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elemist

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Printing / Font Issue

Having an odd printing issue, essentially the printer is only printing out part of a document, or a blank page. So for example it's printing a page that has a table on it - it will print the table grid lines out, but no writing on the page. Even a windows test page prints out blank.

This started after replacing the computer a few weeks ago. Previously Win 7 pro, now Win 10 pro. The printer is a Kyocera FS-1100 series printer.

Initially for the first couple of weeks it printed fine with no issue, then last week i shared out the printer and added the 32 bit drivers, so a laptop could print to it. All worked fine for 24 hours, then we hit this issue. After countless attempts at removing the drivers, upgrading to the latest drivers, removing the printer, restarting the print spooler service etc, i ended up rolling back with system restore to the day before, and installing the latest version of the drivers and it was ok. At the time i put it down to maybe having a newer 64 bit driver and an older 32 bit driver installed side by side.

Fast forward a week - and it's doing the same thing again. I'm at some what of a loss as to whats causing this.. i've just deleted the print driver - like deleted the printer, then gone into print management and removed the actual driver - and recreated the printer with freshly downloaded drivers, and it's still not working. I really don't want to have to go all the way back onsite again to do a system restore again.

As far as i can see there's nothing in the event logs, and as it's actually "printing" i wouldn't expect too. Interestingly when this happens i can still print the same document fine from the laptop to the shared printer.

I've also tested printing this same document to another network printer (a HP LaserJet) and have the same issue, so suspecting it's not so much of a printing issue as it's something font related maybe?
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elemist

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Just adding further info..

 - Tried deleting the font cache, no change
 - Same issue under different windows users
 - Can print fine to PDF and to XPS, and will then print out the PDF and XPS fine
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Are you using PCL or PS or KX/KPDL drivers?

Have you tried changing the spooling settings in the Printer Properties between Start Printing Immediately, Start Printing After The Last Page Is Spooled and Print Directly To The Printer so see if there is any change?

You can also change the Print Processor settings... Winprint and RAW is the most compatible.

There's also one other area you can check...  On the Device Settings page, you might be able to change the PDL options.
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Have tried PCL5, PCL 6 and KX drivers.

Changing the print spool settings to print directly to the printer seems to have made it work. But i don't understand why, and whats different.

Given it prints the same (with issues) to a seperate HP printer, it tells me it's more of a print system issue, than something related direct to the printer driver itself.
last week i shared out the printer and added the 32 bit drivers,

Put the printer on your network and only install the drivers on the computer that it needs.

having a newer 64 bit driver and an older 32 bit driver installed side by side.  

This is not a good idea, which is why I suggest putting the printer on your network instead of using print sharing.
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Put the printer on your network and only install the drivers on the computer that it needs.

Ideally yes - except there's no free ports where the printer is. It's used 99% by a single workstation, and now 1% by a laptop.

This is not a good idea, which is why I suggest putting the printer on your network instead of using print sharing.

There's no issue having x64 and 32 bit drivers on the same printer. In fact i have that exact setup running at ~ 40 different sites with no issue. I was thinking the issue here was i installed a newish x64 driver, and an older 32 bit driver. However after doing the system restore last week, i installed only the latest versions of the x64 and 32 bit drivers. Since it's happened again, it doesn't seem like a driver issue.
Same drivers, different bit levels, will likely interfere with each other. As you note, it may work, but no guarantee.
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Same drivers, different bit levels, will likely interfere with each other. As you note, it may work, but no guarantee.

Just to be clear.. this is installing the printer, then under sharing installing additional drivers... it's a simple, and very common way of doing things.
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Changing the print spool settings to print directly to the printer seems to have made it work. But i don't understand why, and whats different.

Anyone have any thoughts why this had any effect?
    In 20 years of doing this for multiple clients, I have never done this. To each his own I guess.
    Direct printing might work because Driver A works, prints, completes, and the Driver B works, prints, completes.

    That is why Direct printing would work.
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    So what do you do with a network printer shared off a server and there's 32 and 64 bit clients? Do you run around and install them manually on each workstation?
    You can try that, but it works better networked.

    Yes, I put the correct driver on each station. I prefer reliability over maybe.
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    Sounds time consuming..

    Much easier to just push out by GPO.
    Make sure you push out the correct driver.
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    No comment has been added to this question in more than 21 days, so it is now classified as abandoned.

    I have recommended this question be closed as follows:

    Split:
    -- elemist (https:#a42627298)
    -- Reece (https:#a42630599)


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