Macs, m402 and m452 printers, and Windows print servers

[jhuls]

Is anyone having luck with these printers being used on Windows servers as smb based printers in an active directory domain? We've been deploying network printers with smb based printer shares for a few years now via a script on the Macs and have had zero problems. In the last year we've received a few m452's and m402's and the Mac users can't print to them. In watching what occurs the print job leaves the computer and gets to the server but then just disappears. The server admins don't have any explanation for this and just says it works fine for Windows.

What I've had to do for now is configure the Macs to print directly to the printers via ip. This isn't our preferred method because then there's not any logging or auditing.

Ideas? Experiences?

[zoeleech]

While I don't have experience of these printers, I have previously spend many hours looking at exactly the same problem where a print job reaches the Windows print server and then just vanishes.

In my case even more weird in that some queues for the same printer model worked and some didn't. What I tracked it down to was the driver type on the print server. Type 4 and job vanishes, type 3 - User Mode and jobs come out. Quite what that means in terms of printer drivers I don't know but it was enough to get the Windows team to change the drivers over and solve my problems. Nor can I explain why this influences whether a job comes out or not but after very many hours of troubleshooting I was just glad to find something that solved the problems!

[apizz]

Just wanted to raise an "us too" here. Our only solution has been to do as described, set up direct IP printing.

[jchurch]

same issue here. my work around is to use the HP Universal PCL driver on the print server, and the proper driver on the client macs. in this configuration print jobs are processed normally. i do, however, have one outstanding help desk ticket of a windows user complaining that when she prints to the printer with the universal driver jobs don't always print in color. i have not yet looked into this and this is the only user complaining so im leaning toward it just being a user error. your milage may vary.

[mscottblake]

Check to see what driver is installed on the print server. If it is a V4 driver, it will only be compatible with Windows clients. If it's a universal driver that does not have the correct model configured, that could also cause the issues described.

[jhuls]

@jchurch Good to know about using the universal printer driver. I'll see if I can talk our infrastructure crew into trying that.

[apizz]

Thanks for the additional feedback. Question for you, @jchurch : does the HP Universal PCL driver support color printing?

[jchurch]

In theory, yes. But I do have one user that says color printing is hit or miss. But just the one complaining. About a thousand users and over three hundred printers.

[apizz]

Good to know, thanks. Will do some more testing and report.

[apizz]

Woohoo! So can confirm that HP Universal printer driver on our Windows print server with the printer installed on a Mac using the correct M452 driver prints in color.

This is great news. Much thanks, @jchurch !

[jchurch]

no problem, but i cant take the credit. using the universal print driver is a trick i found her on jamf nation a while back