Recently in Printers Category

This may seem obvious to some and hardly worth mentioning, but I mention it because it is demonstrably not obvious to others.

Now and again I notice people standing at the HH-303 printer, staring and wondering where their printouts are. In most of those cases, the printouts were in the racks immediately to the left of the printer.

The printout rack may seem like a layer of complication, but it's there to keep the small table area around the printer from turning into a mess of scattered paper in which print jobs become - inevitably - lost.

It's a Christmas Miracle!

After many misadventures, the replacement for the jammy printer at HH-303 has arrived and is installed and ready to use.

You don't need to do anything different to use it. Enjoy.

HP is sending us a replacement for the HH-303 HP LaserJet 4345 printer/scanner, but it will not arrive until the week of November 29th.

If you want to avoid jams and smudges in the meanwhile, please use the HH-403 printer. If the HH-303 printer jams on you, here's how to deal with it ...

I've reactivated the HH-303 printer for now - partly, I confess, in order to generate more error data for HP. But during some testing this afternoon fewer than 20% of the pages jammed and while that's dreadfully frustrating, it's not completely maddeningly useless.

I hope to have this resolved soon.

I've shut down the queues for the HH-303 printer because it is jamming too often to be useful. Please use the HH-403 printer for now.

I'm now working with HP Level 2 support (that's meant to be good) and hope (pray?) that we'll have the printer fixed or replaced soon.

The scanner can still be used.

That thing I said yesterday, after we had much of the guts of the printer replaced? About it being OK? I was too optimistic.

The printer is jamming less frequently, but still jamming with frustrating frequency. Our problem has been escalated to a higher support level by HP, but we can expect to be dealing with this situation until early next week. Nevertheless, I'm optimistic that the final solution is in sight :)

That said, the jams may be dealt with easily and predictably ...

1. remove paper

1. it's usually behind the the output unit on the left-hand side, even when the LCD says that it's a Tray 2 jam


2. open and close top of the printer

1. not the scanner bed
2. the latch is on the right-hand side as shown at right

I'm working on the streaking - though I might not be able to do anything about it myself. If you need pristine pages, please use the HH-403 printer.

The printer/scanner outside of HH-303 has been giving us grief for two months, despite have parts replaced three times - but I think that it's finally OK! A new technician looked at it last week, identified worn parts and this morning he replaced them.

Note that the printer is streaking right now; that should fade away after a few dozen pages.

Let me know if you encounter any problem with jamming.

A reminder that there is a limit to the number of pages which you can print for free: the department reserves the right to charge users for printing in excess of the thresholds published on the Printing Guidelines page.

In short ...
There is a charge of 5 cents per page to you (or your supervisor or host) for all pages over a threshold which varies with your status:

• graduate students: 1,000 free pages per year


• faculty and staff: 100 free pages per year


• visitors: pages are applied to the host's quota

We've had quite a few abandoned print jobs of late, some of them quite large. I have turned on banner pages for the time being so that we can more easily identify the owners; wasting a small number of pages will be the cost of saving paper in the long term.

The banner pagers needed go to waste - they can go into the scrap-paper slot at the top-left bin of the rack on the wall next to the printer.

Despite a third part replacement on Monday, the printer continues to jam several times a day. And now it produces streaky output. The vendor has passed our problems on to Hewlett-Packard.

In the meantime, here's how to deal with the paper jams ...

1. remove paper as described on the panel


1. it's usually behind the the duplex unit on the left-hand side


2. open and close top of the printer




1. not the scanner bed


2. the latch is on the right-hand side as shown at right

As for the streaking, the only way to avoid that for now is to use the HH-403 printer.

The HH-303 has had major surgery and can be used again. With a brand new thingum installed, it might just be that it no longer jams repeatedly. Let me know if you have any trouble with it.

The HH-303 printer is going to be down for an hour or two. Please use the HH-403 printer for now.

We had yet another part replaced on Tuesday, but the printer is still jamming. We're waiting to hear from the manufacturer now and will have to deal with occasional jams for the nonce.

In most cases, the jammed paper can be fixed by ...

