New HP LaserJet Pro printers on VMS kicking blank pages

[Rich Jordan]

We have had decent luck with more recent HP printers on our VMS systems at customer sites when they had to replace older units (in this case a 4100). All of our apps were designed around the PCL5 printing language and have font requirements that mean printers that support at least the full font set from a Laserjet 4 series printer. We found out the hard way that just PCL5 or 5e support was not enough when HP put out a series of crippled printers that only supported a subset of the full PCL5/5e font set. LaserJet Pro series units nearly all have been good replacements. They work with both port 9100 (Jetdirect/raw telnet) printing and LPR/LPD.

But today I've got a new LaserJet Pro M454dw replacing a LaserJet 2430 (which worked great until it died) and it is persistently kicking out a leading blank page. We have docs going back decades on how to fix this problem, even some using Pathworks-related reset modules in the device control library for the queue, and variations of the TCPIP$TELNETSYM_SUPPRESS_FORMFEEDS logicals either globally or flipped on temporarily when the queue is started. Absolutely nothing has worked. We plugged an M277 printer in, no blank page. This is using port 9100 printing; we are going to test LPR/LPD and possibly IPP shortly.

Has anyone else had issues or good luck getting a current model LaserJet Pro to work cleanly under VMS using port 9100 printing?

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2023-03-17 17:16:04 +0000, Rich Jordan said:

> ... I've got a new LaserJet Pro M454dw ... and it is persistently
> kicking out a leading blank page ...

Ask the Wizard topic 1020 and some other ATW topics referenced from
there discuss the common causes of this; of printing blank pages.

ATW is on the OpenVMS Freeware (wizard.zip), posted over at VSI,
and—oddly enough—is still available at HPE:
http://h41379.www4.hpe.com/wizard/wiz_1020.html

Given how long ago that ATW stuff was, it's also distinctly possible
that HP has created some new way to insert blank pages.

AFAIK, OpenVMS lacks IPP/IPPS support, though that enhancement to
OpenVMS would greatly open up the printing options.

For those unfamiliar, IPP/IPPS load printer-specific drivers directly
from the printer itself. No need for printer-specific and OS-specific
drivers from the printer vendor.

Local printer preference here is Brother. Brother MFC, HL, and DCP
series and about as close to classic departmental printers as are
currently available.



--
Pure Personal Opinion | HoffmanLabs LLC

[Robert A. Brooks]

On 3/17/2023 5:10 PM, Stephen Hoffman wrote:

> Local printer preference here is Brother. Brother MFC, HL, and DCP series and
> about as close to classic departmental printers as are currently available.

+1

I love my MFC-L5900DW

--

--- Rob

[dthi...@gmail.com]

I have a LaserJet M404dn (2020) that appears to be working perfectly with DCPS. Not using port 9100, using IP_LPD protocol.

$ define/sys/exec/nolog dcps$lab_spool "TRUE"
$ define/sys/exec/nolog dcps$lab_product_name "Xerox WCP 232" !lie about model since it doesn't know what a M404dn is
$ @sys$startup:dcps$execution_queue -
lab - !p1 - queue name
"IP_LPD/10.241.106.197" - !p2
DCPS_LIB - !p3
"" - !p4
"/separate=(noburst,noflag)" - !p5
"" - !p6
"" - !p7
"" - !p8

Hope this helps. I wasn't able to get it to work correctly on 9100. Drove me nuts trying to figure it out.

[gah4]

On Friday, March 17, 2023 at 10:16:06 AM UTC-7, Rich Jordan wrote:

(snip)

> But today I've got a new LaserJet Pro M454dw replacing a LaserJet 2430 (which worked great until it died)
> and it is persistently kicking out a leading blank page. We have docs going back decades on how to
> fix this problem, even some using Pathworks-related reset modules in the device control library for the
> queue, and variations of the TCPIP$TELNETSYM_SUPPRESS_FORMFEEDS logicals either globally or
> flipped on temporarily when the queue is started.

My LJ 1320 gives a blank page at the end of each job.
(Well, only if you use the actual job control codes. Printing a text file doesn't do it.)

It seems to be a feature. It is to help separate the jobs.
As far as I know, there isn't a way to turn it off.

I recently replaced the controller board with one with an Ethernet interface.
It does the same thing. I don't know that it is explained anywhere.

[Zane H. Healy]

dthi...@gmail.com <dthi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I have a LaserJet M404dn (2020) that appears to be working perfectly with
> DCPS. Not using port 9100, using IP_LPD protocol.

This is the same printer I'm using, and it works great with OpenVMS 7.3/VAX
through OpenVMS 8.4/Alpha. I haven't bothered to try and get it working
with VAX/VMS 5.5-2. I just installed OpenVMS E9.2-1/x86, and haven't
started trying to figure out how to get it working there.

Zane