Linkstation no longer works as print server

[scoob8000]

   

Have a Linkstation Live (HSDH320GL) which is about a year old.  The print server has worked pretty well for the past year until recently jobs would just dissapear.  At first clearing the queue from teh web gui would fix it, but not has no effect.  I've also tried disabling/enabling the print server and rebooting everything.

 

I have 4 computers (mixture of windows and linux) and all have this same issue.

 

Drivers are all the latest, firmware is 2.03, and the printer is being detected correctly under the USB properties screen.

 

Is there a fix for this?  I search the forum only to find other folks having the same exact issue.

[Paul]

I would flash the firmware on the unit, then set it back to factory defaults from the web interface under maintenance.

 

http://forums.buffalotech.com/buffalo/board/message?board.id=0101&message.id=277&query.id=28299#M277" target=_blank>how to force the firmware

[scoob8000]

   

I'm embarassed I did not try that.  I looked to see if there was a newer one but must of looked at 2.10 backwards because I thought it said 2.01.  :)

 

I'll give that a try tonight.  

 

Should I backup all my data or is a firmware flash pretty safe?

[scoob8000]

   

Just an update...

 

I updated the firmware to 2.10 and my printing issue seems to be resolved.

 

What a pain it was though, it took 3 tries for it to complete the upgrade successfully and when it finally did, the web GUI had defaulted to a language other than English.  It took about 4 tries to change it back.  After applying it would totally hang for 5-6 minutes then return to the login page, still not in English.

 

My advice, when upgrading back everything up and write down what users and shares you had because they will be gone afterwards!

[thequickone]

   

I have suffered the same sort of problem for about a month now. After a bit of really frustrating searching around, including on these forums, I have found a fix that worked for me. I cannot take credit for the actual fix, please see the article at the following link:

 

http://www.alexfalkenberg.com/2009/10/06/linkstation-windows-printing-problem-solved/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.alexfalkenberg.com/2009/10/06/linkstation-windows-printing-problem-solved/

 

Follow the instructions in the article and the linked Microsoft Support HOW-TO page, and you should be up and printing again.

 

One note; when you get as far as specifying your "Name or address of server providing lpd:" and "Name of printer or print queue on that server", you will enter the networking name (HS-DHGL###) and "lp", respectively. I am running XP Pro SP3, and there may be minor variance in what these fields are called on other versions of Windows. No slashes, forward, reverse, or otherwise, should be entered into these fields.

 

On a positive note, this also appears to get rid of the annoying "Remote Downlevel Document", or whatever it was called, being left in the print queue all the time. Not that it ever made much difference...

 

On a negative note, it appears I formatted/reformatted, initialized, updated firmware, etc., and deleted all my shared files for nothing. If you did the same during your troubleshooting, and are having strange circular reference problems with "pictures" and/or "usbdisk1" folders on your NAS, disable "PCast" and reformat your drive(s) again to fix this error.

 

Finally, two closing comments:

1. BUFFALO, shame on you for incorporating such a flimsy print server into so many of your products. This print server / utility barely supports Windows printing, which is without a doubt the most common method of printing in the technical world. We as consumers should not have to rely on private individuals to patch your shoddy software/hardware. However, now that someone has fixed the problem for you, how about you incorporate this fix in a firmware / software update for all your consumers that are suffering now, or soon will be?

2. Thank you, Alex Falkenberg / alexfalkenberg.com for providing a fix to my and likely so many other BUFFALO NAS users' printing problems.

 

My setup: NAS - BUFFALO LinkStation Live HS-DH500GL, firmware 2.11v101b (2.10 before this incident), USB Disk 1 - BUFFALO DriveStation HD-CE1.0TU2, USB printer - Canon imageCLASS D340

 

I hope this helps!!

[alexfalkenberg]

   Thanks for the kind words; very glad it worked for you. fwiw, I've had no printing problems at all since doing this. I have no doubts at all that tons of people are affected by it; I very strongly agree with the "shame on you, Buffalo" sentiment as well (as noted in my blog post).