Printing Issue - HP CLJ 5550 - Jet Direct

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Printing Issue - HP CLJ 5550 - Jet Direct

I am attempting to print to a HP Color LaserJet 5550dtn over JetDirect. I have a MacBook Pro running OS X 10.6.4. I can add the printer without issue and it sees the toner levels without problem. When I print a test page to this print it connects, looks like it is printing, but nothing ever prints. I have looked at the print logs and it states that it connects to the printer correctly and sends the document successfully. There are other users on the network with Macs that see the same symptoms. All windows based machines can print without issue including a VM on my MacBook Pro.

Any suggestions on how to troubleshoot this?
Thanks,

MacBook Pro 17 2010, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Jun 29, 2010 6:35 PM

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Answer 1

PAHU

Level 6

16,723 points

Jun 29, 2010 9:55 PM in response to MrChambers

Hello and welcome to Apple Discussions.

One possible cause of your symptom is that the printer does not support the printer language you have selected. For example, if the printer only supported the PCL5c/PCL6 printer language and you are using a Postscript driver, then this can result in no documents printing after being successfully sent to the printer from the Mac. A config page from the printer would confirm what printer language it supports. You could also check the Test Print from one of the Windows machines to confirm this. If they are using PCL then you can change the driver being used on the Mac by opening Print & Fax, selecting the HP in the Printer list, opening Options & Supplies and then the Driver tag. In the drop list you can select "Generic PCL Laser Printer" and OK the change. Now try printing to see if you get any output.

If the machine does support Postscript then back on one of the Windows machines, open the Printers panel and highlight the HP. Then right-click and select Properties then Ports. Click the Configure Ports button and make note of whether they are RAW Port 9100 (which is HP Jetdirect-Socket on the Mac) or LPD. You can also make a note of the printers IP address being used, in case you are using the wrong address with the Mac.

Pahu

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Answer 2

MrChambers Author

Level 1

0 points

Jun 30, 2010 6:40 AM in response to PAHU

Thanks for reply.
On Windows we are printing directly to JetDirect using the HP PCL5 driver. On the mac this it is configured to print directly to JetDirect and use the built-in HP Color LaserJet 5550 v3010.107 driver. Do you know if this is using PCL or PS? I have tested the Generic PCL driver as well with the same results. We connect to this printer by name on both the mac and windows. On the mac side we see the toner levels but just can't print. That would tell me that we are connecting to it but have something wrong on how we send print jobs.
Thanks again,

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Answer 3

PAHU

Level 6

16,723 points

Jun 30, 2010 2:23 PM in response to MrChambers

MrChambers wrote:
On Windows we are printing directly to JetDirect using the HP PCL5 driver. On the mac this it is configured to print directly to JetDirect and use the built-in HP Color LaserJet 5550 v3010.107 driver. Do you know if this is using PCL or PS?

This is the PS driver.

I have tested the Generic PCL driver as well with the same results. We connect to this printer by name on both the mac and windows. On the mac side we see the toner levels but just can't print. That would tell me that we are connecting to it but have something wrong on how we send print jobs.

The Generic PCL driver should work. The toner information you are getting uses different protocols to obtain the levels but it does show you have the correct path to the printer. I would suggest that it is now just a configuration issue with the print queue you created on the Mac. The first thing to check is what protocol you selected. If you open Print & Fax and select the HP in the list, then open Options & Supplies and select the General tab, the URL will show what protocol you used. IPP can be a problem with many printers and print servers. If you are using LPD then you will need to select the correct queue name. Since it sounds like you have the JetDirect print server connected to the LJ then this would be the preferred protocol to use. This shows as socket in the URL, ex socket://ip_address.

So if you did use LPD or IPP, delete the queue and create it again, this time selecting IP > HP Jetdirect-Socket.

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