Printer in Error State or Offline

[kingjim9]

Hello! I have a small office that has a Sharp High Speed Copier that we use for all of our general printing in addition to copies, scans, etc. It works great...except for if it runs out of paper or if we have a door open to add paper and someone happens to try to print to it in that moment. If this occurs that particular computer says error and will not send the job (or any future jobs) to the printer. The issue doesn't appear to go away on its own, the computer will continue to say either "error" or "offline".

Others can print fine during this time, the issue only affects the people who had the "bad timing" of sending a job while the machine is out of paper or if there is some other issue going on like maintenance with the machine. This is a new machine for us, our old machine would continue to accept jobs while out of paper, store them and then print when ready. We have a maintenance agreement with a company for the copier itself, but they advised that this issue is related to windows.

Additionally, the issue isn't just when the printer is out of paper, or changing toner, etc. It will also occur if someone prints a job with a "Paper Size Mis-Match" If this occurs the copier will alert on-screen that you are trying to print to a type of paper we don't have and wait for user input...well if someone else sends a job during this time, they get the same issue of stuck in error.

So far the only solution we have is to cancel any jobs on the individuals computer, and restart the print spooler or the entire computer. All computers are on Windows 10 and use the PCL 6 Driver.

There has to be a better way though....has anyone out there experienced a similar issue, or does any one have any suggestions on how to fix this?

 

[RaDiKaL_]

Weird issue, though it sounds to me that the computer in question is not getting a stable connection in the network with that printer, is it connected wired or wireless?

 

[kingjim9]

Weird issue, though it sounds to me that the computer in question is not getting a stable connection in the network with that printer, is it connected wired or wireless?

I agree that it is very weird. It's not just one computer though...it's any computer that happens to submit a print job at the moment the printer is legitimately in an "error" (even if it's just out of paper) Then that computer or computers have to either be restarted or we go into the print spooler service and hit restart. Once this is done they can resume. Anyone who didn't happen to click print while we were doing work to the printer remains unaffected.

All of the computers are hardwired through an un-managed switch. Printer is also hardwired to the same switch.

Another thing that may be relevant: When the print spooler shows "error" or "offline", the printer icon in devices & printers is grayed out, but if I open up a cmd window, I can ping the IP address to the printer and get 100% success with no loss or anything...still windows will tell me offline or error and won't "send" the print job.

 

[RaDiKaL_]

Ah, thought it was only one computer affected, in that case I'd say there's something wrong with the printer's internal software. You could try to reset it, just google it with its model and "reset procedure" and see if that fixes it.

 

[kingjim9]

Alright, if that's the case I'm going to call our servicing company since we pay for the maintenance agreement on the copier/printer and tell them to look at it again. They looked at it last time I called and told me it was a Windows issue (i.e. not the copier / their problem) so I figured I'd check here to see if anyone knows.

I'll report back if they come up with a solution or if they can give any more insight on if its truly a windows issue or not.

Thanks for your help & input so far!

 

[Mighty]

My guess would be an error in the driver. Since it's isolated to individual computers which hit the "error" condition. Frustrating that Sharp didn't catch it in testing. Make sure you're updated to the latest release of the driver. Contact Sharp or look on their boards and see if anyone has a better workaround.

Drake Christensen

 

[kingjim9]

Thanks for the help...You were definitely on track with your solution Drake. Sharp had a bunch of drivers available to choose from so our company who managed it ended up going with a Sharp "Universal" PCL 6 Driver. We ended up installing a Sharp "Windows 10" PCL 6 Driver, and the issues have now gone away. Now anyone can print at anytime and as long as the device is actually turned on, it will store the job and print as soon as it can (usually instantly, under normal circumstances).