DCPS v2.7

[Art Wiens]

I am trying to get one queue working with DCPS v2.7 on Alpha OpenVMS v8.3 . See attached for actual detailed behaviour. The printer (An HP LJ 4350 - supported by DCPS) "works". I can print to it as a Telnet printer using a form that calls setup modules from a text library. If I configure it as a DCPS printer the queue starts, the job shows "PRINTING" and there is some sort of network activity between the host and the printer but no joy. I am a thousand kilometers away from the printer so I can't readily "see" what it's doing, but the web interface shows the printer is "Ready" (as opposed to "Processing Job") and the web interface rendition of the control panel says "DATA RECEIVED, To print last page, press check mark".

I have let it sit "Printing" for quite some time (15 minutes +) but it doesn't seem to come to any conclusion. The network conversation shown in the attachment just keeps on going.

Why does it have to be so hard?!?! I held out so much hope when people started talking about the paperless office 20+ years ago :-(

Cheers,
Art

[Bill Hall]

Art,

I have a few HP 4350s that we print to using DCPS without a problem. We only use the default DCPS device control library though. "DCPS_LIB" = "DCPS$DEVCTL"
We also don't set the DCPS$queuename_SPOOL or DCPS$queuename_PRODUCT_NAME logicals.

Did you check the firmware version on the printer? DCPS release notes have a minimum firmware for the 4350 as:
HP LaserJet 4350 20050831 08.009.3

Bill

[Art Wiens]

The two logicals were added after reading the managers guide which hinted those sometimes helped. Yes, I saw the firmware notice ... should be ok, it has 20080319 08.015.0 . I also tried it without the additional library and with the default DCPS form. No diff. Any ideas on that trace? Why is the printer pushing back to the system repeatedly?

Art

[Rohit P]

Hi Art,

I have a HP LjaserJet 4350 printer in my lab, and printed a small text file. During the print I observed web interface of the printer, and also captured tcpdump traces.

My observations are:
(1) DCPS print queue completes successfully.
(2) At printer's web interface, during printing the printer status changed to "Processing Job" and then switched back to "Ready" once print was completed.
(3) TCPDUMP trace collected during the print, and after the print no more trace information were captured. I did not see information pushed to system in a loop. Refer attaced file (dump.txt) for more information.

Few suggestions, could you power cycle the printer and try again? And also try using DCPS LPD print queue and see if problem is still there.

Regards,
Rohit

[Paul Anderson_7]

You might also want to check the printer's settings, making sure its "personality" is set to "PostScript" or "auto".

[Art Wiens]

It was set to Auto, I changed it to PCL.

[Art Wiens]

Sorry, I read that too quick. Why Postscript? I thought DCPS "knew" if the printer was capable of native PCL.

Cheers,
Art

[Bill Hall]

Art,

DCPS uses Postscript to interrogate the printer to determine the printer's identity and capabilities. So the printers default mode has to be set to either postscript or auto.

Bill

[Art Wiens]

Ok, well it was auto and it didn't work.

This is all moot at this point. I "fixed" the root issue with PCL based forms. The only real "special" requirement they had was for landscape 132 characters and duplex landscape 132.

Cheers,
Art