Print jobs intermittently corrupted
Warren Post
performing a clean install of mdv2010.2 three weeks ago, however, print
jobs will intermittently come out corrupted. Specifically, normal 10 or
12 point type comes out 1 cm tall with abundant pixelated artifacts. A
cold reset of the printer eliminates the problem temporarily, but
sooner or later the problem recurs. Maybe after two pages, maybe after
ten. I have been unable to determine what triggers the condition. A
Google Linux search for "+print job intermittently +corrupted" turned up
nothing relevant.
I have cups-1.4.3-3.1mdv2010.1 installed.
What might I be looking at to track down this issue?
FP
> My Samsung ML-1750 has been working flawlessly for several years. Since
> performing a clean install of mdv2010.2 three weeks ago, however, print
> jobs will intermittently come out corrupted. Specifically, normal 10 or
> 12 point type comes out 1 cm tall with abundant pixelated artifacts. A
> cold reset of the printer eliminates the problem temporarily, but
> sooner or later the problem recurs. Maybe after two pages, maybe after
> ten. I have been unable to determine what triggers the condition. A
> Google Linux search for "+print job intermittently +corrupted" turned up
> nothing relevant.
Don't know if it's related, but in the last while, when I try to print
something, there's a long pause, then a message "printer may be
disconnected" appears, wait another while and eventually the printout
comes through. It's like the USB connection between the PC and the
printer has become dodgy. I don't think it's a hardware thing, though,
because the connection comes back. It wasn't like that before I upgraded
to 2010.0, and the hardware didn't change.
Now, my printer is from HP, but if there's a generic USB printer
flakiness going around then maybe it's related. Then again maybe not.
It's a long shot.
> I have cups-1.4.3-3.1mdv2010.1 installed.
Same here, even though /etc/version says 2010.2.0 0.10 cooker
> What might I be looking at to track down this issue?
Wish I knew. Another annoyance: my son has got himself a Windows PC, and
when he uses the same printer, over SAMBA, when his printout comes it's
*way* faster than a printout from my machine. He still has the same wait
before the printout starts, but when it starts going the printer flies
along. And the driver (hplip 3.10.2, updated by Mandriva only today) is
from HP so you'd think the commands it sends to the printer would be right.
FP
Warren Post
> Don't know if it's related, but in the last while, when I try to print
> something, there's a long pause, then a message "printer may be
> disconnected" appears, wait another while and eventually the printout
> comes through. It's like the USB connection between the PC and the
> printer has become dodgy. I don't think it's a hardware thing, though,
> because the connection comes back. It wasn't like that before I upgraded
> to 2010.0, and the hardware didn't change.
I've observed that sometimes -- I am unable to reproduce it at will --
opening a print dialog will show only the print to file option, implying
that the underlying system does not see my physical printer. Waiting a
moment, the printer magically appears, or if I'm inpatient closing and
reopening the dialog will do it. It's something I've only observed since
installing 2010.2 a few weeks ago.
It's not a bother and I'd be surprised it this were related to my issue,
but what do I know?
> Same here, even though /etc/version says 2010.2.0 0.10 cooker
That is correct and not a problem. On my box:
[warren@verdi ~]$ cat /etc/version
2010.2.0 0.10 cooker
[warren@verdi ~]$ cat /etc/release
Mandriva Linux release 2010.2 (Official) for i586
For the gory details, see the thread "Is it 2010.2 ? 2010.1 ? or
2010.0 ?" started on December 25.
> Another annoyance: my son has got himself a Windows PC...
That's an annoyance, all right. You try your best to raise them right,
but some kids are going to make mistakes no matter what you do.
> when he uses the same printer, over SAMBA, when his printout comes it's
> *way* faster than a printout from my machine.
You might want to start a new thread; the Samba gurus here aren't going
to see your issue hidden in this thread.
