4:58 p.m.
Hi,
I recently got this used HP Deskjet 895Cxi printer, connected it to PC
running FC8 and it's worked fine until yesterday. This morning it
started to behave strangely.
I am working on an 8 page document in OpenOffice. When I tried to
print it all, I got the first 3 pages fine then nothing happened
anymore. The print jobs would show up as active via lpq and also in
the CUPS web interface, but nothing whatever would happen. No errors
in the CUPS log. After about 20 minutes waiting, I removed the print
job with lprm.
Then I tried to print only the 4th page, the exact same thing
happened:
[marco@polaris ~]$ lpq
DESKJET_895C is ready and printing
Rank Owner Job File(s) Total Size
active marco 137 report 609280 bytes
It stayed like that for 30 minutes now, for one A4 page of black and
white text until I lprm-ed it. Some situation after restarting cups
and doing "ls -l | lpr" just to stimulate it.
Where should I look to figure out what's happening and fix it? It
doesn't look like an hardware problem. No noises, blinking leds,
nothing. The USB cable is still connected. I've noticed at least one
of the cups filters is a Perl script and remember reading about RH
Perl being really slow. Could that be the reason? How to verify it?
TIA,
Marco
--
Your own civil rights and the quality of your life heavily depend on how
software is used *around* you: http://digifreedom.net/node/84
5:05 p.m.
On Wed, 03 Sep 2008 23:58:10 +0200
"M. Fioretti" <mfioretti(a)nexaima.net> wrote:
Then I tried to print only the 4th page, the exact same thing
happened:
I suspect that there is something "weird" on or about the fourth page of your
document. Possibly a bad font, a bad graphic, or something else altogether.
What happens if you try to print your document starting from page 5?
--
MELVILLE THEATRE ~ Melville Sask ~ http://www.melvilletheatre.com
5:29 p.m.
On Wed, Sep 03, 2008 16:05:06 PM -0600, Frank Cox wrote:
On Wed, 03 Sep 2008 23:58:10 +0200
"M. Fioretti" <mfioretti(a)nexaima.net> wrote:
> Then I tried to print only the 4th page, the exact same thing
> happened:
I suspect that there is something "weird" on or about the fourth page of your
document. Possibly a bad font, a bad graphic, or something else altogether.
As I said in the original message, same happens after restarting cups
and doing "ls -l | lpr" just to stimulate the printer.
What happens if you try to print your document starting from page 5?
Right now nothing, it's freezed period. It looks like whatever
happened when it came to that page 4 left it blocked. Either it broke
physically or something messed up CUPS filters.
--
Your own civil rights and the quality of your life heavily depend on how
software is used *around* you: http://digifreedom.net/node/84
5:36 p.m.
On Thu, 2008-09-04 at 00:29 +0200, M. Fioretti wrote:
On Wed, Sep 03, 2008 16:05:06 PM -0600, Frank Cox wrote:
> On Wed, 03 Sep 2008 23:58:10 +0200
> "M. Fioretti" <mfioretti(a)nexaima.net> wrote:
>
> > Then I tried to print only the 4th page, the exact same thing
> > happened:
>
> I suspect that there is something "weird" on or about the fourth page of
your
> document. Possibly a bad font, a bad graphic, or something else altogether.
As I said in the original message, same happens after restarting cups
and doing "ls -l | lpr" just to stimulate the printer.
> What happens if you try to print your document starting from page 5?
Right now nothing, it's freezed period. It looks like whatever
happened when it came to that page 4 left it blocked. Either it broke
physically or something messed up CUPS filters.
----
cups has excellent logging options...
/etc/cups/cupsd.conf
edit it and change log level
Craig
5:36 p.m.
On Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:29:55 +0200
"M. Fioretti" <mfioretti(a)nexaima.net> wrote:
Right now nothing, it's freezed period. It looks like whatever
happened when it came to that page 4 left it blocked. Either it broke
physically or something messed up CUPS filters.
I've seen occasional printer lock-ups with OpenOffice and Scribus. You have
something "weird" on the page, as I said. It's confused your printer and
you
will probably have power-cycle the printer to get it going again.
The solution is to get rid of whatever it is that's causing the printer to lock
up. Check your fonts, graphics, maybe even your positioning to see if you have
something that's off of the printable area of the page.
