HP Laserjet P4014 Stopped – ‘Filter’ failed

Question

HP Laserjet P4014 Stopped – ‘Filter’ failed

I’ve seen discussion of this for other printers and versions of OS X. Has anyone seen this on 10.9.5 and, better still, solved it?

If I try to print to a networked HP Laserjet P4014, the print queue gives up with the message

Stopped – ‘Filter’ failed

Things I have tried so far:

downloading new HP driver software
resetting the printing system
changing the computer network name
rebooting

The only effect of all this so far is having to put back the printer’s network name and password.

At best, I get 1 page printed, followed by a Postscript error.

The only workaround so far: print to PDF and print the PDF from a Linux machine.

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

Posted on Oct 14, 2014 4:59 AM

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Answer 1

greg sahli

Level 7

25,508 points

Oct 14, 2014 6:03 AM in response to Philip Machanick

You should try some generic maintenance - Startup in Recovery mode, and use disk utility to repair the hard drive and also repair permissions:

OS X: About OS X Recovery

(Please just read the first paragraph -- Don't reinstall OS X now.)

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Answer 2

Oct 14, 2014 7:04 AM in response to greg sahli

I checked the disk for repairs without going to Recovery mode, then fixed permissions and a lot of permissions were wrong in Library/Printers so that was a promising start.

Something new since I did this last – you can ask to repair the disk in normal boot mode.

But still, same message after doing all that. Any other ideas? I could I suppose go to Recovery mode or reboot, though I don’t know how that will change things. I like to work with a solid theory of what I am doing.

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Answer 3

greg sahli

Level 7

25,508 points

Oct 14, 2014 10:15 AM in response to Philip Machanick

You can't do a 100% repair unless you're booted from some other drive or partition. We used to have the install DVD for that. Now we use Recovery partition. Of course, if you have another bootable hard drive, you can use that.

As for the printer, time to go to HP for assistance.

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Answer 4

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Oct 14, 2014 3:04 PM in response to Philip Machanick

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.

Select

/var/log ▹ cups ▹ error_log

from the hierarchical list on the left side of the Console window. If you don't see that list, select

View ▹ Show Log List

from the menu bar.

Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Select the messages from the time of the last failed printing attempt. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message (command-V).

If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don’t post many repetitions of the same message.

☞ The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of it useless for solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.

Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.

Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.

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Answer 5

Oct 15, 2014 3:06 AM in response to Linc Davis

As far as I can tell the critical thing is an RPC error. I trimmed quite a lot – I am not sure how informative this all is. I meantime also sent a tcpdump and sysdiagnose output to Apple via bug reporter so let’s see if they come up with something.

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] 3 filters for job:

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] cgpdftops (application/pdf to application/postscript, cost 25)

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] pstops (application/postscript to application/vnd.cups-postscript, cost 66)

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] /Library/Printers/hp/filter/hpPostProcessing.bundle/Contents/MacOS/hpPostProces sing (application/vnd.cups-postscript to printer/StaffMinor, cost 0)

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] argv[6]="/private/var/spool/cups/d00021-001"

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] envp[12]="SOFTWARE=CUPS/1.7.2"

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] Looking up "print.ict.ru.ac.za"...

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] STATE: -connecting-to-device

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] Connected to printer...

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] Set job-printer-state-message to "Connected to printer...", current level=INFO

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] job id is 30...

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] Sending print data...

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] Set job-printer-state-message to "Sending print data...", current level=INFO

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] cgpdftops - using PPD file "/private/etc/cups/ppd/StaffMinor.ppd"...

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] PS Matching Mode = AP_ApplicationColorMatching

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] cgpdftops - languageLevel = 3, mediaBox.size.width = 595, mediaBox.size.height = 842

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] cgpdftops - documentMediaBox.size.width = 595, documentMediaBox.size.height = 842

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] Page = 595x842; 12,12 to 583,830

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] slow_collate=0, slow_duplex=0, slow_order=0

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] Before copy_comments - %!PS-Adobe-3.0

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] %!PS-Adobe-3.0

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] PID 38050 (/usr/libexec/cups/filter/cgpdftops) exited with no errors.

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] Wrote 4 pages...

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] Calling processor PageCounting before line %%Page: 4 4

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] PID 38051 (/usr/libexec/cups/filter/pstops) exited with no errors.

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] Calling processor PageScanning before line %%Trailer

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] Final number of pages = 4

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] Pages per copy = 4

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] Allowing document iterator to handle job termination...

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] Pre-processing tasks

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] Current page number is 4

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] Calling processor PageAccounting after line %%Page: 4 4

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] PAGE: 4 1

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] rpc_write_printer: RPC error 0x16c9a036

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] RpcWritePrinter error -1!

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] Cleaning up printer-state-reasons...