--
Warren Post
http://my.opera.com/wpost/
Doug Laidlaw
I have a Brother MFC on a wireless network, because USB connection stopped
working without continuously restarting the printer. Drivers are available
from Brother's Web site. Now any print job starts after quite a few
seconds. During that time I can see the CPU running 100%, and I guess it is
converting to PostScript or something.
Had no problem with USB using Ubuntu. I asked the support boys at Brother
Australia. They said that it was something to do with my distro's config,
but their suggestions didn't help at all. They did say that the wireless
connection would get around the problem and it has. Unfortunately, the
Ubuntu config is completely different, and I couldn't copy a file across
from somewhere. I can't say that Ubuntu is "better:" there are plenty of
threads like this one, over there. None of them helped.
But I have seen large characters only where there has been a paper jam, or
similar: something that breaks the continuity. It has never occurred
without an obvious cause.
I gave SAMBA away. Now my wife's Windows machine prints to the wireless
network; before, when the last printer didn't have wireless, I set up a raw
queue on my Linux box and put the Windows drivers on my wife's laptop. I
then sent formatted Windows jobs to the Linux box/printer combo as a
network printer.
Doug.
Allodoxaphobia
Look for loose cable connections. At least remove, re-insert,
and lock down all of'em.
"My Samsung ML-1750 has been working flawlessly for several years"
could indicate that, and/or a little bit of corrosion/grit/grease
on the connector contacts.
HTH
Jonesy
--
Marvin L Jones | jonz | W3DHJ | linux
38.24N 104.55W | @ config.com | Jonesy | OS/2
* Killfiling google & XXXXbanter.com: jonz.net/ng.htm
Warren Post
> Look for loose cable connections. At least remove, re-insert, and lock
> down all of'em.
> "My Samsung ML-1750 has been working flawlessly for several years" could
> indicate that, and/or a little bit of corrosion/grit/grease on the
> connector contacts.
That sounds like very good advice; thank you.
My problem being intermittent, I can't report with certainty that this
has fixed it. But so far it hasn't recurred.
FP
> On Wed, 19 Jan 2011 23:57:07 +0000, FP wrote:
...
>> when he uses the same printer, over SAMBA, when his printout comes it's
>> *way* faster than a printout from my machine.
>
> You might want to start a new thread; the Samba gurus here aren't going
> to see your issue hidden in this thread.
Sorry, just ranting. Point is the driver in Windows is sending much
better instructions to the printer, even though mine (hplip) comes from
HP, and you'd think they would know how to drive their printers. SAMBA
is only the messenger; it's working perfectly AFAICS, although it has
the same startup delay as any other print job since 2010.1 or
thereabouts. My Mandriva is decaying. (Latest hplip also no longer
detects the print cartridges, to see if there is ink left. But I've gone
off the topic so I'll stop now.)
FP
Marc Paré
I have to say that I am having the same problem and have been trying to
find the reason for it. My printer is a Samsung SCX-4200. When I print,
the printer will warm up and print a few pages and then suddenly quit.
It will only go back to printing properly from the print command after I
turn off the printer and re-start it. I had first thought that the USB
connection had been dropped by the MDV and turning off/on re-connected
the USB to the box. I still suspect that this is the problem. I have
never had this problem before.
BTW, there are also 3 more MDV2010.2 boxes printing from the home
network and all have the same problem.
Cheers
Marc
MDV2010.2 KDE4.5.2
Warren Post
> My printer is a Samsung SCX-4200. When I print, the printer will warm up
> and print a few pages and then suddenly quit. It will only go back to
> printing properly from the print command after I turn off the printer
> and re-start it.
Do you get corrupted jobs as I've described, or does it simply quit
printing?
> I had first thought that the USB connection had been
> dropped by the MDV and turning off/on re-connected the USB to the box. I
> still suspect that this is the problem.
Easy to check: as root, "tail -f /var/log/messages" before beginning a
print job, and watch the output for USB-related messages. I'll do the
same and will report back if I see anything interesting.
> I have never had this problem before.
When did it start? In my case, it started shortly after doing a clean
install of mdv2010.2.