You may have to experiment a bit to find out exactly what's causing the
problem. It may be useful to print-to-file and view the page with evince, or
convert it to pdf with ps2pdf and view it with acroread, or both, and see what
you get.
--
MELVILLE THEATRE ~ Melville Sask ~ http://www.melvilletheatre.com
6:06 p.m.
On Wed, Sep 3, 2008 at 3:05 PM, Frank Cox <theatre(a)sasktel.net> wrote:
On Wed, 03 Sep 2008 23:58:10 +0200
"M. Fioretti" <mfioretti(a)nexaima.net> wrote:
> Then I tried to print only the 4th page, the exact same thing
> happened:
I suspect that there is something "weird" on or about the fourth page of your
document. Possibly a bad font, a bad graphic, or something else altogether.
What happens if you try to print your document starting from page 5?
I've seem similar strange behavior when printing documents with a mix
of photos, graphic charts and all sorts of fonts. It always has to
do with some image in the document or a mathematical equation created
with equation editor in MS Office..
A few times I had to do this on Mac OS X:
In the problem page start cutting all images (paste them elsewhere to save) to
see which one is the culprit.
Once I found the problem image I cut it, then from a menu option (I
don't recall)
I selected "paste special" and chose the image type as jpeg. That solve
my problem. I've done it more than once.
I bet your printer is fine. Try printing some other document type:
text, web page.
hope this helps.
~af
12:37 a.m.
M. Fioretti wrote:
Hi,
I recently got this used HP Deskjet 895Cxi printer, connected it to PC
running FC8 and it's worked fine until yesterday. This morning it
started to behave strangely.
I also use an HP DeskJet 895Cxi.
I am working on an 8 page document in OpenOffice. When I tried to
print it all, I got the first 3 pages fine then nothing happened
anymore. The print jobs would show up as active via lpq and also in
the CUPS web interface, but nothing whatever would happen. No errors
in the CUPS log. After about 20 minutes waiting, I removed the print
job with lprm.
Then I tried to print only the 4th page, the exact same thing
happened:
There are a few possibilities. I list these in order of likelihood...
(1) You are printing a document created using MS tools and which
use some undocumented feature, which OpenOffice does not handle
well, and which it is translating into PostScript which gets into
infinite loops, or requests the printer to do something it cannot,
or etc. Try looking at the output from top and see if some interpreter
has gone batty. Try looking at the debugging output from CUPS (you
_do_ use CUPS?). Try sending the output to a file and then view/print
from ghostscript. Is the printer telling you anything, like with
flashing lights?
(2) You are printing a very large image, which is taking forever to
transmit, or perhaps which overflows the buffer in the printer. You
may possibly want to change your pre rendering setting to opposite
of what you use now.
(3) You may have a flaky cable which runs ok for transmitting all but
really rigorous collections of bytes, but when running full speed
fails. Usually, however, this shows up not always at the same spot,
and usually sporadically. Are you using a USB or a parallel? This
can sometimes happen with parallel.
Mike
--
p="p=%c%s%c;main(){printf(p,34,p,34);}";main(){printf(p,34,p,34);}
Oppose globalization and One World Governments like the UN.
This message made from 100% recycled bits.
You have found the bank of Larn.
I speak only for myself, and I am unanimous in that!
2:19 a.m.
On Thu, Sep 04, 2008 00:37:11 AM -0500, Mike McCarty wrote:
M. Fioretti wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I recently got this used HP Deskjet 895Cxi printer, connected it to PC
> running FC8 and it's worked fine until yesterday. This morning it
> started to behave strangely.
...
There are a few possibilities. I list these in order of likelihood...
Thanks to all who answered. I must absolutely leave for an errand
now, but when I'll be back I'll re-read all the answers more
thoroughly and investigate better, using your suggestions. However:
1) I had already written that there are no flashing leds, noises or
anything from the printer, that the cable is USB and is OK, that I
was trying to print a text only OpenDocument file and that even
other print attempts (I tried "ls | lpr") wouldn't print anything.
2) In the meantime, here's something new. Since power up this morning,
the printer looks "not ready". Again, no lights, noises,
nothing. Nothing revealing (AFAICT) in the cups log (where I
enabled debug). Below are its last messages and the lpq output.
