How to wakeup a sleeping network printer

[Tigs1962]

Hi,

Does anyone know of a way to send a command to a Network printer to wake it up?
I would prefer not to end up with a wasted sheet of paper every 30 minutes.

I have several printers (HP Officejet Pro 8000 A809) that go to sleep approx every 30 minutes.
They are needed to print a "Fire Roll-Call" report from a Paxton security system.

Unfortunately, they go to sleep after about 30 minutes in inactivity and the report from Paxton does not seem to wake them up.
If we press the Form Feed button, they wake up (eventually) and produce a printout.

I have spoken to HP Support and asked if there is any way to disable the "Eco-Mode" on the printers and they said no.
It is very difficult to find a printer that does NOT have an Eco Mode nowadays.

Chris

 

[iam2thecrowe]

most printers have an option to disable sleep mode, i know many lexmark printers do as i work on them. honestly they should just wake up when you send any print job to them.

 

[Tigs1962]

most printers have an option to disable sleep mode, i know many lexmark printers do as i work on them. honestly they should just wake up when you send any print job to them.

Hi Crowe, thanks for the reply.
Let me clarify/reiterate some parts of the problem, as there is obviously some confusion.

"most printers have an option to disable sleep mode,"
The HP Officejet Pro 8000 A809 does not have an option to disable sleep mode (or Eco Mode as HP call it).
I have spoken to HP at length after looking for it myself and it is not an option on this printer.

" honestly they should just wake up when you send any print job to them"
It WILL wake up if sent a document from something like MS Word, but it will NOT wake up when sent a document from "Net2 Access Control" software from PAXTON.

I have spoken to PAXTON and they say that they are using the standard Microsoft interface.

IF, the printer is "awake", it WILL print the report from the PAXTON software.
If the printer is "asleep", it will NOT print the report from the PAXTON software without human intervention.
Human intervention is problematic as the function of this printer is to print a Roll-Call report in the case of a FIRE. Staff will not wait around for a piece of paper out of a printer when the building is on fire.

I have found a way to setup a schedule to run a DOS batch file that sends a blank document to the printer every 30 minutes.
This wakes up the printer and prints a blank page.

I would like a way to wake up the printer, without printing a page.

 

[kjelecsys]

Did you ever get a solution to this problem.

We have just installed a paxton system to provide roll call facility but the same problem exists.
Certain printers don't seem to react and print upon an auto roll call command from a trigger caused by the fire alarm.
I set up 4 different printers into the roll call printer list and out of them only 2 printed (1 eventually!!). the trouble is these were ones attached to pc workstations (and shared) and not dedicated network printers.
The main network printer i just cannot get to respond to an auto print command from the net 2 pro server.

Paxton suggest that because a normal windows print command from an application like the net 2 access control software is sent to a printer and is associated with the user profile currently logged in on that pc so the printer see an authorised profile and prints the document. The net2 server sending a fire alarm triggered print request sends it to the printer server but is unassociated to any user profile so this could be why it does not wake a sleeping printer.
Their suggestion was to change permissions on the print server to allow applications to print without being associated to a user profile but none of the network printers seem to have this option in them.

There must be a way or surely it would just make sense for paxton to have resolved this by leaving the net2 server application commanding a print using windows profiles.
I tried the option in the config utility to print as a specified user but that didn't seem to work. in fact i got more results from printing as the system user.

Did not expect this problem with such a leading brand.

Any solutions to this would be gratefully received.