Marc Paré
> On Fri, 21 Jan 2011 13:51:18 -0500, Marc Paré wrote:
>
>> My printer is a Samsung SCX-4200. When I print, the printer will warm up
>> and print a few pages and then suddenly quit. It will only go back to
>> printing properly from the print command after I turn off the printer
>> and re-start it.
>
> Do you get corrupted jobs as I've described, or does it simply quit
> printing?
>
No corrupted jobs.
>> I had first thought that the USB connection had been
>> dropped by the MDV and turning off/on re-connected the USB to the box. I
>> still suspect that this is the problem.
>
> Easy to check: as root, "tail -f /var/log/messages" before beginning a
> print job, and watch the output for USB-related messages. I'll do the
> same and will report back if I see anything interesting.
I'll give it a try.
>
>> I have never had this problem before.
>
> When did it start? In my case, it started shortly after doing a clean
> install of mdv2010.2.
I started noticing it after I upgraded to 2010.2. Not sure if it was
doing it before.
Cheers
Marc
Warren Post
> print
> jobs will intermittently come out corrupted. Specifically, normal 10 or
> 12 point type comes out 1 cm tall with abundant pixelated artifacts. A
> cold reset of the printer eliminates the problem temporarily, but sooner
> or later the problem recurs. Maybe after two pages, maybe after ten.
Following up on my original post, I have since tried the following, all
without any change in behavior or even figuring out how to reproduce the
problem at will:
* Repeatedly remove and reinsert the USB cable on both ends (printer and
computer) to work out dust and corrosion.
* "tail -f /path/to/log" before printing and watching the following logs
while printing:
/var/log/messages: nothing useful
/var/log/cups/access_log: nothing useful, shows success
/var/log/cups/error_log: nothing useful
/var/log/cups/page_log: nothing useful
* I tried to cancel all pending jobs in the cups queue when the problem
appeared, but there were no jobs to cancel.
* "service cups restart" after the problem appeared and before sending a
new job
* Continuing to send small jobs to see if the problem eventually clears up
So I'm as stumped as before, but at least have a little more information.
unruh
It may of course be a fault in the software/hardware on the printer
itself. Ie, since you are getting something like 70 pt type, is it
possible that you have printed something with large letters which it is
not resetting when it is supposed to do it? Obviously changing stuff in
Linux will do nothing for you if the fault is in the printer.
Note you do not tell us what actually happened when you tried those
things.
Warren Post
> since you are getting something like 70 pt type, is it
> possible that you have printed something with large letters which it is
> not resetting when it is supposed to do it?
No, I'm printing 10 pt. type from OpenOffice or Gedit. The problem may
occur, for example, when I'm printing a series of files from OpenOffice
or Gedit. Two files comes out fine, the third is corrupted.
> Note you
> do not tell us what actually happened when you tried those things.
My bad, I should have been more explicit. After doing each of those
things, the next print job came out similarly corrupted; no change, in
other words.
The only way I have found so far to recover from the problem is to power
off the printer and power it back up.
unruh
Sounds more and more like a problem with the printer, not with the
operating system, cups, .... Ie, you are trying to cure the wrong thing.
Marc Paré
I am having the same problem but without the corruption. We both have
Samsung printers that, till the 2010.2 version, were working flawlessly.
I have also been experimenting. When I do some print jobs, the printer
will print 3-4 pages and then stop. It then sometimes will start the
printer for the 4th page, but it almost looks like it is trying to do a
warm-up and then times out for the print job. I can the re-issue a print
for the page and sometimes it will print sometimes not. Most of the time
I reset the printer by turning it off and back on again.
I wonder if other MDV2010.2 users are having some of these problems? Or
is it specific to Samsung printers?
Marc
Warren Post
> Sounds more and more like a problem with the printer, not with the
> operating system, cups, .... Ie, you are trying to cure the wrong thing.
Good point; I'll try with a live CD. That should help determine if it's a
hardware problem. Given that it's an intermittent problem, it may be a
few days before I report back. Thanks for the tip.