1. pulling out the duplex unit at the left end of the printer


2. removing page wrapped around roller


3. pushing duplexer back in


4. opening and closing the top of the printer using the latch on the right-hand side near the top (not scanner; the top of the printer)

We are still waiting on a replacement part for this printer. In the meantime, it is still jamming several times each day.

In most cases, the jammed paper can be fixed by ...

1. pulling out the duplex unit at the left end of the printer


2. removing page wrapped around roller


3. pushing duplexer back in


4. opening and closing the top of the printer using the latch on the right-hand side near the top (not scanner; the top of the printer)

The HH-214 printer is jamming repeatedly and cannot be used. The department administration will consider the options.

I see that while printing is working from the standard ms workstations and most other RHPCS-managed hosts, printing via Windows printer sharing is not (whether you use Windows, OS X or linux). I'll be working on this after lunch.

The HH-303 printer was off line for a few hours due to a hung network switch. It's back on-line. The queued print jobs are in the left-hand printout racks (underneath the one which reads "Scrap Paper"). I deleted most duplicate (and triplicate and n-plicate) copies from the queue before printing.

The printer is still jamming, even after having an apparently faulty part removed. The service technician did not find the source of the problem and is going to consult with HP.

If you find that the printer is jammed ...

1. read the message on the LCD screen


2. follow the directions; usually the jammed paper is near the output tray




• tug gently on the output tray on the left-hand side of the printer and slide it back


• you should see paper wrapped around the mechanism; remove it


• push the tray back in




3. after removing the paper open and close the top of the printer to reset it




• the latch is on the right-hand side of the printer, near the number "1"

The HH-303 scanner/printer has had parts replaced yesterday and that is meant to stop the frequent paper jams we've been dealing with. We've had two paper jams since the repair; if they persist, I'll have the service technician come back.

We're still waiting for parts so that we can put Tray 2 back in place (currently, Tray 2 jams frequently).

The printer has begun a new weird thing: some jobs cause the printer to just sit there with the Data light flashing and the control screen reading "Processing ...".

If you find that the printer is sitting there with the Data light flashing for more than 30 seconds ...

1. press the orange Stop button on the printer


2. "Resume" will be selected


3. press OK on control screen

You will still need to press OK twice (on the printer control screen) for print jobs which insist on trying to print from Tray 2.

The jamminess of the printer is apparently related to a problem with tray 2. Parts have been ordered and for now tray 2 is removed; the printer will still work and should simply take paper from tray 3 instead.

In some cases, it may be necessary to press OK twice in order to force the job to use the second tray.

The HH-303 printer is jamming several times a day. A repair call has bee placed. Until the problem is fixed, if you find the printer jammed you should ...

1. follow instructions on the printer display to remove the jammed paper


2. open the top of the printer using the latch at the top right


3. close the printer

The last two steps just seems to make the printer feel good about itself again.

A note about printing charges and excessive printing: while our system for reporting and charging for printer use (in excess of the published annual limits) is not working properly right now, we are still tracking printer use and expect to be billing again soon.

I remind you that if you need several copies of a printout that you should use the photocopier in the main office: the photocopier is less expensive to operate and you won't be tying up the printer.

And while the problem of getting the square of the requested number of copies appears to be solved, I note that Adobe Acrobat (and possibly other apps) is ignoring requests for multiple copies.

The HP LaserJet 4345 printer/scanner outside of HH-303 has been replaced by ... an HP LaserJet 4345 printer/scanner. It's quieter, has a different touch-screen interface and is perhaps a slightly brighter shade of grey, but other than that you shouldn't notice any difference in using it. If I'm wrong about that, please let me know.

The HH-303 printer is producing blurry print. A new fuser unit has been ordered and should be installed by a technician on Thursday or Friday. If you need clear print in the meanwhile, use the HH-403 printer.

When you print to the network printers from the linux workstations, you get the square of the number of copies you request. Not a problem for one copy, obviously. Use the photocopier in the office for generating multiple copies: it's cheaper for the department, doesn't interfere with other people's print jobs and doesn't involve doing any math.

The printer in HH-214 is not working and we are looking into the problem. I have made the HH-303 printer the default for the HH-214 workstations for now.

After extended health problems and then months of near death gathering dust, the printers in HH-402 and HH-105 are being declared officially dead. I've removed the queues from the workstations and servers. The default printer for the HH-402 systems in now the HH-303 HPLJ 4345.

