asked on

unsupported personality PCL

This is an hplaserjet 1012. I have just found out that it is a host based printer, and not carrying any processor on board. I've read the forums on HP and the internet only to find that the common solution is to cycle the printer. Once done, it is only a matter of time before the printer will spit out a page that says "unsupported personality: pcl". Any ideas how to make this one go away?

Thanks,

Scott

PS, it's hooked up via usb to Windows 2000 Pro. I used the drivers on the cd, and just recently reinstalled them with the host based drivers off the website.

Thanks!
Scott

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☠ MASQ ☠

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wyliecoyoteuk

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scottman29

ASKER

Both answers were correct. I was wondering if you feel that resetting the spooler service on the server would make a difference. I could set the service to restart daily at 4am for instance. Of course, the main problem is that this is printing from a terminal based program. In a year we will move to an all windows version. I'm hoping then that this issue will clear up completely.

Thanks for the help,
Scott

☠ MASQ ☠

Thanks :)
I don't think you'll see a big difference as the error is mainly dependent on the type of document sent to print but it would be interestig to hear if it works & add to the possilbe solutions for others in the same situation.

scottman29

ASKER

When we did get the error, once we recycled the power on the printer, it stopped, and the same exact document was able to print. Since then, I made sure I was using the correct driver. I have not had a problem in over a week. If it happens another time, I will try restarting the spooler. If that doesn happen, I want to try changing the format to RAW.

I will keep you posted.

Scott

wyliecoyoteuk

Restarting the spooler should flush the print job without rebooting.
You could even write a script to do it on a regular basis.

Changing the spoooler settings may help.
Increasing timeout value on the server and the printer, and the size of the printer`s buffer(if possible) may help also.

aahad1

Dear All,

The best answer to this problems I heared (ITRC forum,Expert Exchange,HP support site and some googling etc) is

"Change the printer".

I feel we should plan well before buying a product .In older AT&T Unix,DOS days there were absolutely no issues at all like this.

I love AT&T Unix, SVR 4.2,HP Unix and SCO 3.x because of this!

Hope u all will love to come back to those older days.

Regards,

Abdul Ahad.H
Dubai

uar

i have the same problem. but with the HP driver of HPJL4m its workin fine. so it is a driver problem. but ther is a work arround

wyliecoyoteuk

The thing is, even unix and linux will print to some of these printers, but the bottom line is that these printers are cheap "crippled" units, that rely on Windows to print.
Often they will only work with one version of Windows, and almost universally, will not support network printing to any useful degree.

That is why they are cheap.

Advice:
Always buy PCL, Postscript or proprietary print language printers, that work with more than a particular Microsoft OS.
The problem is not the printer, but Microsoft.

OneBlindMice

I have about eight of these in our envirorment (HP LaserJet 1012)and they all work fine till I set up a HP Jet Direct to one of them and installed the 1012 driver from HP and I get the extra page of Unsupported Personality: PLC, only on the one of the desktops which I set up 2 to print to the printer, I used the same drivers, I did notice that I have XP Pro SP 3 on the error message desktop and XP Pro sp 2 on the one that prints ok....Weird maybe???