HP CP3525 Color printing

[Hargroc]

Before I get into the issue, I am not the one who initially setup the printer.  I don't know what they did in their initial setup that made it work and I don't know what might have changed recently to 'break' however they set it up.

We have a CP3525 that by default, will not print color.  The solution is to go to printer properties > device settings > device type - set to color.  Even with that set, when a user goes to print, they still have to go to into printer properties (From the print prompt in the application they are printing from) > color tab > and check the color bubble.  The problem is that in our limited user permissions environment, the user doesn't have the ability to go in to printer properties and set the device type to color.

We use PrinterLogics print server for clients to install from, but even installing it without the use of PrinterLogic, the problem still exists.  At one point, this printer had the correct settings at the time of installation because we have an entire buildings worth of installs that prints in color without any issue.  The problem seems to have started in the last couple weeks and new installs do not have the color option.  The typical solution to this color printing issue is to use the actual color print drivers for that model of printer, but the CP3525 ONLY has universal PCL 5 and 6 drivers, and we've tried them both.  I have found very little information about this problem since it does seem to have a solution, but we are not about to make gp changes for this single uncooperative printer.  Any insight as to why this printer does not default to color?

[John_Getzke]

If a direct IP connection has no option to print in color then perhaps someone disabled color on the physical printer.

Review the Restrict Color Use feature:

1. Log into the EWS

2. Navigate to Settings Tab > Configure Device

3. Expand Configure Device > Sytem Setup

4. Review the Restrict Color Use feature

You can also try printing a regular test page from the control panel of the printer to rule out anything from the connecting PCs as a source of interferance or misconfiguration.  See if the printer is able to print in color or not.

You can also try to reset the printer to the defaults or perform a COLD/NVRAM reset to wipe everything that could have been accidentaly configured in these areas.

One last idea refers to UPDs.  Some UPDs do not automatically recognize if the printer is color or not.  You can review the Device Settings tab from the installed print queue's Printer Properties.  Then scroll down to the Device Type setting. Change it to Color and the color tab should appear on that PC as an option.

[Hargroc]

Already checked the color restrictions.  Since we are a school district, its not uncommon for schools to want to put restrictions on color and I was really hoping that this was all it was but no luck.  No color restrictions on the printer itself.  I also did a test page on the printer itself to rule out anything wrong with the printers ability to do color.  I did do a factory reset but I did not do a cold reset.  I can give that a shot this afternoon. 

The UPD thing I will have to look into because it seems like the initial installs did automatically recognize that it was a color printer and set the device type as color but newer installs do not.  Could you expand on the UDP idea?  Could some network change have messed up some basic communication between the clients and the printer?

[John_Getzke]

I believe UPDs use SNMP to communicate with the printer at installation time to record all of the features.  Perhaps your SNMP traffice is getting interferred with or not authenticating with one of the newer SNMP versions.  You will have to review one of your installations to see how it is communicating with teh printer at install time.

You could try and do a trace from the PC to the printer during an installation and see if there are any errors or delays in this area.  You could also observe a trace between a PC and another color printer that behaves correctly and compare for clues.

Another idea would be to isolate the printer from the prod network temporarily and install a small home router between it and a PC.  Then see if the same behavior occurs or not to rule out or give evidence of a problem with the Prod network.

[Hargroc]

It looks like it was something with SNMP, though what exactly it was I couldn't say.  I ran it by our network admin and he more or less shot down any network configuration causing the issue.  Closer inspection of some reporting features on our print server showed that this printer was not relaying SNMP information - at least not back to the print server.  I had to cold reset and then through the printers control panel reset network security settings (Yeah, even after a cold reset), and then the SNMP information on the print server populated.  Reinstalled it on my laptop and color was enabled by default.

[John_Getzke]

Thanks for the confirmation.  Glad to hear you could get it working with a little digging in the right area.

In the end it may have been something goofy with the printers security settings although I cant explain why an additional reset was needed after a cold reset.