Any further pointer/suggestion is welcome. Maybe the first thing now
is how to make sure, without carrying the printer to somebody else's
home to plug it into another computer, that the printer is still
working and that this is a software-only problem.
Marco
[root@polaris ~]# tail -40 /var/log/cups/error_log
D [04/Sep/2008:09:08:42 +0200] cupsdReadClient: 9 POST / HTTP/1.1
D [04/Sep/2008:09:08:42 +0200] cupsdAuthorize: No authentication data provided.
D [04/Sep/2008:09:08:42 +0200] Get-Printer-Attributes
ipp://localhost/printers/DESKJET_895C
D [04/Sep/2008:09:08:42 +0200] cupsdProcessIPPRequest: 9 status_code=0 (successful-ok)
D [04/Sep/2008:09:08:42 +0200] cupsdReadClient: 9 POST / HTTP/1.1
D [04/Sep/2008:09:08:42 +0200] cupsdAuthorize: No authentication data provided.
D [04/Sep/2008:09:08:42 +0200] Get-Jobs ipp://localhost/printers/DESKJET_895C
D [04/Sep/2008:09:08:42 +0200] cupsdProcessIPPRequest: 9 status_code=0 (successful-ok)
D [04/Sep/2008:09:08:42 +0200] cupsdCloseClient: 9
D [04/Sep/2008:09:15:42 +0200] cupsdAcceptClient: skipping getpeercon()
D [04/Sep/2008:09:15:42 +0200] cupsdAcceptClient: 9 from localhost (Domain)
D [04/Sep/2008:09:15:42 +0200] Report: clients=1
D [04/Sep/2008:09:15:42 +0200] Report: jobs=139
D [04/Sep/2008:09:15:42 +0200] Report: jobs-active=0
D [04/Sep/2008:09:15:42 +0200] Report: printers=1
D [04/Sep/2008:09:15:42 +0200] Report: printers-implicit=0
D [04/Sep/2008:09:15:42 +0200] Report: stringpool-string-count=586
D [04/Sep/2008:09:15:42 +0200] Report: stringpool-alloc-bytes=9144
D [04/Sep/2008:09:15:42 +0200] Report: stringpool-total-bytes=9792
D [04/Sep/2008:09:15:42 +0200] cupsdReadClient: 9 POST / HTTP/1.1
D [04/Sep/2008:09:15:42 +0200] cupsdAuthorize: No authentication data provided.
D [04/Sep/2008:09:15:42 +0200] CUPS-Get-Printers
D [04/Sep/2008:09:15:42 +0200] cupsdProcessIPPRequest: 9 status_code=0 (successful-ok)
D [04/Sep/2008:09:15:42 +0200] cupsdReadClient: 9 POST / HTTP/1.1
D [04/Sep/2008:09:15:42 +0200] cupsdAuthorize: No authentication data provided.
D [04/Sep/2008:09:15:42 +0200] CUPS-Get-Classes
D [04/Sep/2008:09:15:42 +0200] cupsdProcessIPPRequest: 9 status_code=0 (successful-ok)
D [04/Sep/2008:09:15:42 +0200] cupsdReadClient: 9 POST / HTTP/1.1
D [04/Sep/2008:09:15:42 +0200] cupsdAuthorize: No authentication data provided.
D [04/Sep/2008:09:15:42 +0200] CUPS-Get-Default
D [04/Sep/2008:09:15:42 +0200] cupsdProcessIPPRequest: 9 status_code=0 (successful-ok)
D [04/Sep/2008:09:15:42 +0200] cupsdReadClient: 9 POST / HTTP/1.1
D [04/Sep/2008:09:15:42 +0200] cupsdAuthorize: No authentication data provided.
D [04/Sep/2008:09:15:42 +0200] Get-Printer-Attributes
ipp://localhost/printers/DESKJET_895C
D [04/Sep/2008:09:15:42 +0200] cupsdProcessIPPRequest: 9 status_code=0 (successful-ok)
D [04/Sep/2008:09:15:42 +0200] cupsdReadClient: 9 POST / HTTP/1.1
D [04/Sep/2008:09:15:42 +0200] cupsdAuthorize: No authentication data provided.