Here is a list of the current printers, from the Printer page on the Computing Resources site:

• BSB-B123 LaserJet 4100
• HH-214 LaserJet 4050
• HH-303 LaserJet 4345
• HH-403 LaserJet 4300
• HH-401 LexMark C750

The HH-303 HPLJ 4345 is the primary departmental printer: it is a high-speed, two-sided printer and scanner and is the only printer in a public area (i.e. not behind a door that is sometimes locked). The HH-403 and HH-402 are accessible from all systems but are primarly for use by the AIMS and Phimac labs, respectively.

The HH-303 printer has fresh toner and is printing again. Toner orders for the future appear to be back on track.

The AIMS-printer in HH-403 is working again after a last-ditch effort involving buggy replacement parts from another dead system. I'm cautiously optimistic, but will be keeping my eye out for problems. Please let me know if you encounter any problems.

I have made this printer the default for the HH-403 workstations.

We are awaiting toner for the HH-303 printer - it should arrive Thursday morning. The scanner is still usable. You can use the AIMS-lab printer in HH-403 until then.

A technician found the problem with the HH-303 printer/scanner and corrected it - it seems to be scanning just fine now.

The scanner logic board in the HH-303 printer was replaced today to no avail - scanning mostly doesn't work and printing sometimes stops. I new main controller board is now on order and should arrive in a few days.

Sigh ...

The scanner on the HH-303 printer is still wonky and stops working after x attempts, where 0 >= x <= 10. A new logic board has been ordered and will arrive in a few days.

The scanner has been poked and prodded by a technician and I have upgraded the firmware and it seems to be OK, except for the occasional message about "removing paper from the glass"; opening and closing the scanner lid seems to fix that. Send us email if you run into any problems with it, please.

The scanner is mostly scanning, but may ask you to "check the scanner bed"; lifting the lid once or twice seems to make it happy.

The printer is mostly printing, but is still getting stuck at "Cancelling job" for reasons I've not yet determined; the only solution is to turn it off and back on at that point.

I am going to follow up with the tech-support people next week.

The HH-303 printer has new guts and prints cleanly again. And the scanner now scans again. And because the scanner scans, the printer no longer freezes. Which doesn't really makes sense, so I'll be keeping an eye on it. But I'm brimming with hope.

Each time the printer was frozen (for minutes or hours) yesterday and today, a bunch of print jobs backed up in the queue and then came flowing out when it was rebooted. So you may find some apparently lost printouts waiting for you in the racks.

The scanner is once again not scanning; a technician should be here today. Printing seems a bit wonky too, with some jobs getting list when the scanner seizes.

The scanner scanneth scans.

The HH-303 scanner is not scanning. I have placed a service call and expect the technician on Tuesday.

The HH-402 printer is back from the shop and is working just fine. It is now the default printer for the HH-402 workstations again.

UTS technicians took the HH-402 (PhiMac) printer away for repairs on Tuesday. It should be back next week after replacement rollers are installed.

The PhiMac lab printer in HH-402 is down and awaiting a visit from a technician. A service call was placed Thursday afternoon.

The HH-403 printer is still down and will remain so until I return from vacation next week; I've not yet isolated the source of the probem.

The HH-403 printer did not come up properly after last night's power outage and is not working; it appears that a component received electrical damage. I will start testing components on Friday.

The problem with printing to the HH-303 printer from Windows and OS X has been fixed.

The HH-303 printer is fully operational again, with both printing and scanning working.

The scanner on the HH-303 HPLJ 4345 is not working, presumably as a consequence of the crash the week before last. The service technician was not able to get the scanner working today and will return this week.

The HH-303 HPLJ 4345 is not quite right after all: it prints just fine but won't scan. A technician will be here to look at the problem today or tomorrow.

The HH-303 printer has been serviced and is printing again. I had a report on Wednesday evening that the scanner wasn't working, but I won't be able to look into that until I return on Monday.

The HPLJ 4345 outside of HH-303 crashed Friday afternoon and won't come back up properly. A technician came out and will return on Monday with parts.

It ends up we had spare colour toner for the Lexmark C750 in HH-401, so we have a departmental colour printer again until it runs out.

