Vista / Win 7 Duplex Printing Troubleshooting Guide

[Bob_Headrick]

**The author has stopped updating the post. The information here has been out of date**

Some users have issues using the automatic duplexer in Vista or Windows 7.  This guide addresses some of the common issues and provides some solutions.  

No option for two-sided printing. The selection for automatic two sided printing may be grayed out, or only manual duplexing is offered.  This typically occurs because the duplexer is not recognized as installed, or the driver may default to not installed.   To correct this in Vista do the following: go to Start, Control Panel, Printers, right-click on the printer, Run as Administrator, Properties, (continue), Device Settings, Installable Options, set the "Two Sided Duplex Unit" to installed, OK.  For Windows 7 the method is similar:  go to Start, Devices and Printers, right click on the printer, Printer properties, Device settings, Installable Options, set the "Two Sided Duplex Unit" to installed, OK. 

Back Side Prints Upside Down.  There are several possible issues that can cause the back side to print upside down.  The first thing to check is the settings.  Typically there will be a checkbox in the "Finishing"  or "Features" tab to select "Flip Pages Up" or perhaps "bind on short edge".  You may find that some programs require this box to be reversed from what you would expect.  I have heard that some Adobe products require the setting to be reversed.  If changing the setting does not change the orientation then you may need an updated driver or a patch.  You can check for driver updates from HP's web site here.  Patches for some inkjet models are available here.  This issue has been corrected in many of the drivers for Windows 7 but may still occur on Windows 7 systems that were updated from Vista.  The patches for Vista will work in Windows 7 as well if needed. [Update - HP has now corrected this issue in many drivers.Check here before proceeding with my patches, the HP solution is better automated for installing the fix.]

"Duplexer Hardware not Installed".  Some network connected printers such as the Photosmart C7280 may incorrectly indicate that the duplexer hardware is not installed when printing duplex pages.  Clicking "OK" will cause the pages to print properly.  HP has released updates for the drivers that address this issue, check the HP driver page to see if any updates are available for your model.  If your printer does not have an update available there is a workaround that may help:  some users have reported that temporarily installing the printer as a USB connected device, then changing back to networked once the installation has completed will fix the issue.

Other Issues.  If you have other issues printing duplex in Vista or Windows 7 please post the questions as a new thread in the forum.  Be sure to note which printer model, how the printer is connected, your operating system as well as details of the issue you are having.

[orac]

Hi

I have a HP laserjet 1160 and i'm running windows vista, i'm currently unable to print on both sides even if i tick in the box for this option.

Please help as i'm at my wits end trying to resolve this issue!

Regards

[Bob_Headrick]

Go to the printers folder, right click on the LJ 1160, Run as administrator, Properties, (continue), Device Settings make sure "Duplex Unit (for 2 sided printing)" is set to "Installed" under installable options, OK.  When printing go to the Finishing tab and select "Print on both sides".

If this does not work please specify whether you are using the built-in driver from Vista or the one from HP downloaded here.   Also please indicate what happens if you select duplex printing - are there any error messages?

Regards,
Bob Headrick, Microsoft MVP Printing/Imaging

[CactusJack]

Hello.  I have an HP laptop computer printing to a Deskjet 6840 printer.  Recently added a duplex option to the printer, and cannot get it to duplex by default or at all.  I've gone through several of the suggestions here, and have ensured that the printer settings have the automatic duplex option "Installed," manual duplexing "Disabled," automatic duplexing set as default, etc.  I was able to get it to automatically duplex in Word 2007 by selecting the print template to "Two-sided (duplex) printing," but it does not "stick;" rather, it has to be selected for every print job. 

I see where you asked another poster whether he is using the HP driver or the Vista driver; I think I'm using the Vista driver, but honestly I'm not sure how to check the driver version for a printer.

I'd like to have the "global" printer properties set to always print on both sides using the duplex unit, but have not been able to get this to work.

What else can I do to try to fix this problem?

Thanks,

Jack

[Bob_Headrick]

---

@CactusJack wrote:

Hello.  I have an HP laptop computer printing to a Deskjet 6840 printer.  Recently added a duplex option to the printer, and cannot get it to duplex by default or at all.  I've gone through several of the suggestions here, and have ensured that the printer settings have the automatic duplex option "Installed," manual duplexing "Disabled," automatic duplexing set as default, etc.  I was able to get it to automatically duplex in Word 2007 by selecting the print template to "Two-sided (duplex) printing," but it does not "stick;" rather, it has to be selected for every print job. 

---

Try setting the settings as follows: go to the Printers folder, right click on the Deskjet 6840, Run as Administrator, Properties, (continue), General, Printing Preferences, set the properties, OK, Advanced, Printing Defaults, set the properties here as well. (The General Printing Preferences sets the preferences for the current user, the Advanced Printing Defaults set the preferences for all users.

[CactusJack]

Thanks for the reply, Bob.  All those settings were already as you suggest.  Curious (frustrating?) thing is, yesterday we could not get it to work (it's actually my wife's computer and printer), but today, I just verified the settings you list, then printed from IE, and it successfully duplexed!  Must be gremlins in the house...

Hopefully, it will now work consistently.

Thanks again,

Jack

[orac]

Hi

Carried out your instructions as written and found that Duplex unit was installed. Printed a job ticking print on both sides box and still no joy!

I'm using the Vista Built in driver.

Also I've had no error messages.

[Denfred]

Hi, I have a Photosmart 1215 printer with duplex attachment. As it doesn't work in Vista I am using Deskjet 990 driver as suggested. The problem is if I am trying to print double sided, it prints the first page and the stalls in the middle of the second page. I open up the printer and it status states error prin.... I then try to delete the document it then states deleting but nothing happens until I restart the computer and I am back to square one.

Denfred

[Steve_Portelli]

Hi Bob,

Thankyou for the guidence on a fix for my cp 1700 printer with the A3 issue. The patch I have tried to process thru the command prompt with had a hic cup after copy %temp%\hpw1b83l.gpd c:   I have tried space double space and triple space before putting in the c:

The driver is confirmed as installed and the patch is saved to Temp file and separately again to %temp% file created under the Temp file.

Any suggestions? Much appreciated, Regards, Steve

[Bob_Headrick]

---

Steve_Portelli wrote:

Hi Bob,

Thankyou for the guidence on a fix for my cp 1700 printer with the A3 issue. The patch I have tried to process thru the command prompt with had a hic cup after copy %temp%\hpw1b83l.gpd c:   I have tried space double space and triple space before putting in the c:

The driver is confirmed as installed and the patch is saved to Temp file and separately again to %temp% file created under the Temp file.

Any suggestions? Much appreciated, Regards, Steve

---

I have seen several cases of folks having problems with the %temp% directory.  %temp% should be available on all systems as a shortcut to the system temporary directory but this does not seem to be the case on some systems.  An alternative  would be as follows, in the administrative command windows type the following commands shown here in blue. Commants and clarifications are shown [in italics in brackets].

mkdir c:\temp    [this directory may already exist]

[next  extract the files from the patch into the directory c:\temp]

ren hpw1b83l.gpd  *.bak     [this may give an error if you have used this command previously.  In this case do a  dir hwp1b83l.*  to make sure that a backup file has been created from the original gpd file.]

copy c:\temp\hpw1b83l.gpd c:

del hp*.bud

net start spooler

After this the patch should be applied and available and the files in c:\temp can be removed.

Regards,

Bob Headrick, MS MVP Printing/Imaging