not reset itself again. Went to leave last night and hit the number 5, it stayed with that on the screen for over 5 mins before I left. Did it again this morning and still doing the same thing, only difference is my network prints still print. Believe that with the client using AS400 one of the jobs they print is getting stuck when device does not reset from AS400 and ques up all other prints.

With everything I have done I cannot think of anything else to try. The only other thing to change would be the power supply. But thats a little bit of a job especially if I have to do it on several of them and not sure if that will resolve the issue.

Has anyone else ran into this resetting problem before or any ideas what could fix this??
Again sorry for the long post but kind of unique and wanted to detail it out. Thanks in advance.

[TommyH]

Just another thought...What about the copy processor board could this be the issue?

[otuvak]

It seems that you have done a lot to find out that it's not one area and others have noticed but just not reported. I would ask them to reload print drivers for a group and check if there is a update for the as400. I am not a network guy but just reading this that's where I lean towards. I have never seen this problem but don't work a whole lot on this machine. Just an idea to try if you have not thought of it! Good luck and please post if you find an answer!

[TommyH]

Ya thats what I was thinking was network, driver related until the last step. I brought back one of their printers to the shop and it did the same thing with it not resetting after it should for timeout inactivity. So its completely off the network and not resetting. So far a for sure good known working device was up for a year at another location with no issues has been working fine for them for a week now.

Will def post up what I find out.

[bilyahn]

Have you tried to reload or update the firmware? HP is pretty good with firmware releases that anyone can get. Have not worked on this machine yet but have had to update firmware on other HP's to resolve some off the wall issues.

Good luck.

Bil

Sorry you have done this already!!!!! Would like to know what the resolution is though.

[TommyH]

I am waiting on a new formatter directly from hp to test out. Its possible the refurb formatter I got to put in the device in the first few steps was bad. So trying band new parts in same order, with hopes that something resolves it.

[faxman28]

The op panel reset time, might br controlled by the op panel. That looks like the only thing you hadn't replaced. HP tech support web site didn't have anything for m4345 or 4345 on this issue.

[TommyH]

I forgot that one...I did replace the control panel prior to swapping out the new printer, with all that I have done I thought listed it all but didn't.

An update on my situation with this. I received a brand new formatter from HP and installed it into the questionable printer this past Friday. So far it has had no problems while I have had it. I am leaving it up for at least a week to make sure as thats about the longest it took for the end users to report the problem.

The formatter that came out of the questionable printer that I brought back, I put into another M4345 (has not been installed anywhere yet, refurb device). This was done yesterday but no problems to report with this device and the questionable formatter. Being I just did this yesterday its still a little early to tell. Should know more by begin of next week on whether this formatter has issues in this device.

If it does not have issues than I am at a complete and total state of confusion. As (printer a) was not resetting itself, but with new formatter it works fine. And (printer b) is working fine with (printer a's) formatter...I really hope (printer b) shows the same problem as (printer a) did with this formatter as that would confirm it was formatter...otherwise we will be going out back.

As for the new M4345 I put at the clients location last Monday (this device was in our office for 3 years without any issues). I checked with client today and again they report they have to hit the reset button in order to get the network prints to print out. So I am really starting to think its something with the AS400 or a setting. My theory is something is printed from AS400 and for what ever reason it is hangging the printer up. This causes rest of print jobs to also get stuck in que. For some reason when you hit reset on the printer, it becomes responsive than will print all the jobs that were stuck in que.

The other hard problem is that the AS400 is set company wide and we have these printers at other locations. But these other locations are printing fine. Once I know more about the printer I have brought whether new formatter fixes it or if questionable formatter works in the other device I than can saw for certain its something on their network or software side. That will remove me and the printers from the loop.

[faxman28]

check this setting, this was added on the december firmware release. also check the error log to see if there are any 49.xx errors.

the alternate setting for the stop button describes your problem partly.

The following new functionality or features are provided by this firmware release: (Datecode: 20101206 48.171.5)

Base:

• When synchronizing with a network time server, the printer clock now copies the actual time from the server. Previously it only corrected for drift within a small time range
• The number of user-defined media types is increased from 5 to 20
• The behavior of the Stop button is now configurable. In the Settings/Device Behavior/Reset menu you can now select "Default" or "Alternate". "Default" maintains previous functionality: Pressing the Stop button pauses the MFP, and the user must select "OK" from the Resume control panel display to get back to READY. When "Alternate" is selected the MFP will go back to READY when the Reset button is pressed, or when the Inactivity Timeout expires

[TommyH]

Ok, I remoted into the printers to check the event logs again. There is no errors in the event log except for a traditional 30.01 jam in adf. For the Stop button setting, they are set to default on all devices. So I would think they would be working the same as they would have prior to any firmware updates.