The Lexmark C750 in HH-401 is now available via the queue names HH401-LMC750 and lp6 (the latter replacing the irregular c750).

There is now an HPLJ 4300 in HH-105; queue names are HH105-HPLJ4300 and lp7. I have made this the default queue for workstations in HH-105.

There are instructions for printing to this printer from laptops.

Don't forget that printing isn't free.

The HH-401 Lexmark printer is now a regular (if slowish) black-and-white laser printer; HH-401 residents may feel free to use it instead of the HH-303 printer without worrying about the relative cost.

The Lexmark C750 Colour Laser Printer in HH-401 will no longer print in colour but only in black and white. The colour cartridges for the C750 are very expensive and cost of replacing the two empty ones approaches the cost of a new colour laser printer. The department administration has decided that the cost (of refill or replacement) cannot be justified.

The printer will remain in HH-401 and will operate as a regular black-and-white printer subject to the same per-page charges as the other shared printers.

I've observed a few problems to paper and the printers lately. Please note:

The scanning function on the HH-303 HPLJ 4345mfp was disabled as a side effect of the printer service this morning. It's re-enabled as of 1:45 this afternoon.

The HH-303 printer has been repaired and the queue is flowing again.

The HPLJ 4345mfp outside of HH-303 started crashing on Tuesday afternoon. We are expecting a technician on Wednesday morning.

It's the start of thesis-printing season; here are some things to keep in mind.

You can force single-sided printing by turning off "duplex"; see this FAQ entry.

Acrobat Reader is your best bet for printing PDF files of your thesis; right-click and choose "Acrobat Reader"or "acroread"

Keep in mind the squaring problem when printing multiple copies; your best option is to print one copy and photocopy the rest.

The colour printer is not printing colour and probably won't again until it is replaced (in late March or early April).

Acrobat Reader 8 was installed recently but under some circumstances, your computer will still pick up version 7; you can force the choice of version 8.

If you want a copies of thesis on special paper, it is simpler to take a regular printout and your special paper to a photocopier than to put your paper into the printer and hope no-one else prints before you do.

I've updated the OS X section of the instructions for setting up queues for the shared printers to include Leopard.

The colour printer in HH-401 is now only printing in shades of black, white and blue (cyan, more precisely). The problem won't be solved immediately because we are most likely going to replace that large, slow and problematic unit. You get colour printouts on paper and transparencies from MSU Media & Design in MUSC or the Engineering DocuCentre in JHE.

In short: avoid doing so, because it costs the department (and you) less money if you use the office photocopier. If you must, keep in mind that you will get the square of the number of copies you request from the linux workstations (OS X and Windows printing are not affected).

The print server stopped relaying jobs some time late yesterday afternoon. Print jobs are now flowing again. Any obvious duplicate jobs - i.e. requests sent more than once - have been removed from the queues.

I've updated the instructions for using the departmental printers from OS X to account for changes in Leopard.

The HH-303 started jamming repeatedly on Friday; it's OK now. The technician suggests that the source of the problem was the guide in the paper tray not being set to Letter (such that the paper can shift).

The HP LaserJet 4345 outside of HH-303 is down with a hardware problem; a technician will be out to repair it on Monday morning. Use the HH-403 printer for now.

Any jobs queued to the printer between now and the time it is repaired will be deleted before they print.

The printers sometimes insist on having paper in Tray 1 (the pop-out or fold-down tray on the top or side). While this can be caused by a print job formatted for non-standard paper, it can also be caused by printer settings getting "stuck" on Tray 1 selection. If your print jobs repeatedly cause the printer to ask for paper in Tray 1, edit the file .lpoptions in your home directory and remove in references to Tray1 or Tray_1.

For the record: the HH-303 printer is working again as of mid Monday afternoon.

The HPLJ 4345 outside of HH-303 is down; we are expecting a service technician later on today. Please use the printers in HH-403 and HH-214 for now.

A few notes / reminders (depending on how long you've been with the department) about printing ...

Another reminder: if you try to print n copies from one of the departmental linux workstations, you will get n^2 copies from the printer. There are two ways to get n copies:
1) Print x1 + x2 + x3 + ... xn copies, where x1 ... xn are integer such that x1^2 + x2^2 + x3^2 ... xn^2 = n.
2) Use the photocopier in the main office.