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] STATE: -apple-job-blocked,job-completed-successfully,job-canceled-at-device,processing -to-stop-point,apple-job-error,offline-report,media-needed-warning,paused-report ,job-completed-successfully,job-printing,apple-job-restart,job-incoming,apple-jo b-intervention,apple-printer-busy,door-open-warning,apple-printer-errorstate,app le-printer-warming-up,apple-printer-active,apple-printer-manual-feed,apple-print er-unavailable,marker-supply-empty-report,offline-report,output-area-full-report ,interpreter-resource-unavailable-warning,apple-printer-page-punt,media-jam-warn ing,media-empty-warning,media-jam-warning,paused-report,apple-printer-deleting,a pple-printer-lowpower,apple-printer-printing,apple-printer-processing,offline-re port,apple-printer-unknown,toner-low-report,apple-printer-intervention,apple-pri nter-waiting,apple-printer-warming-up

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] Aborting print job

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] rpc_abort_printer: RPC error 0x16c9a060

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] rpc_close_printer: RPC error 0x16c9a060

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] Ready to print.

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] Set job-printer-state-message to "Ready to print.", current level=INFO

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] smb backend (PID=38058) exited with no errors

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] smb backend will exit with status 0

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] PID 38052 (/Library/Printers/hp/filter/hpPostProcessing.bundle/Contents/MacOS/hpPostProce ssing) stopped with status 1.

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] Hint: Try setting the LogLevel to "debug" to find out more.

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] End of messages

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] printer-state=3(idle)

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] printer-state-message="Filter failed"

D [15/Oct/2014:11:39:44 +0200] [Job 21] printer-state-reasons=none

E [15/Oct/2014:11:44:45 +0200] [Job 21] Stopping unresponsive job.

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Answer 6

greg sahli

Level 7

25,508 points

Oct 15, 2014 6:24 AM in response to Philip Machanick

Philip - I forgot to ask you which comm protocol are you using to Add the printer in Print & Scan prefs?

Delete and re-add, this time use IP > HP Jetdirect protocol. This could work, or at least be useful for troubleshooting.

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Answer 7

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Oct 15, 2014 6:29 AM in response to Philip Machanick

Do you have more than one Mac client, and if so, is it the same on all?

Does the printer work when connected to USB?

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Answer 8

Oct 15, 2014 6:33 AM in response to greg sahli

I had a quick try but as I guessed this did not work because the printer operates off an SMB server (set up using IP/IPP).

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Answer 9

Oct 15, 2014 6:35 AM in response to Linc Davis

The printer works off an SMB server, and works fine from Linux, and no one else in the building is complaining. It worked fine before 10.9.5 (or more correctly, before 10.9 – but I am not sure if I used it between 10.9 and the upgrade since I was travelling).

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Answer 10

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Oct 15, 2014 7:23 AM in response to Philip Machanick

Please read this whole message before doing anything.

This procedure is a diagnostic test. It’s unlikely to solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.

The purpose of the test is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party software that loads automatically at startup or login, by a peripheral device, by a font conflict, or by corruption of the file system or of certain system caches.

Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards, if applicable. Start up in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem. You must hold down the shift key twice: once when you turn on the computer, and again when you log in.

Note: If FileVault is enabled, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is a software RAID, you can’t do this. Ask for further instructions.

Safe mode is much slower to start up and run than normal, with limited graphics performance, and some things won’t work at all, including sound output and Wi-Fi on certain models. The next normal startup may also be somewhat slow.

The login screen appears even if you usually login automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.

Test while in safe mode. Same problem?

After testing, restart as usual (not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of the test.

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Answer 11

Oct 16, 2014 5:55 AM in response to Linc Davis

Testing in safe mode has exactly the same effect. Thanks.

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Answer 12

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Oct 16, 2014 6:50 AM in response to Philip Machanick

You say no one else is complaining, but are there any other Mac clients? Any running 10.9.5? Has this setup ever worked?

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Answer 13

Oct 16, 2014 7:10 AM in response to Linc Davis

I don’t think anyone else in the building is running 10.9.5. Not a very big Mac location. This setup worked before up to 10.8.x and still works with my Linux machine, so it looks like a bad interaction between HP drivers and Mac OS. I will try it at home at some point where I have a completely different printer, and also check if it works.

As another data point, another HP printer on the same server I now find has the same issue (Laserjet 500 Color M551).

I also tried installing both using IPP as well as finding them as Windows printers with the same result.

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Answer 14

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Oct 16, 2014 7:29 AM in response to Philip Machanick

This seems to be an issue that would be better addressed with HP tech support or in its user forums.

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Answer 15

Oct 16, 2014 8:22 AM in response to Linc Davis

Thanks for all the ideas. I have filed a bug report with Apple too. I will report back if I solve the problem. Meanwhile I will stay with 10.8.5 on other Macs for now.

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