Vista / Win 7 Duplex Printing Troubleshooting Guide

[theantijack]

PREVIOUS POST: 

"I'm trying to use an HP Laser Jet P1102w on a wireless connection to a 32-bit Windows 7 machine.  Originally, I had it connected via USB, and the manual duplex worked fine.  After setting up with my wireless network, the options to manually duplex are still there, and the printer acts as if it wants to print in duplex mode when I set it to do so, but I no longer get the prompt on my screen to place the paper in tray 1, then click to continue printing.  The printer just sits there waiting for input I can no longer provide, until I cancel the print job.

Also, my system tray icon stays up, telling me I have a print job waiting, but there is nothing in the queue or spooled."

UPDATE: 

The printer now doesn't work at all with the wireless connection.  Guess I'll have to go back to the USB connection and do without the convenience of wireless access to this printer for multiple computers.

[BnJnPnS]

Hi Bob:

Here's another case of having to change a setting to the opposite of what you'd think.  We just bought a new HP Windows 7 box (270f) and installed our existing C309a Photosmart Premium printer on it.  We've applied all critical Windows and HP Updates and used the C309a's full-featured driver/software package for Windows 7, downloaded from hp.com/support.

We started having problems with page ordering during duplex printing from Works 9 Spreadsheet and Works 9 Word Processor.  We had never had these problems on Windows XP.  For three-page printouts, the printer would print page 3 first, then print PAGE 1 on the back of that (!!!!), and then print page 2 on a sheet by itself.  Unaccaptable!!! 

On four-page printouts, it printed the pages in the following order:  3, then 4 on the first sheet, followed by 1 then 2 on the second sheet, so the pages weren't in order coming out of the output tray.  As stacked in the tray, the page numbers were 2-1-4-3 from top to bottom.  You had to flip each page individually to restore the right collation.  Unacceptable !!!  

We checked our default printer preferences and the "Page Ordering" was set to "Front to Back", although that's not what was happening. 

We wanted to make sure our driver installation was OK, so we downloaded the latest version of the Printer Diagnostic program.  It said we had a driver conflict, so we uninstalled the driver, re-downloaded the latest Win 7 driver package, and re-installed it twice.  The first time, we connected the printer via USB at the prescribed point during the installation dialog, and the second time (after uninstalling again) we waited to connect the printer via USB until after all the driver software had been installed.  After each of these re-installations the Printer Diagnostic tool still said we had a driver conflict, but since we had done all we knew how to do to correct it, we gave up.  (We're a little long in the tooth, but not complete dummies -- we both worked for HP for 17 years.)  At any rate, we still had the duplex printing problem under every scenario.

Finally, after seeing your Troubleshooting guide, we tried the irrational step of changing the default printer preference for "Page Ordering" to "Back to Front".  It works!!!!  Setting that preference to "Back to Front"  makes the C309a actually print from the FRONT to BACK in sequence when in duplex mode.  (We had actually tried this in the Works 9 Spreadsheet print dialog when we first discovered the duplexing problem, but it didn't work.  At that time, we hadn't yet realized that MS Works 9 Spreadsheet still has the same old bug that Works 6 Spreadsheet had of ignoring certain parameters that you change during the print Properties dialog and reverting to the default printer preferences.)  So to make it work in the Works 9 Spreadsheet, you HAVE to change it in the default printer preferences.  For the Works 9 Word Processor, it seems to work no matter where you change the Page Ordering setting.

Bottom line, for this printer/driver to print duplex with correct page sequencing from Works 9 on Windows 7, you have to get the Page Ordering option set to "Back to Front" in order for it to actually print "Back to Front".  Then, when you pull the pages off of the output tray, you can flip the whole stack over and your pages will be in the correct sequence.  It's the only way we've found after half a day of troubleshooting!

