Hi gang. Something weird going on with print jobs. I'm running XP and have a HP DeskJet 3650 printer. I just did a print job (22 pages, Excel sheet, nothing fancy). I used low quality (black/white). The first page prints quickly, then pause... 1 minute before the second/third pages print, then pause again... It took 10-15 minutes to do the 22 pages (usually takes 2-3 minutes). I decided to open Task Manager during all this : during the pauses, CPU usage would climb to 100% and stay there ; while printing, it would go down to 3 or 4%. As for memory, the number for "spoolsv.exe" slowly climbed up to 90+ Megs... When the print job was over, it stayed at 84 Megs! It's still there as we speak (every app. closed except IE). What's going on here??? I've done other similar print jobs before with no pauses. Only difference now is that I've recently done a fresh install of XP on my new hard drive (everything running smooth so far). Anyone?
ed
01/16/04
the only thing that comes to mind is that the material is complex. If your model has a reserve mode function it may be time to buy refills. There is also a setting for how much ink to use in these various modes (fast draft,photo etc) Maybe these settings were changed.
Mark
01/16/04
Thanks for posting back Ed. I'm baffled. The Excel sheets are standard (no colour, no special effects...). I used "fast draft". From what I can tell, all other settings are default. The only thing I can see : when I reinstalled the printer a week ago, it came back showing "low" for black ink, which isn't true. I'm not getting "low ink" warnings though, I just saw the level within the HP interface (I can't reset it). I'm not a wiz with printers, so I look at spool options and don't know where to start, so I leave them "default". I had a few programs running idle when I started the job (OE, IE on Newbie, Excel, Explorer, that's it), then, half way through the job, I shut them all down. No change. Right now, the "spoolsv.exe" process is still eating 60+ Megs of memory... I want to reboot to see if it changes, but I'll keep it hot just in case someone wants to troubleshoot while in progress.
Peter
01/16/04
Try getting the latest driver and diagnostic software from HP website for your printer model.
ed
01/16/04
sorry I should have asked if you had both cartriges in the printer. If you have just one then if yours is like mine it goes into 'reserve mode'. To get out of reserve mode just put the colour cartrige in (empty or not).
If this doesnt relate maybe when printer got reinstalled windows installed its generic drivers and you'll have to reinstall from cd or as peter mentioned go to hp for utd drivers.
Mark
01/16/04
Thanks a bunch guys... My problem is really obscure. Ed, I made sure both cartridges were in and seen by the printer; all ok. Checked the interface to make sure "reserve mode" wasn't activated, it wasn't. Totally forgot about the web update feature, so I went, and there was an update for the printer... no change (after reboot).
The really depressing part: went and did some research, and there is mention of this on many forums. All kinds of attempts, but few solutions. There is speculation of malware that no AV detects (trojan), but nothing confirmed. Generally, people scratch their heads!!! Does not seem specific to HP either. Some think a MS patch could have caused this. Some network guys have the problem on some machines, but not all (nearly identical setups). I'm gonna do the usual (tomorrow), which is uninstall the printer and reinstall, then run all spyware/malware utilities (again), and finally, if all else fails, write HP for ideas.
Thanks for spending time on this guys, it is really appreciated. Have a great weekend!!
Mark
01/17/04
Ok guys. Malware scans : clean (NAV, SpyBot and Ad-Aware). Did a complete reinstall of the printer (by the book) : no luck. HP wrote back quickly. They suggested to "restart" the spooler (from "Sercices" - XP only) : no change. Then, they suggested to change the "Default data type" to RAW : already set to RAW. Thirdly, they wanted me to deactivate the spooler : unacceptable option (I hate Band-Aid solutions...)
I'm back to square one. I may need to write MS$$ on this one... ha-ha.
Mark
01/18/04
Think I got it fixed! After 3 e-mails from HP and a lot of screwing around, it appears that my problem was printer driver related, or XP related... I uninstalled the printer twice ; the second time, I got a driver from the HP website (french version) instead of using the CD (advice from HP support). Now, all seems better. Spoolsv.exe is still eating 30+ Megs of memory, but that's better then 90+ !! and "hang time" is virtually gone. From what I can tell, XP extracts the wrong driver during install (CD). I prefer manual installs, rather than the "XP-does-it-all-for-you" approach...
I still get the "Low ink" warning, so I'll do more testing with a fresh cartridge later.
Thanks again, Ed and Peter.
Heroshima
03/23/04
One thing , Check the membranes on the cartridge, I have noticed that on my printer there is a small bur that seems to relay nick the membrane good I have messed up 2 cartridges this way. I have several of these printers in the office and they all have the same issue, Its like a casting mark on carriage. If you don't snap the cartridge in just so you will push the spur into the membrane possibly severing the lead to one of the ink sensors. This being said I have found that some cartridges from HP don't use a sensor but a timer.