D [04/Sep/2008:09:15:42 +0200] Get-Jobs ipp://localhost/printers/DESKJET_895C
D [04/Sep/2008:09:15:42 +0200] cupsdProcessIPPRequest: 9 status_code=0 (successful-ok)
D [04/Sep/2008:09:15:42 +0200] cupsdCloseClient: 9
[root@polaris ~]# lpq
DESKJET_895C is not ready
no entries
[root@polaris ~]#
--
Your own civil rights and the quality of your life heavily depend on how
software is used *around* you: http://digifreedom.net/node/84
2:33 a.m.
On Thu, 04 Sep 2008 09:19:16 +0200
"M. Fioretti" <mfioretti(a)nexaima.net> wrote:
Maybe the first thing now
is how to make sure, without carrying the printer to somebody else's
home to plug it into another computer, that the printer is still
working and that this is a software-only problem.
Most printers have a Test or Demo mode that can be activated by, for example,
holding one or more of the buttons (online or mode or what-have-you) down for
several seconds. This will generally print out a sheet (or several) with
statistics about how many sheets have been printed, or how much ink or toner
remains, or an ad describing the wonders of that model of printer, or ... you
get the idea.
--
MELVILLE THEATRE ~ Melville Sask ~ http://www.melvilletheatre.com
5:57 a.m.
On Thu, Sep 04, 2008 01:33:32 AM -0600, Frank Cox wrote:
Most printers have a Test or Demo mode that can be activated by, for
example, holding one or more of the buttons (online or mode or
what-have-you) down for several seconds. This will generally print
out a sheet (or several) with statistics about how many sheets have
been printed, or how much ink or toner remains, or an ad describing
the wonders of that model of printer, or ... you get the idea.
Very good suggestion, I had completely forgotten about test modes,
thanks. With that model, it turns out that you have to press and hold
down the power button while you press a number of times the form feed
button. Pressing form feed 1, 4, 7 or 11 times (all values found
online) does print 4 different pages. The first is the demo page which
is perfect, afaict.
Second one returns install date (2005/11), total page count 5063,
other stuff, an alignment test of each color ( not 100% aligned) and
an "Error code" equal to 90020103. Google says other people have found
this error code, but there are no explanation of what it means. Third
page is other textual info on paper-path calibration data and channels
A/B offset and gain table, nothing I can recognize as "printer works"
or "printer is broken". Fourth page is two narrow columns of black
horizontal bars and grey points at the very sides of the page, some
rows or = signs in the center. Not sure what this mean, even if it
doesn't look good.
Does all this mean the printer is broken, not anything sw? Maybe, but
I'm not sure. Meanwhile, at the prompt it still gives:
[root@polaris
~]# lpq DESKJET_895C is not ready
Marco
--
Your own civil rights and the quality of your life heavily depend on how
software is used *around* you: http://digifreedom.net/node/84
8:08 a.m.
M. Fioretti wrote, On 09/04/2008 06:57 AM:
On Thu, Sep 04, 2008 01:33:32 AM -0600, Frank Cox wrote:
> Most printers have a Test or Demo mode that can be activated by, for
<SNIP
description of demo pages that printed.>
Does all this mean the printer is broken, not anything sw?
Read like the hardware (in the printer) works.
If we make the assumption that the cable, and USB interface chips in the
printer and computer are still working correctly, with the following data
Maybe, but
I'm not sure. Meanwhile, at the prompt it still gives:
[root@polaris
~]# lpq DESKJET_895C is not ready
Marco
Then I would suspect the queue is stopped.
I would try the CUPS control URL
http://localhost:631/printers
If you see a the green "Start Printer" button for that printer, then you'll
need to click it and (usually) use user-name root and give the password for
root in the "Authentication Required" box.
hopefully things work again.
--
Todd Denniston
Crane Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC Crane)
Harnessing the Power of Technology for the Warfighter
11:32 a.m.
M. Fioretti wrote:
On Thu, Sep 04, 2008 01:33:32 AM -0600, Frank Cox wrote:
> Most printers have a Test or Demo mode that can be activated by, for
[...]
Very good suggestion, I had completely forgotten about test modes,
thanks. With that model, it turns out that you have to press and hold
down the power button while you press a number of times the form feed
button. Pressing form feed 1, 4, 7 or 11 times (all values found
online) does print 4 different pages. The first is the demo page which
is perfect, afaict.