Method 2 is, in fact, preferred because:
1) no mental mental algebra is involved
2) the photocopier is cheaper than the printer
3) it's actually departmental policy (primarily for reason no. 2)

We've had a number of questions in the wake of the printing bills sent out by the main office. Before contacting either the systems administrators or the department administration, read the departmental printing policies and guidelines. If you still have questions about why you've been billed, contact Julie Fogarty. If you want to see a break down of your print jobs, see http://www.math.mcmaster.ca/cgi-bin/printjob-logs-by-user. If you think that you can prove that the records are incorrect, email me; I'm open to persuasion by hard facts or compelling anecdotal evidence.

Some people have been quite shocked by the charges for printing for April through July. You can view and download a record of your printing activity for November through July from http://www.math.mcmaster.ca/cgi-bin/printjob-logs-by-user.

Records for subsequent months will be added at the start of the following month; e.g. the August records will be added at the start of September.

Friendlier access to more current data is under consideration - but the cost of such access in either dollars or sysadmin time to the department might be considerable.

The HH-303 printer started crashing on the weekend. It's now working again - at least for now.

The HH-402 was not accepting print jobs for a few days; the queue is now flowing again.

Descriptive Name			Short Name
BSBB123-HPLJ4100			lp1
HH214-HPLJ4050				lp4      
HH303-HPLJ4345				lp3
HH401-LMC750				lmc750
HH402-HPLJ2300				lp5
HH403-HPLJ4300				lp2

Some people like the banner pages; some people think they're a waste of paper. The jury is still out. But they are going to be turned off for a while until I can sort out a technical problem.

The HPLJ 4345 printer/scanner outside of HH-303 has been replaced by the vendor; the queues on the server have been renabled and it is ready for use.

The HH-303 printer is no longer unstable and crashing. It is now stably dead. Until the replacement comes, use the HH-403 or HH-214 printers.

In order to simplify use (and management) of the printers, I will be reducing the number of queue names for each printer to two: lpx and ROOM-MODEL. This will, for the most part, only affect those who print from linux workstations and the servers.

For example, one can print to the printer outside of HH-303 using any of the following queue names: HH303-HPLJ4345, hh303lj4345, lp3, lj3. Once I have made the changes, there will be two queues: HH303-HPLJ4345 and lp3.

The changes will take effect on Monday, April 16th.

The bad news: the HH-303 printer is crashing again - replacing the formatter (the motherboard, more or less) last week had little effect on the stability.

The good news: the vendor is going to replace the printer - this week sometime, I'm told.

The linux systems are now printing more than just banner pages - whole jobs, in fact. You no longer need to print by way of mathserv. Thanks for your patience - I realize that some of you had urgent need of printouts (which is, of course, almost always the case for someone).

And the HH-303 printer, which was repaired yesterday, has now been reconfigured and prints two-sided by default again.

The HH-303 printer has had a new motherboard installed and it seems OK so far. I haven't finished reconfiguring it, but it does print and send scans over email.

There is a large stack of full and partial printouts - without banners, alas - with Sheree Cox in HH-218. I moved them from the racks because there were some 2007 final exams in the pile.

The HH-303 is not working again, after all - it's crashing more quickly and frequently this afternoon. The printer is off and will remain so at least until Monday. The print queues have not be redirected to HH-403 as has been done in the past because room 403 will be locked much of the weekend. There is no guarantee of public printing this weekend.

For those keeping score: he technician has been back to look and scratch his head; the call has been referred to the manufacturer.
printer: 2
4Office: 0
HP: at bat

The HPLJ 4345 outside of HH-303 (queues hh303lj4345, lp3 and lj3) had problems and was not printing for parts of Wednesday and Thurdsday. A technician came out on Thursday and fiddled for a bit. We don't know what was wrong, but it seems OK again.

A few people have expressed understandable puzzlement over the banner pages (which show the document title and username) being generated by the HH-303 and HH-403 printers. After all, we're now wasting a sheet of paper with every print job, right? Right. But this is a matter of wasting a little to save a lot.

