HP LaserJet 600 M601 doesn't want to use envelope feeder

[pcwizard]

Hi

This is a commercial line product. For the best answer to your questions you will need to repost your question to the following links.

http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-Support-Forums/ct-p/business-support

http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/Printers-LaserJet/bd-p/bsc-413

[SeaCatDog]

I have been looking in both places for an answer for this issue.  The business side does not have as much info as this area does. 

[Daniel_E]

All, this is an issue that has been addressed with a firmware roll. Please contact the HP call center (1-800-HP-INVENT) to obtain the updated firmware code. I wrote a public issue document, which should hit the web any day now. 

Title of document: HP LaserJet M600 Series Printer - Load Tray 1: Plain, Env#10

[KubaL]

which firmware code resolves the issue? I have tried older and the latest as of Feb 2013 and issue is NOT resolved. neither the latest PCL6 nor PS drivers resolve it. it's exactly as broken as it was a year ago.

One thing for sure, our company will NEVER go with HP office printers again, this is ridiculous. We always used to trust HP printers, we still own plenty of them like Laserjet 4200, 4250, 4600, 2300, etc. however for color printing we already switched to Xerox Phaser (MUCH better quality, cheaper per page prints) and for office printing we probably will go with Canon. HP dropped the ball with M600 series, what a shame.

[speedyrev]

I checked the commercial site, but saw this here. So, I'm waving my hand saying "Me Too!"

We have multiple M602's that employees have to get up, go to the printer and hit OK twice to print an envelope.

Intalling firmware upgrade from Dec 8, 2012 didn't resolve it.

[Daniel_E]

All, this issue has been resolved with a firmware roll, that is on hp.com. There is one adjustment/setting change that needs to be made to the printer, after the firmware has been updated. Please set the envelope feeder type back to "any", since the firmware update set it to "envelope".  This can be done either from the front panel, or embedded web server (EWS).

Best regards,

dan

I work for HP

[PhilFCS]

I finally got mine working, and instead of just going on my merry way I decided to go ahead and share my results. This is very detailed as I'm an IT guy billing a customer for fixing this so I take lots of notes.

They had FW 20110811 connected by USB. Anytime they print it prompts to use a different tray, it would then work but this is annoying. They have size #10 envelopes and some smaller envelopes seems to be size #6 3/4

I'd tried the drivers on the CD, PCL, UPD, PS, nothing worked. I had been downloading the firmware update prior to calling support, despite being out of warranty the hardware guy would assist with the firmware update and verify it is functioning in the hardware and after that I'd have to pay for software support, that was fine with me as I felt confident I could handle the software end as long as I know the hardware isn't faulty.

We updated to 20121208, then set the trays on the device as follows:

Envelope Size: #10

Envelope Type: Plain

Tray1 Size: Any

Tray1 Type: Any

Tray2 Size: Letter

Tray2 Type: Plain

I sent him the config page, not sure why maybe to confirm I'd made the changes correctly. Under the maintenance, diagnostic test menu we ran a paper path test, and tested both tray 1 with no envelope feeder inserted and then envelope path with the feeder, both tests pulled the envelopes correctly.

At this point I got a case number and disconnected with the tech as the hardware was confirmed good, I asked about sharing the print via the usb to another PC, he recommended against it, his main reason being it would print slow, whatever, so i decided to go ahead and not use this via USB and plug it into the network (I had a secondary issue with this device, in that a remote machine printing to this printer over a windows shared printer would never print envelopes, the job just disappeared somehow, moving this to network would guarantee that if i can get it working on machine A, I can do the same process and be sure it works on machine B) The HP tech also recommended I use PCL 6 UPD.

I removed all the previous HP drivers and unplugged the USB. I ran the UPD PCL 6 installer, traditional mode, network, located the device, no share, finish. Tested a normal page, took from tray 2. Tested an envelope, now this may or may not be important but they use Office 2010 so my goal was to get this working in Word. In Word, on the envelope print dialog, under options, I mearly switched between Size #10 or Size #6 3/4 and it would work, I'd read elsewhere you need to adjust the "Feed from" field, but in my case I left it on "Automatically Select"

The customer was thrilled, I'd only tested with single envelopes so I'm not sure how the speed is (previous replies indicated the feeder was slower with drives that did not prompt, but I think they used drivers from entirely different printers) but they probably don't mind it being slow as long as they don't have to constantly walk across the room to confirm the job.

[PhilFCS]

Just a followup, the same client called me back a month later, the solution stopped working for both workstations, meaning it was a printer change that caused it to break.

It was prompting for envelope confirmation again. I went over my previous notes and did some more testing, it seems the item that toggles this from prompting to not prompting is strictly the "Envelope Type" setting, if it is Envelope it prompts every time, setting it to Plain causes it to no longer prompt, so I'm leaving the client with steps to fix it should the printer "forget" the tray settings again.

I also set the Envelope Size setting to Any without any impact on the prompt. It seemed odd to me that I could set the size at #10 and still send  6 3/4 envelopes it seems the printer mostly ignores this setting when the type is not Envelope.

Hope this helps someone else. I can confirm this is a permanent fix.

[Langor1]

This works great.  Thanks for addressing this HP problem, HP should be ashamed.  To summarize, you have to update the firmware, make adjustments to the paper tray setting and be sure NOT to use the **bleep** driver for the device, but the universal driver instead.  GOOD WORK HP.  I've always liked HP printers, but in this case HP stands for HOPELESSLY PATHETIC.  Legal Business Client speaking.

[MJake]

It took me hours of time and at least 3 HP techs -- the first two didn't have a clue.  Finally got the envelope feeder working with the UPD driver, updated firmware.  It also took a Microsoft tech to get the letters in my mailmerge to print properly with envelopes.  For months, I gave up and used a workaround with two files, one for letters and one for envelopes where I forced the printer to print only envelopes.  Like Marisa Tomei said in My Cousin Vinny, " A F____ing nightmare."  

I will think long and hard before buying another HP product.  Even now, the envelope feeder works at less than half the advertised speed of the printer.  All in all, a royal waste of time, effort and money!