We have HP Laserjet 4350 printers and are having printer driver issues. As we were frequently getting 'PCL XL Error' messages using the PCL6 drivers, we changed to PCL5e drivers. The PCL5e drivers won't print correctly from one of our programmes, Pertax. I have spoken to the Pertax people and they say their programme has no printer commands in it at all, the printing is controlled completely by the printer, therefore they can't help.
With the PCL6 driver, Pertax would only print to a particular tray if you specify the paper type. There are 4 trays on each printer: tray 4 = plain, tray 3 = bond, tray 2 = letterhead: if you select 'tray 2' it just prints to the 'default tray' which is tray 4, but when you select 'letterhead' it prints to the correct tray.
With the PCL5e driver, no matter what you select it prints to tray 4.
Can anyone suggest how we can sort this out? Thanks.
Hello Patricia, just to make sure of sa few things before I go any further: What model number is the printer?
What operating system are you using?
I assume you've been able to print via Pertax before, and if that is the case, when did you start experiencing these problems?
Have you had any updates to either the programme, your operating system or the printer prior to the printing errors?
Do you or any one else use any other software where you use the printers, and are there any problems with this as well?
Thank you for replying.
1. The printer model is HP Laserjet 4350dtn.
2. We are using Windows Server 2003 R2 on the server and Windows 2003 SP2 on the workstations.
3. We've always been able to print from Pertax before. Problems started when we upgraded the printer drivers to PCL6 (at the beginning of the year, I think - I don't do the actual upgrading, but it was about then the users started calling me with printing problems). Then I found if they wanted to print to paper other than plain, they had to specify the paper 'type', rather than the tray, through the Print Setup> Properties.
4. There have been updates to the programme and operating system, but none of them seem to have coincided with the printer problems, it seems to be caused exclusively by the drivers.
5. We have experienced a lot of printer problems in other programmes (e.g. printing multiple copies from Excel), ever since we upgraded to PCL6 drivers. This is why we decided to change to the PCL5e drivers. These have solved most of our problems and we intend to change to them exclusively - if we can sort out the Pertax problem, where no matter what tray or paper type you specify, it only prints to draft! These printers are used by numerous people using a variety of programmes, just in case that helps.
I hope that covers everything - please let me know if you need any more information. Thanks.
Hi Martin
Thanks for your reply - I did as instructed and tested it again and, unfortunately, it makes no difference.
Also, I've been told that when printing multiple copies from Excel, using the PCL5e drivers, any underlining is ok on the first copy and disappears from the other copies.
We have got the latest copies of the PCL6 and PCL5e drivers on the system at the moment.
Do you have any more ideas? Thanks.
It seems HP are perfectly aware of the problem and don't give a hoot. And that, if we change to older drivers, reluctantly, it still isn't guaranteed to work. Even if they do, it's not a good strategy, long term, but we're stuck.
Thank you for your suggestions, anyway. It was appreciated.
We have three LaserJet 5500dn's... and have experienced various problems with the provided driver (mostly with printing multiple copies.) The fix was to use a LaserJet 5500 driver. HP was made aware of the issue and over 1 year later has not corrected the problem wth the 5500 driver.
Anyway, the moral of the story is: Try another HP driver! You'd be shocked to see how many will work -- and flat out work BETTER!
I did as you suggested and downloaded all the other Laserjet 4350 drivers (4350, 4350n, 4350tn, 4350dtn and the 4350dtnsl) but the download files are identical, even though HP make you go through the rigmarole of 'selecting' your correct model. I'll make enquiries as to whether any other HP model drivers would be compatible, but, this being HP, I don't hold out much hope.
Thank you for your suggestion, though, and I envy you your trouble-free printers!
What I suggest is to try a different, but similar model. All of those drivers would be the same because its the same printer (just different features). For example, try the 4300 driver instead of 4350. (As I did with the 5500 driver versus the 5550.) Hope you have better luck...
Printer Error
