Why does a printer, print, gibberish?

  • Thread starter Thread starter justforthis1
  • Start date Start date
J

justforthis1

Hi, we had an older printer, running off of a print server for my
office. it was printing gibberish and eventually stopped printing
anything real at all. we got a new printer, and it is already printing
gibbersish any ideas? i don't belive it is a driver issue. Installed on
the server off of the CD it came with. what other items can cause a
printer to print gibberish?
 
what other items can cause a
Click to expand...

You don't say what printer or how it is connected.
Serial, USB, LAN, wireless LAN, parallel port.
Is it a Postscript printer?
Data rate can be an issue.
As can language settings.
Flow control or rather lack of it.
A good start is did it ever work, when did it stop
working and printing gibberish, is there any pattern
to the gibberish.
Anything or any updates installed before it screwed up.
Try printing a simple document with just the words
test test or print test.
If the comps are XP can the printer be driven from
one of the XP's just to see it working, then the remaining
problem would be printer ok, but not through server.
If you try from XP then XP may have a generic driver for
the printer.
I presume you have tried uninstall and re-install of the
drivers.
Failing this a network monitor to look at data streams
is the tool to use.
 
justforthis1 said:
oh the comps are all xp and the server is server2003
Click to expand...

Given the lack of detail, it's hard to precisely. But here's a common
situation:

1. Computer says to the printer: "This is graphic data, print it as
dots" and starts sending data.
2. Printer loses power somehow. No one will admit to this.
3. Computer sees that printer isn't responding, stops sending data.
4. User turns printer back on.
5. Computer sees that printer is responding, resumes sending.
6. Printer interprets graphic data as text, prints "gibberish".

Repeat steps 2-6 until all data has been sent or user kills the job on
the computer.
 
Warren said:
Given the lack of detail, it's hard to precisely. But here's a common
situation:

1. Computer says to the printer: "This is graphic data, print it as
dots" and starts sending data.
2. Printer loses power somehow. No one will admit to this.
3. Computer sees that printer isn't responding, stops sending data.
4. User turns printer back on.
5. Computer sees that printer is responding, resumes sending.
6. Printer interprets graphic data as text, prints "gibberish".

Repeat steps 2-6 until all data has been sent or user kills the job on
the computer.
Click to expand...

A print job consists of a cohesive set of commands encapsulating the
data. The entire data stream is a single entity. If it's interrupted,
say through a power interruption, or network communication problem,
then all of the front-end setup commands may be lost. When
communication is restored, the printer may no longer knows what the job
was, and if the data stream is resumed part way through, the printer
will just default to plain text and interpret it as such, ergo, you get
gibberish. Since some of the commands are control characters (i.e. non
text characters in the ASCII x'00' thru x'1F' range), they'll print as
'weird' characters such as smiley faces, etc.

For most PDL's (Page Description Languages, e.g. PCL, PostScript, IPDS,
XES, Epson Escape Sequence, etc.), the entire print data stream must be
sent to, and received, in a single communication session. Any abnormal
interruption of this communication, other than that negotiated between
the host (server) and device (printer), could result in printing of
garbage...

Places I'd look, in order, would be:
- power cord
- power circuitry (first supply circuitry, then printer)
- network communication cables / lines
- any other component that could possibly be responsible for
interrupting communication (server fault, router/switch fault)

Bullitt
 
A print job consists of a cohesive set of commands encapsulating the
data. The entire data stream is a single entity. If it's interrupted,
say through a power interruption, or network communication problem,
then all of the front-end setup commands may be lost. When
communication is restored, the printer may no longer knows what the job
was, and if the data stream is resumed part way through, the printer
will just default to plain text and interpret it as such, ergo, you get
gibberish. Since some of the commands are control characters (i.e. non
text characters in the ASCII x'00' thru x'1F' range), they'll print as
'weird' characters such as smiley faces, etc.

For most PDL's (Page Description Languages, e.g. PCL, PostScript, IPDS,
XES, Epson Escape Sequence, etc.), the entire print data stream must be
sent to, and received, in a single communication session. Any abnormal
interruption of this communication, other than that negotiated between
the host (server) and device (printer), could result in printing of
garbage...

Places I'd look, in order, would be:
- power cord
- power circuitry (first supply circuitry, then printer)
- network communication cables / lines
- any other component that could possibly be responsible for
interrupting communication (server fault, router/switch fault)

Bullitt
Click to expand...

Saw this a lot with Dlink printservers for the reasons described above...

Usually one of the following:
- power loss to the printserver and/or the printer
- spooled printjob that didn't spool before someone turned off the PC or
the PC died due to lack of power, knocked power cord, etc..

The solution I found was to get a bunch of HP en3700 jetdirect
printservers and the problem just doesn't exist anymore.. No idea why
but it seems this unit is a hell of a lot better at dealing with power
and similar issues.
 
In most cases, the printing of gibberish is driver related in some
fashion. If it starts after working correctly, it usually means the
driver has corrupted in some manner, or cabling between the printer and
computer has been compromised. In some cases, wrong drivers can get
assigned to the wrong printer, wrong ports assigned, wrote type of port
assigned, or even the printer cache can become corrupted. It is only
rarely a printer malfunction. I'd expect in the case of the printer
malfunctioning it would be either a scrambled firmware situation, or
some preference in the printer itself charged.

Art
 
I just wanted to add to my own posting here, that others have pointed
out that disruption in the data flow is a common cause for printer
gibberish, which is actually probably the most common cause. As
mentioned by others, the "header" of the file often carries details on
how the computer and printer communicate, so if that is somehow lost or
scrambled the rest of the file data can be misinterpreted.

Art
 
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