Extra Pages Inserted When Printing Multiple Pages, When printing multi-page docs or >=2 pages selected from FOC insert Options

[Mark_Henigan]

When printing multi-page docs (e.g., faxes0 or two or more pages selected from FOC, a blank page is inserted followed by a page with

/// start of quoted material ///
"
@PJL SET COPIES=1
@PJL SET RESOLUTION=600
@PJL SET RET=MEDIUM
@PJL SET ECONOMOD
//// end of quoted material ////

clearly referencing the HP Printer Job Language, after which the first page selected is printed, then repeating the pattern for each page selected, i.e.,

[blank] [PJL page] [page 1] [blank] [PJL page] [page 2] [blank] [PJL page] [page 3]...[last page].

This started happening at least a couple of years ago. I cannot pinpoint the date. It occurs with HPLJ 5L and HPLJ 6L but not with the HP Photosmart 8050 using the HPDJ 895C driver, all of which are from the LASERJET.HP and OMNI.HP drivers that come with eCS. I have several of these printers and depend on them.

I do not select separator pages. Most of the images are TIFFs, but not all.

This is important to me because I must either waste time selecting and printing each page separately, or paper and time printing as I would have previously, then removing the extra pages. Since I use PMView daily for a considerable amount of my work and need to be able to print directories of images, this change in behavior has created problems for me in work efficiency.

So far as I am aware, there has been no substantial change in the drivers in many years leading me to wonder whether there has been an inadvertant change in PMView that has led to this problem. I just installed PMView v 3.61 and see no change.

BTW, I am pleased to see the copy and move selection boxes being sizable, even if I still can't delete unused directories from their lists. [

Any thoughts?

- Mark

Mark Henigan

[Peter]

I'm not aware of a problem like this.

Did the problem happen after upgrading PMView? If so, does reverting to the previous version solve the problem?

Have you tried to reset the printer settings in PMView? (Right click on the "Setup..." button in the printer dialog and select "Reset")

Thanks,
Peter

[Mark_Henigan]

[quote name='Peter' date='Jul 5 2010, 06:30 AM' post='1338']
> I'm not aware of a problem like this.
>
>Did the problem happen after upgrading PMView? If so, does reverting to the previous version solve the problem?

No, the problem has existed for at least a couple of years. I had been hoping during the interval that upgrading to the most recent version would make a difference. The message printed is obviously the setup of the PCL parameters. The printers I'm using are older HPs. I'm not certain whether the newer one that doesn't have the problem uses PCL5 ("Enhanced" PCL5). It doesn't provide that information on its test page or in its manual. Clearly, it uses a different driver collection. Does anyone else use these older printers? They still provide a high quality 600 dpi output, although a little slow for really big jobs.

>Have you tried to reset the printer settings in PMView? (Right click on the "Setup..." button in the printer dialog and select "Reset")

I've made many adjustments to the settings on several different installations of OS/2, eCS, PMView, with HPLJ 5LXtra and HPLJ 6L with both 1MB (default) and 9MB (max) of memory. Nothing I've done has made a difference. It has been there all of the time for possibly several years.

BTW, I'm having trouble figuring out how to quote previous posts in order to reply to them in context.

Thank you for your reply.

- Mark

[Peter]

>Have you tried to reset the printer settings in PMView? (Right click on the "Setup..." button in the printer dialog and select "Reset")

I've made many adjustments to the settings on several different installations of OS/2, eCS, PMView, with HPLJ 5LXtra and HPLJ 6L with both 1MB (default) and 9MB (max) of memory. Nothing I've done has made a difference. It has been there all of the time for possibly several years.

I'm not sure I understand if you have tried resetting the settings or not...

Please try to reset the settings. This brings in a CLEAN copy of settings from the printer driver. Resetting is REQUIRED if the driver is updated. If not reset, you may see problems just like the ones you're describing.


Right click on "SETUP..." and select "RESET"

Thanks,
Peter

[Mark_Henigan]

I'm not sure I understand if you have tried resetting the settings or not...

Please try to reset the settings. This brings in a CLEAN copy of settings from the printer driver. Resetting is REQUIRED if the driver is updated. If not reset, you may see problems just like the ones you're describing.


Right click on "SETUP..." and select "RESET"

Thanks,
Peter

[Mark_Henigan]

> I'm not sure I understand if you have tried resetting the settings or not...

No, I hadn't, because I'm talking about fresh installs, as well as very old.

> Please try to reset the settings. This brings in a CLEAN copy of settings from the printer driver.

If I open the print dialogue and press setup, there is no reset option. There is a defaults option. Is that what you mean?

> Resetting is REQUIRED if the driver is updated. If not reset, you may see problems just like the ones you're describing.

I haven't updated this driver in a very long time. IBM hasn't issued an updated driver for a very long time.

> Right click on "SETUP..." and select "RESET"

Ahh! Right click! Got it! Sorry, not listening!! I never noticed that property of the Setup button.

It made absolutely no difference. :-<
I selected two pages from the FOC and wound up with six, only two of which were images, just as I described.

I'm sorry I can't report anything more hopeful.

- Mark

[Mark_Henigan]

[quote name='Mark_Henigan' date='Jul 5 2010, 09:57 AM' post='1344']
> I'm not sure I understand if you have tried resetting the settings or not...

I followed your instructions and reset the settings for both the 5L and 6L
It made absolutely no difference. :-<

I selected two pages from the FOC, then used Ctrl-P to bring up the print
dialogue. Then I hit return. The printer produced six pages, only two of
which were images, just as I described:

1. blank page
2. page with PJL string
3. image #1
4. blank page
5. page with PJL string
6. image #2

I'm sorry I can't report anything more hopeful.

Where would be the most productive forum in which to discuss this,
perhaps from the printer aspect?

- Mark

[Peter]

Where would be the most productive forum in which to discuss this,
perhaps from the printer aspect?

The maker of the printer driver is of course the first logical choice. If they won't help you, the next step is usenet news and use Google.

The next step is to use IniMaint to clean up your OS/2 ini file. You could also try a clean install on a 2nd machine to see if it exhibits the same behavior.

If all else fails, you could look if there are alternate printer drivers available that do the work right...

Thanks,
Peter

[Mark_Henigan]

[quote name='Peter' date='Jul 16 2010, 04:50 PM' post='1348']
The maker of the printer driver is of course the first logical choice. If they won't help you, the next step is usenet news and use Google.

I can guarantee no reply from HP for a printer this old, but, who knows... I'll give it a try.

> The next step is to use IniMaint to clean up your OS/2 ini file. You could also try a clean install on a 2nd machine to see if it exhibits the same behavior.

I use Unimaint regularly. And, this happens with brand new installations, every time.

> If all else fails, you could look if there are alternate printer drivers available that do the work right...

Well, I could try backleveling to omni drivers from the early 2000s. I'm not certain whether that might introduce other problems. But, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Thank you for your help.

- Mark

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