The HH-303 and HH-403 printers are going to be printing banner pages for the next week or so. Many hundreds of pages are printed and never picked up each week; the banner pages will us figure out why this is happening.

You will not be billed for the banner pages.

The problem with multiple copies - request n copies, get n^2 - announced in November no longer affects OS X systems using the new SMB print queues. The problem still exists on the linux workstations and servers.

For now, I've capped the print queues at four copies. Unfortunately, the jobs are not simply rejected, but cause the queue to stop; removing the job won't restart the queue. If this happens, email sysadmin@math.mcmaster.ca; you ssh to another system and print until the queue on your own workstation is cleared.

We are working on a less disruptive workaround in place very soon and hope to have a full solution before long.

A reminder that as of March 1st, Windows and OS X systems need to use the new SMB (Windows-file-sharing) queues to access the shared printers. The servers and linux workstations* don't require any changes.

For instructions for OS X, Windows and linux, see Adding a Departmental Printer Queue.

* except for those linux workstations and laptops not managed by RHPCS.

1. I didn't have the smb queue names for all printers posted; that has been corrected.
2. The instructions for OS X include a reference to username:password; make sure that you replace the text username with your username and password with your password.

As announced in the Summer of 2006, the department is now charging 5 cents per page for printing: the first 100pp/yr are free for faculty and staff; the first 1000pp/yr are free for graduate students.

There is no free printing for visitors; hosts will be charged for all pages printed.

See the Printing Guidelines for more information.

The OS X driver for the HPLH 4345mfp has a Booklet option under the Finishing menu: this allows you to print four pages per sheet (two per side) such that you can just fold the pages in half and have a little booklet.

The current mechanism for printing from Windows and OS X laptops and desktops will be unavailable as of March 1st. From that point on, only SMB (i.e. Windows networking) printing pointing to queues on mathserv will be available.

The good news is that since the SMB printing requires a departmental username and password, we can now print from the public MacConnect wireless connections.

The HH-303 HPLJ 4345 printer/scanner is down with a software error. We're now waiting on a technician. It will probably be down until Monday.

Jobs sent to the queues for this pinter (incl. lp3 and lj3) have been redirected to the HHH-403 printer. I'm told that HH-403 is usually open for much of Saturday and Sunday.

In earlier announcements, I mistakenly advertised the free printing limit for faculty as 100 pages per month; that should be 100 pages per year as per the chair's message to the department in the Summer.

The printing guidelines page has been corrected to match the text in the quoted letter from the chair.

A few people have reported that they are unable to create a print queue for the HH-303 HPLJ 4345 in Windows XP: the Add Printer application hangs just after one selects make and model. If this happens, try using the following as the address for the network queue instead of the one given in the documentation:

http://print.math.mcmaster.ca:631/printers/HH303lj4345

The HH-303 HPLJ 4345 printer is working again and the queues have been redirected back from the HH-403 printer.

The firmware has been upgraded and I am told that this should help. We shall see.

The HPLJ 4345 outside of HH-303 is down; all print jobs are being re-routed to the HH-403 printer. A service call has been placed but I wouldn't count on the printer being back uyp before some time on Monday.

Please be aware that when you send a request for n copies of a job to the HPLJ 4000-series printers (in HH-214, HH-303 and HH-403) from an OS X or linux computer, you will get n^2 copies: i.e. you can get the printer to print only 1, 4, 9, 16, etc. copies and you will have to ask for the square root of that number. We don't have a solution yet.

As announced in October, the department is going to be charging for printouts to the shared printers. Seriously. See the printing guidelines for thresholds and rates.

Other recent printing news...

The HPLJ 4345 outside of HH-303 does not have a Cancel button as most other HP printers do. Simply press the Stop button in order to cancel the current print job.

The new HPLJ 4345 outside of HH-303 occasionally complains that a print job requires paper of a particular size and no amount of button pushing alone will force it to print from the normal Letter size in trays 2 and 3. You can usually get the job to print by simply press the Start button twice (wait a few seconds before pressing it the second time). If that doesn't work, putting paper in tray 1 (the drop-down tray on the right-hand side of the printer) and pressing the Start button should.

This printer seems to ask for special paper far more often than the old HPLJ 4300 did; I do not yet know why.