Then the printer is likely working fine, internally. You
may still have a cable problem, though not nearly so likely.
Tellya what! If the file doesn't contain "secrets", send me a copy,
and I'll try to print a few pages. I know that you want to resolve
this issue, and you need to. However, if my printing a page or
two will "get you over the hump" I can mail them to you. They'll
look the same, because printed on the same model printer and all.
Second one returns install date (2005/11), total page count 5063,
other stuff, an alignment test of each color ( not 100% aligned) and
an "Error code" equal to 90020103. Google says other people have found
I also have gotten that error code. I forget exactly the cause,
but it is something meaningless. ISTR that just reseating the
print cartridges and powering off/on fixes that or something. Anyway,
my printer is working perfectly and shows that same error code.
I pulled the cartridges and reseated them, and turned power off/on
(using front button) and now that code is cleared. So, my vague
memory seems right. I think it means something like a nozzle doesn't
fire sometimes due to incorrect seating of the cartridge. I'd have
to research all over again. I just know that at one time a few
years ago I figured out it wasn't really meaningful.
this error code, but there are no explanation of what it means.
Third
page is other textual info on paper-path calibration data and channels
A/B offset and gain table, nothing I can recognize as "printer works"
or "printer is broken". Fourth page is two narrow columns of black
If it comes out, then "printer works". This is a skew test.
From my own investigation years ago, I tried up to 32 presses, and got
these results:
Test pages printed by the HP DeskJet 895C series printers
Press and hold Power, and press and release Resume some number of times,
then release Power.
Number Results
------ -------
1 Print self-test page "world-class professional print quality".
2-3 *
4 Self-test page with printer series, serial number, service ID,
FW rev, page count, PCL default symbol set, mfg 0-2, errror
code, and a test of each jet nozzle.
5 Power and Resume lights flash in unison 10 times, then Power,
Resume, and Cartridge lamps flash in unison 3 times, then Power
and Resume lights flash in unison 1 time, then Power, Resume,
and Cartridge lights flash in unison 1 time, then Power and
Resume flash in unison 1 time.
6 Power and Resume lights flash in unison 16 times.
7 Print alignment sheet.
8 Print "H" sheets forever.
9-10 *
11 Print FW rev, paper-path calibraton data and channels A and B
offset and gain tables.
12 Print hex dump of the EEPROM contents.
13-19 *
20 Run a short cleaning cycle.
21 Run a medium cleaning cycle.
22 Run a long cleaning cycle.
23-32 *
33+ Not tried.
horizontal bars and grey points at the very sides of the page, some
rows or = signs in the center. Not sure what this mean, even if it
doesn't look good.
Does all this mean the printer is broken, not anything sw? Maybe, but
I'm not sure. Meanwhile, at the prompt it still gives:
So far, it looks like the printer is not faulty.
[root@polaris
~]# lpq DESKJET_895C is not ready
You need to restart the queues.
Mike
--
p="p=%c%s%c;main(){printf(p,34,p,34);}";main(){printf(p,34,p,34);}
Oppose globalization and One World Governments like the UN.
This message made from 100% recycled bits.
You have found the bank of Larn.
I speak only for myself, and I am unanimous in that!
9:11 a.m.
On Thu, Sep 04, 2008 12:57:33 PM +0200, io wrote:
On Thu, Sep 04, 2008 01:33:32 AM -0600, Frank Cox wrote:
> Most printers have a Test or Demo mode that can be activated by,
> for example, holding one or more of the buttons (online or mode or
> what-have-you) down for several seconds.
Final report: the printer works fine, as long as you send to it one
page at a time. I have the feeling that this is some very weird
interaction between printer preparing to die (ie not always talkining
properly to the driver) and suboptimal code in some cups filter. Not
so much I can do to fix that, so I'll make do until I have time to buy
a new printer, as I don't print much these days.
Thanks to all who helped!
Marco
--
Your own civil rights and the quality of your life heavily depend on how
software is used *around* you: http://digifreedom.net/node/84
5697
days inactive
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12 comments
6 participants
participants (6)
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Aldo Foot -
Craig White -
Frank Cox -
M. Fioretti -
Mike McCarty -
Todd Denniston