Extreme slow print start

[_ChrisF]

Hi there,

I installed a brand new HP M553N this morning, everything worked really fine with the driver installation and I was able to print without any problems.

Then after about 3 hours, it now takes a minimum of 1 minute before the printer starts printing. The print job just sits in the print queue on WIndows saying "Printing" but the printer doesn't start..

I have the latest firmware available for the printer installed, it came with this version.

I have Windows 10 with latest updates installed.

I have restarted the printer several times.

I have restarted my computer several times.

I have tried to stop and start the print spool service in Windows several times.

The spool folder in "C:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS" is empty when I try to print and populates with files when I create a print job.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled the HP print driver, no difference and slow print directly after driver installation.

File downloaded from 123.hp.com/laserjet "HPEasyStart_12_2_5163_01.exe"

Driver installed "HP Color LaserJet M553 PCL 6"
Content of what is to be printed does not matter, from notepad to pdf, to cad drawings to a simple Windows print test page.

This is extremely frustrating.. I would probably have been more accepting if the print speed was slow already from the first installation of the driver, but as that went extremely fast from print button to print start, I'm now extremely angry that the print start is delayed of 1 minute or more.

Paying several hundreds of dollars for a printer that is not working as it should is not ok.

Please tell me what to do to resolve this issue!

[_ChrisF · Accepted solution]

Helping myself, thanks to Franco_C in this thread;

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/LaserJet-Printing/HP-LaserJet-Pro-M404n-printing-is-extremely-slow/m-p... 

The solution was to go for not the standard driver, the "Full software" variant, but instead go for "Driver-Universal Print Driver (2)" category and download the HP Universal Print Driver for Windows PCL6 (64-bit). Version I used is 7.0.0.24832, size 19.3MB released on September 8th 2020.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-color-laserjet-enterprise-m553-series/7087331/mo... 

Now print speed is immediate after pressing print, in Windows 10.