LJ MFP M281 Error loop when printing ANY pdf

[Jesaynt]

Good afternoon HP Community, 

As the subject mentions, when attempting to print ANY PDF, the printer queue displays the printer being stuck in an endless loop where it will experience a brief error then attempt to print again. Until you cancel the job it continues ad infinitum. 

Common troubleshooting suggestions need not apply, they've already been done. But to review:
1. All other file types will successfully print.
2. A variety of drivers including current (installed via HPSmart) and old have been tried. 
3. The printer has been reinstalled 3 separate times. 

4. A variety of applications have been used to print the pdf's from, to no avail. 
5. There's no file corruption, this happens with every pdf. 
6. These files are not protected/restricted. 
7. Spooler service has been restarted several times.

8. No errors display anywhere else but in the queue window; not in Event Viewer, not in the applications being used, not on the printer display and not in the router's Packet Monitor log when I'm looking for comms errors to and from the printer. And the error message in the queue window only displays very briefly - blink and you'd miss it. If you hadn't caught the error it would otherwise appear as you'd expect in the queue when printing something.

9. Suggestions like trying to "Print as Image" from Adobe Reader doesn't work, the same issue occurs. 

10. A session with HP support (I assume Tier 1) was fruitless. 

Things of note:
When accessing the printer's local web page (I have no idea what the name of this is) using the printer's IP, and checking the Event Log, 5 entries are displayed, 4 of them detailing a "Code" beginning with 55, and the most recent being 49.0622 - which I've come to learn should be an incredibly rare error. Considering there's no time stamps for these events, or any other helpful information for that matter, I have no way of knowing if these pertain to the current issue. I don't understand the purpose of a log when it lacks these other important details. 

Per a suggestion I found on the web, I've attempted to install the "Universal PostScript Driver" from the HP page for this model of printer but the installation can't complete as it claims it can't find the printer - which may be an indication of something or it may not - I have no idea at this point. I don't quite understand how everything else can find the printer but this utility can't. 

The timing of this issue is rather suspect in that it very roughly coincides with the installation of a Sonicwall firewall. I say "roughly" because the problem wasn't reported until a few days after the install. Considering we have other clients that have both HP printers and a Sonicwall on their networks (this specific model no less) and experience no issues doesn't lend credence to the idea that the firewall is the issue. Moreover I would think that such an issue would interfere with printing in general and not just with PDFs. 

This location also has two different wifi networks. 

Things I've yet to try -
1. Printing PDFs from a different device (though he doesn't have another Windows device on site).
2. Connecting all the impacted devices to the other network and then seeing if the issue persists. 
3. Printing to a different printer (no other printer exists on site).

Needless to say, I am "colorfully frustrated" by now as I've spent a great deal of time trying to get to the bottom of this and solve it. I'm out of ideas and so is the web it seems. 

I have two questions that you fine folks may or may not be able to answer:
1. Has anyone ever encountered issues like this when a Sonicwall firewall was on the network? And if you have, did you fix it, and how?
2. Could PDF printing be somehow affected by wifi comms protocol? 

If anyone has any ideas, I'm all ears...  er...  eyes, rather.

Thanks,
James

[Jesaynt]

Update: Further testing showed that other devices on the network, specifically Apple devices, can print PDFs on the same wifi network. 

The issue is isolated to the Windows laptop and suggests that it's an issue with the OS not communicating with the printer correctly. 

[Jesaynt · Accepted solution]

Figured I'd at least let people know that this issue was resolved. 

After all of the aforementioned, we forced a firmware update as a late resort. After a restart the printer is now printing PDFs again. Note that the firmware version didn't seem to change post update - strange. 

I would include how to update the firmware but chances are the process will differ depending on the model. 

Cheers!