Question : Printing Problem

Hello,

I have a user who prints to a networked HP LJ 9050.  She is the only user to use the printer.  Recently she has been getting random pages with numbers/letters crunched together.  By crunching I mean the letter C could be touching the letter O and make it look like a number 8 sideways or the infinite symbol.  It usually occurs in 3 or 4 spots per page but only 2 pages out of a 10 page document.

It only happens randomly on documents from MS Word, but not all Word printouts.  The printer is using the latest PS driver and I have attempted to a PCL5e and PCL6 but still the same issue.  I even tried an 8150 driver.  The firmware is the latest and greatest.  MS Word prints the same document neatly to her local printer.  The maintenance kit was replaced 2 months ago.  Does anyone have any suggestions for further troubleshooting?  Please let me know.

Thank You.

Answer : Printing Problem

To add to the basic diagnostic suggestions made by Canadian_Dave:

'Print' a sample document, but select the 'print to file' option in the driver preferences.

'Send' the contents of the resultant file (e.g. testfile.PRN) to the printer port (to confirm that the fault still occurs), by issuing (from a Windows command-prompt session):

lpr  -S ip_address  -P any  testfile.PRN

where ip_address is the TCP/IP address of the target printer port.

You can then also send the contents of the file to another similar printer, for comparison, to eliminate (or not) the possibility of a random driver error.