PS:  If you have any comments on why the Printer Diagnostic Tool continues to declare we have a driver conflict, please let us know. If we go to the control panel for Devices and Printers then right-click, select "Properties",  then click "Hardware" and then click "Properties" and then click "Driver", what we see is a little strange.  It says the driver date is 4/25/2008, the version is 8.0.0.0 and the digital signer is Microsoft Windows Hardware Compatibility Publisher.  Hopefully you won't tell us we have to do some kind of "Level 4" uninstall, because we've never gotten any of those exotic uninstalls to work yet!!

Thanks for putting your Win 7 duplex printing war stories and troubleshooting guide out there!

B'n'J

[halbeda]

My computer stops functioning when I give a duplex printing order. It prints te first side, give the screen for okay, I manually change the paper. then the computer stops functioning (screen freezes, no input possible).

I have a HP laserjet P1006 and recently started using a new Windows7 computer.

 The printer functioned very good with windows XP.

[bearsieboo]

Having subscribed to a Microsoft forum, I have come to the conclusion that there are only two parties who do not believe that their is a problem with existing HP Prtinters and Windows 7.

One of them is HP, the other is Microsoft.

My HP PSC1510 all in one works fine and prints on both sides of the paper on my 6 year old desktop PC running Microsoft Windows XP, but my HP PSC1510 all in one will only print on one side of the paper despite all/any of the suggesions from this forum or from the Microsft forum   HP PSC 1510 does not print on both sides in Windows 7  and I am not alone.

I have to presume that more than the half dozen or so folk that have contributed to either forum with PSC1510 issues, bought and still own these printers, scanners, copiers have also upgraded their PCs from XP to W7.

Are neither of these huge corporations interested in fixing a problem which didn't exist before Windows 7? 

[Bob_Headrick]

---

@bearsieboo wrote:

[snip] My HP PSC1510 all in one works fine and prints on both sides of the paper on my 6 year old desktop PC running Microsoft Windows XP, but my HP PSC1510 all in one will only print on one side of the paper despite all/any of the suggesions from this forum or from the Microsft forum   HP PSC 1510 does not print on both sides in Windows 7  and I am not alone. [snip]

---

If you read all the posts in the thread you mentioned from Microsoft Answers you will find a link to this thread that has a solution for manual duplexing on the PSC 1510.  The same may apply to other models as well.

[bearsieboo]

Bob

Thanks for your fast reply.

I have read this thread from the top, I think when it was about 19 pages long.

I have also previously tried going to printer properties and changing duplex from disabled to enabled and back again. I have also done this with a computer restart in between the two "applyings".

I have also looked under the Advanced tab and have changed "print on both sides" to manually. I have just retried those instructions once again a minute or two ago, the three pages of print printed in this sequence:

Page 3

Page1

Blank sheet

Page 2

there was no option given to me to take out the printed sheets and rotate them , as there is on my XP machine.

I would love to insert a screenshot showing my printer preferences, but can't figure out how to do that whilst creating this reply to you.

I can't rememnber if it's in this thread or the microsoft thread that posters have suggested printing odd numbered pages first then turning the paper over and printing the even numbered pages; whilst that may work, it's a workaround, not a fix to a problem which exists for many of us as the 24 pages of postings in the HP forum attest to.

Regards - BB

[OliLu]

Hello, no courage to look at all Replies and see if my question has already been asked, sorry...

I sent a 30 pages document to print duplex on my Photosmart B110a but it did not work.  As I had to leave, I shut down the computer.  When I came back, 15 pages were printed, waiting to me to turn them so that the verso could be printed.  But of course, as I had shut down the computer, I do not have the prompt on my screen to place the paper in tray 1, then click to continue printing !

The document is in the queue, but I cannot resume printing (grayed out on the menu).  How can I continue ? I am on Windows 7.

Thanks for your help.

Olivia

[jim_harsh]

I have a HP Laserjet Professional 1606 printer connected to a laptop computer by the USB cable. I am running windows Vista as my operating system. When I duplex print the back page is flipped up and I am unable to change it even when I change the printer properties. Is there a software update to fix this problem.

[cmendrop]

I have a HP L7780 using the CD installed drivers, wireless connection, and Vista OS.  It will not print two-sided given all of your recommended settings.  Print job stays in Q.