If you try to print multiple copies of a document from OS X to the HPLJ 4545 outside of HH-303, you're likely to find that you'll get dozens of copies. This doesn't happen from either Windows XP or linux. Using the latest driver makes no difference. For now, don't try to print multiple copies to the HH-303 printer.

The Lexmark C750 colour printer in HH-401 is working again. Recall that you must now connect via the departmental print server; instructions for Windows and OS X here.

As announced via email and the Computing News site last week:

• the department will begin tracking printing and charging as per the printing guidelines methodically as for October 2006. (see annoucement)


• all access to the shared printers is now provided via a server, print.math.mcmaster.ca; if you maintain your own desktop or laptop system, you must remove any queues pointing directly to the network printers and add new queues. (see announcment)

The AIMS (HH-403) and Phimac (HH-402) printers were purchased using group funds and were intended for use by group members. We are requested by these groups to use those printers only if the primary shared printer, the HPLJ 4345 outside of HH-303, is out of service.

The HPLJ 4300 in HH-403 (the AIMS lab) has been the default printer for the unix workstations and servers for some time now. In order to avoid the incovenience of having jobs go to a room which is sometimes locked and to reduce traffic and paper mess in the AIM lab, the HPLJ 4345 outside of HH-303 is the default system printer as of 4:30 today.

If you have specified a default printer for your account (as described here), that setting will not be affected.

The Lexmark C750 colour printer in HH-401 is down with network problems.

We will not be allowing printing from the MacConnect network after the October 12th changes to printer access until some security issues can be resolved.

In order to print from a laptop on MacConnect:
* save your printout to a PostScript or PDF file
* transfer the file to mathserv or your workstation
* print using the lpr or kprinter commands; for example:
kprinter file.ps
lpr -P HH303-HPLJ4345 file.pdf

As announced earlier this year by the chair, the department is going to start enforcing the printing g0uidelines by billing for use above the threshold of 100 pp/yr for faculty and 100 pp/yr for graduate students and postdocs. See the printing guidelines for more information.

Starting Thursday, October 12th, you will not be able to print directly to the departmental printers from your laptop or desktop computer. Access to the printers is now provided by a print server.

The HPLJ 4345 - down much of the day - is working again. The queues redirected to HH-403 have been restored to HH-303.

The HPLJ 4300 laser printer outside of HH-303 has been replaced by a new HPLJ 4345mfp printer/scanner/copies.

The queues lp3 and lj3 on the servers and network workstations now point to the new printer. The old queue HH303lj4300 will work be an alias for the new queue HH303lj4345 for two weeks after which time it will be removed.

You should remove any queues for the old HH-303 LaserJet 4300 and add a new queue for the 4345mfp.

The HPLJ 4300 outside of HH-303 is down with a hardware error; it will probably be early next week before it is operational again.

All jobs sent to the queues HH303lj4300, lp3 and lj3 on the linux workstations - which normally go to this printer - are being rerouted to the HPLJ 4300 in HH-403.

Network queues which individuals have created on Windows and OS X PCs should be rerouted to HH-403 automatically as well, but I recommend that people explicitly print to another printer instead. Instructions for creating print queues are here.

Printing will not be available from mathserv over the weekend; use another server (e.g. bluespruce) if you need to print.

Update: printing restored Friday at 6:15 pm.

The Lexmark C750 colour printer in HH-401 has been a source of grief for some weeks: it ignores requests for two-sided printing and some jobs just never seem to reach it. I'll be spending some quality time with the C750 next week; until I sort things out, please approach it with extra time and patience.

The Lexmark C750 is working again, now that the melted overhead-transparency has been pried off of the fuser at the cost of an hour of a technician's time. We're lucky that the fragments didn't work themselves into the mechanical parts and cause damage.

Do make sure that you are using proper type of acetate sheets - the main office can supply you with the right kind.

The C750 in HH-401 is not feeling well. Paper comes out wrinkled; transparencies get stuck and are rendered smeary; it sometimes goes "crunk-crunk-crunk." I'm guessing that the wrong kind of transparency went through at some point and that the works are gummed up.

It's unplugged and should remain so. We're going to have a service technician out shortly.