Bizarre printing

[JW986]

This has happened twice here at my shop.  I have several HP LaserJets, and my default one for printing invoices is the 402dn.

Twice now, this printer starts up printing nearly all blank pages until it emptys the paper tray or until I stop it.

It, heaven forbids, prints "TRUMP" in the far upper-LH-corner.  I have to assume it is the result of reading a customer's email, and when I attempt to check either Task Manager of MSCONFIG for running programs, I cannot see anything out of the ordinary.

Anyone else out there getting this trash?

I simply reprinted all the pages with the words added: "is an #####!"

[davidzuts]

How many people work in your office. I would think someone is sending the job to the printer

[JW986]

One - me!

Has occurred 2X in past 7 days and right after I have read a business related e-mail.  The e-mails come from present customers, so I am assuming they have some corrupted junk sitting in the background.

Also, the word appears about 1/4" from the top of the page, and about  1/8" from the left margin.  Typically, in non-printable areas.  I must turn OFF/ON printer, as I checks the printer's background and nothing appears.  I have three HP lasers connected to this network, but only the main system's default printer is affected.

FYI:  My post graduate work was in computer science, so this is why I was interested in knowing if others have seen these occurrances.

[davidzuts]

Unless you are opening an attachment from the customer I do not see a way of it printing by itself since it needs something to activate the printing. Opening an email will generally not cause malware or other issues unless you click on a link or the email itself is a link. You did not answer my question. Do you have other people working in your office? Also do you have a good virus and/or malware program loaded on your computers.

[JW986]

I did answer your question:  Read my first line:   "One - me!"

Again, this is why I came over here on the HP site, becasue I have clicked on no link.  I'm a bit smarter than that... and pretty mistrusting with certain e-mails.

[davidzuts]

Well I did not see the first line, sorry. If you open the email again does the same thing happen. Also do you have any virus or malware program. Malwarebytes is a good program and so is Avast virus programs both of which I believe have free versions. On the lighter side is one of your customers an ardent Trump supporter.

[JW986]

I do have current A/V on all my system and Malware Bytes on all of them as well... that's why I consider this episode bizarre.  I tend to get unhappy when I cannot figure these things out

Honestly, I got so busy I did not even think to even open the two emails again.  I tend to dump and clear them readily because I get 50-100 daily in the business and I try to get through them as quickly as possible.

Next time this happens, I will give that a try.  Being a mathematician myself, that would have certainly been the logical thing to do, but never gave it a thought.

Regarding my customers, oh yes, I am certain in my line of business there are certainly plenty of red-necks to go around.  I amnot one of them, fortunately - ha!

Thanks for responding.

JW

[davidzuts]

The other thing I would do is keep the paper tray open on the printer so it has no paper to print on if it should happen again. Then turning off the printer and turning it back on should clear any data that went to the printer. Also you should check the printq for the printer to see if there is a job there that could not print which could also give you some information about the job by checking on its properties. My gut tells me it is a simple txt document with the word Trump and the job is told to print a large number of copies of the same page. Good Luck.

[JW986]

I've been doing this:  pulling out the tray, then cycling the printer ON/OFF.  This cures the problem.  I was just curious to find where I should look for the "culprit".

When this happends, I first pull the tray, then check the printq, and see nothing, again why I consider this so darn bizarre.

And, yes, my thoughts exactly that it looks like a simple text document with a high number print count, hence the first time I left for coffee and found the pinter full of printed pages and an empty tray.

That's when I first checked the printq, but saw nothing.  Each time the printq has revealed nothing in it.  Strange and, again, that's why I came over here to HP.COM.  This was my first time here.

Again, thanks for your final thoughts.  Incidentally, I was a prof in a past life myself.

[davidzuts · Accepted solution]

I would keep the printer off so the job can not go to the printer and if this is the case if the print job is being sent thru windows it should still be in the printq. It is always possible the document is being fed directly to the printer port which would bypass the printq so you will have no way to tell what it is. Also you may want to change the default printer on your computer just to see if it now goes to the new default printer.