Why is Windows XP freezing when printing to a HP LaserJet 4250?

Question

I have a network of users running Windows XP. Their driver for the office LaserJet 4250 was working fine until a few days ago.

The printer is accessible through the web management portal, and you can print through the configuration page.

When any user selects the printer from the CTRL-P print window, the system hangs, and the application will crash. Chrome, Acrobat, notepad.exe, Outlook...all crash if you even SELECT the printer from the list.

The printer is running at 192.168.168.202. There's other printers running successfully on the network, and we could turn one of the servers into a dedicated printing server if that would be the best choice. Then we can just print through that server.

I have always had this problem with network printers using XP. Especially HP printers over local network. — Gabriel Fair, Feb 18 '12 at 18:21

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 19 '10 at 17:48

4

I'm not a bettin man... but perhaps the workstations are trying to SNMP query the device for some basic status information and getting back some garbage they don't like. I'd update the firwmare for the printer, and for the jetdirect card, and see where that gets you. Very odd that they all do it at once so I'd point fingers at the printer.

You have ... rebooted it, right?

answered Nov 19 '10 at 17:48

SpacemanSpiff

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I have restarted the printer, a few times. I will update the firmware, as when I checked it now, it was very old. – dmanexe Nov 19 '10 at 18:01
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Try using the HP Laserjet 4 printer driver, this basic driver can print on almost any printer, see what happens. – SpacemanSpiff Nov 19 '10 at 18:54
Using the LaserJet 4 driver completely works. Thank you! – dmanexe Nov 19 '10 at 19:03

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 19 '10 at 18:03

You may want to make sure that the HP utility software did not automatically update your printer drivers. Another option to eliminate some of the glitches would be to install a standard PCL driver from the HP site, rather than a driver with advanced functionality. It is also possible that a Windows update is interfering with the driver's functionality. In either case, your only options would be to:

Uninstall the Windows Update
Download the latest driver from HP
Try reinstalling the printer on each machine
Update the firmware of the printer and jetdirect card (as stated by Tom)

Good Luck! Sometimes Windows and network printing can be a major headache.

What is the Windows Update you're talking about? I have uninstalled and reinstalled using the PCL 5e drivers (confirmed working prior) - http://bit.ly/d5G9H7 — dmanexe, Nov 19 '10 at 18:31

Why is Windows XP freezing when printing to a HP LaserJet 4250?

2 Answers2