LaserJet P3015 - Duplex + Letterhead

[John_Getzke]

Hello,

I have a strange pair of P3015's that want to print letterhead documents upside down.  The printer actually pulls the paper normally, pulls it back and prints on the back side as if it were duplexing.  Printing on plain/letter media works fine.

The duplex feature on the Embedded Web Server is disabled.  The duplex attachment is uninstalled under the Device Settings tab on our Win2007 print server.  The document and application settings on our user machines are not using any duplex features either.

Any ideas on what could be causing this behavior? 

[dansdaduk]

Thread /t5/Printers-LaserJet/URGENT-P3015-P3010-firmware-letterhead-duplex-bug/td-p/5500445 suggests that Alternative Letterhead mode and/or a firmware upgrade is at the root of this.

But the username/password for the FTP site to obtain a PJL file 'fix' no longer appears to work.

[John_Getzke · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the quick response.

I checked out that thread and first tried updating the firmware.  After the firmware update was unsuccessful I tried contacting HP to get my hands on the .prn file that was mentioned.

After applying the All_ALM_Types_OFF.prn to my P3015 the problem went away.  Nice and easy fix once you have the file.

[dansdaduk]

John

Good to hear that the problem has been circumvented by applying the HP supplied fix.

As a matter of interest, are you able to post a copy of the .prn file here (possibly disguised with an additional .txt extension in order to allow it to be attached), so that we can see just what it does?; or is it subject to some sort of non-disclosure agreement?

Chris

[John_Getzke]

I dont think its confidential.  I posted the same code to the other thread that you linked in your initial response.  It seems like there are two characters which are not captured when I try to post it to the forums.  It looks like some kind of carriage return or new line symbol.  Both characters are before the % on lines 1 and 3.  I'd advise anyone to read up on .prn's before trying to upload them a printer.

Here is the code from the .prn:

%-12345X@PJL
@PJL DMINFO ASCIIHEX = "040004010119241406000000000000"
%-12345X

Attached is a .txt conversion of the original .prn.

[dansdaduk]

John

Thanks for posting a copy of the All_ALM_types_OFF.prn file.

The "two characters ... before the % on lines 1 and 3 ..." you refer to are (non-graphic) "Escape" control-code bytes (with decimal code 27, or hexadecimal 1B).

An analysis of the file shows that it is using embedded PML to set a value for Object Identifier 1.1.25.36 (within the printer's MIB space); note that this OID is not defined in the standard HP-LASERJET-COMMON-MIB file:

PCL Parameterised      <Esc>%-12345X     Universal Exit Language (UEL)
Comment                                  Switch language to PJL
PJL Command            @PJL              <CR><LF>
PJL Command            @PJL DMINFO        ASCIIHEX = "040004010119241406000000000000"<CR><LF>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>                     >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Comment                                  Start analysis of embedded PML string
Comment                                  of size 30 ASCIIHEX characters (15 bytes)
PML Request            0x04              SetRequest
PML Data Type/Length   0x0004            Object Identifier / 4
         Value         0x01011924        1.1.25.36
PML Data Type/Length   0x1406            Binary / 6
         Value         0x000000..        [ 00 00 00 00 00 00 ]
Comment                                  End analysis of embedded PML string
Comment                                  of size 30 ASCIIHEX characters (15 bytes)
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<                     <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Comment                                  Switch language to PCL
PCL Parameterised      <Esc>%-12345X     Universal Exit Language (UEL)
Comment                                  Switch language to PJL

 Chris

[John_Getzke]

Thanks for the extra analysis.  I take it that the escape character was preserved in my .txt file attachment. 

Do you know if those escape characters are a requirement for .prn files or not?  Just wondering incase someone else stumbles upon this thread and trys to re-create or use the file.

[dansdaduk]

The escape characters are in your original .txt attachment.

You'd need some sort of hexadecimal editor to check this for sure; text applications (e.g. NotePad) will probably display them as 'left-arrow' characters.

... and they are certainly necessary, as without them the printer would interpret the %-12345X characters as data, rather than as part of the Universal Exit Language (UEL) escape sequence (<Esc>%-12345X), which instructs the device to enter PJL mode (in order to parse and interpet the following PJL commands).

[LimeIT]

Also having this issue - just applied latest firmware 20130510 07.161.0.

It's unbelieavable HP still haven't patched this fix into their firmware updates as it's still happening TWO YEARS LATER!

Rather than waste my time trying to obtain the .prn file from HP support, could anyone host it/send it to me?

[dansdaduk]

The response from John Getzke on ‎2013-01-07 contains the .prn file as an attachment, disguised with a .txt extension.