LJ M608 Prompts for Tray 1 manual feed instead of going to Envelope feeder

[mlocasto]

We have recently purchased the LJ M608 network printer and the Envelope feeder tray to replace an aging HP printer.  Our company work load includes a lot of printing both letters and envelopes from MS Word 2010 and a Java application.  I have the printer installed on a dedicated print server running Server 2008.  All of our computers are Win7 32 or 64 bit.

I have the print driver set to automatically decide which trays to use for what, and I have tray 2 set to Letter paper size and Plain for the type, and tray 3 set to Envelope and size to Envelope #10, the only ones we use.

Every single time we send an envelope to print, it prompts for manual feed on tray 1 and stops all printing waiting for that input, with an "options" on the small screen that will allow me to tell it to go to tray 3.  I cannot get it to automatically go to tray 3 for envelopes automatically for most print jobs.  I have tried specifying in print preferences to use tray 3, in which case it will print the envelope fine, but then prints the letter behind it also on envelopes.

Here are some of the things I've tried after searching all over these forums:

- I cannot disable manual feed on this model.  The option does not exist that I can find.  For manual feed prompt I have only two options, always prompt, and prompt on mismatch.

- I have tried specifying what size and type for all three trays, even giving tray 1 a type that we'll never use (A4) and it still prompts for manual feed. 

- When it's prompting, it is asking for a number 10 envelope, plain, which is exactly what I have tray 3 set for.

- I have tried telling it in the driver settings how to handle envelopes 

I have checked, double checked, and triple checked the tabs in the trays holding the paper, as I know that is a common user error.

Whether I tell it to go to Tray 3 or I tell it to automatically select, it always prompts for a manual feed and stops all printing until a user tediously scrolls down a long prompt saying to feed the specified #10 envelope, select "options", select the tray 3 which indicates that it has #10 envelopes, and then scroll down to the OK button.  I'm not exaggerating that it's about 12 button taps if you know what your doing, not just hitting OK.

I updated the firmware but had no change, and I checked that the settings were the same on the server, and on the users computers.  Anyone else have trouble with the envelope feeder and not directing to the tray automatically?

[SHThompson]

I had a customer show me a similar issue right after I replaced the envelope feeder on their m608.

I looked at the driver settings and it looked to me like it should have been able to determine the tray 3 was the envelope feeder and Pole from there but it wasn't doing it.

I do not know if they were able to resolve the issue, but at this point I'm wondering if that machine has a firmware bug and HP hasn't noticed it yet.

Speaking of firmware that's the first thing I would look into with that issue to see if there was a upgrade that might have a fix and I would probably arbitrarily upgrade the firmware just because firmware upgrades fix security issues.

For those reading this post and wondering about Tray 3 being an envelope feeder HP has changed their approach with the newer models and the envelope feeder looks like just another tray until you open it.