This problem has been going on since the device was installed in Dec. It was brought to our attention around begin of March end of Feb. I want to say when the printer was installed they had the Sept FW datecode on them but will have to check. From the event log it looks like the FW around time of install was 48.150.3 going by the other devices that was installed around that time.

The IS dept reinstalled the print driver today and going to give a few days to see how it goes. I can try to change the stop button to alternate if driver install does not help. Trying to get end users also to find out when this happens what was done before to maybe get a trigger for this event.

[TommyH]

Had the IS dept rebuild the drivers for the first department that reported the issue. It appears the problem went away but now its slow to print PDF's. They are using the PCL6 driver for the M4345.

To be sure of this we asked them to rebuild the driver for the other printer that was also reporting this issue. Has not been done yet but this will help confirm if rebuilding the driver corrected the reset issue.

[DaveS]

M4345 Reset

Hi.

I have read your thread and I have exactly the same issue at my place of work.
I have 2 4345 MFP running on a W2K3 Print server. Both units require resets to continue printing. We have tried everyrthing you have described to no avail. I have loaded drivers that came with the device and drivers from the HP site with no results.
The only thing I have not tried is run the print services on a networked PC to see if the server is the cause. Long shot I know but I am all out of options. Did you ever get to the bottom of this?

[TommyH]

Hi.

I have read your thread and I have exactly the same issue at my place of work.
I have 2 4345 MFP running on a W2K3 Print server. Both units require resets to continue printing. We have tried everyrthing you have described to no avail. I have loaded drivers that came with the device and drivers from the HP site with no results.
The only thing I have not tried is run the print services on a networked PC to see if the server is the cause. Long shot I know but I am all out of options. Did you ever get to the bottom of this?

As of 5/5/2011 the users reported that the reset button was no longer having to be hit to continue print. This was after the IS dept rebuilt the driver for this printer on the server. We asked the IS dept to also do this with another printer they had that was having the same problems but this has not been done yet. If it worked on this other printer than this might be a solution for us in their environment, not sure if it will work across the board thought.

Something we were going to try but did not do b/c the issue seemed to be fixed with the rebuilt driver. Might be something you could try. Install the printer as a TCP/IP printer on a workstation so that it does not go through the print server when you print to it. As soon as the users notice the problem before they hit reset have them (or IS whoever has the printer installed as TCP/IP) send a print job to the printer and see if it prints. If it prints than would think it would rule out the printer and point you maybe towards server, driver, spooler, network, etc. If it doesn't print I wouldn't say it would rule these out but doing this might help point in a better direction.

Also I have read of people downgrading the firmware at times. I have never done this and don't know if you can run into problems. I don't have any older versions of firmware to try to downgrade it with. Plan to start saving all my FW downloads going forward though.

Something else to note, after taking 2 of the device off of their network that were having this issue. Doing a NVRAM/Cold reset to them they appear to be working fine in my office.

[DaveS]

I have some Reps coming in today to discuss this issue further. I am internested in How your IS Dept rebuilt the driver, is there any details how this was done or better yet could a copy of the driver be emailed to me for testing?
I have also requested the firmware for downgrade from the vendor so I am waiting for this. At this stage I will attempt anything to see if it cures this problematic issue.

[TommyH]

By rebuilding I meant they vary it off in the AS400, removed it from the workstations so it was not on or networked to any computers, than uninstalled the printer from the server. Once the printer is removed he uninstalled the print driver from the server than reinstalled. I was under the impression that the driver that was used was the current one from HP.

It turns out it was an older version that he reinstalled. He stated it was a version of the M4345 driver from 2006 that he had on the server. So when he reinstalled the printer on the server this time he used this driver. The driver version is "HP LaserJet M4345 MFP PCL6 (60.53.644.0)" Maybe you can try to find this version and install it. I tried to do a google search but didn't come up with much unless I searched with the term "HP m4345 2006 driver" and I found this Hewlett-Packard LaserJet M4345 MFP Driver Download but not sure what version it is or if its a trust worthy place to download from.

Let us know any updates.