# Having unexpected problems with Dell 3110cn color laser printer



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

Because this printer is several years old and no longer covered under warranty or a service plan, if I contact Dell, the call alone is going to be some $$$, so I thought I'd see if any of the many intelligent people here might be able to at least throw out some guesses as to what has been causing an unexpected error I am having with my Dell 3110cn color laser printer.

It has been running flawlessly as a workhorse for my home office for years--until a few weeks ago. I had to relocate my PC and printer and peripherals to another room, and after I reconnected everything, the following problem began to occur and won't go away...

When I print anything of 2 or more pages, only the first page prints. The second and every subsequent page has this gibberish at the top of the page (some pages even are filled with an entire page of unintelligible letters):



> ERROR: ioerror
> OFFENDING COMMAND: image
> 
> STACK:
> ...


About 2 years ago, I did install additional RAM to this printer, increasing its internal memory significantly, so I wasn't thinking a memory issue was causing this, especially since it has been working fine. It just started doing this right after I disconnected then relocated and reconnected everything to a different room.

Any idea where I might begin to figure this out? It is really annoying and definitely a problem, as it's my primary printer.


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## jimmie57 (Jun 26, 2010)

Have you tried uninstalling it and then reinstalling it ?
Have you tried to see if there is an updated driver ?
Have you shut it down, unplugged it and restarted it ?
If none of those work, can you put the memory back like it used to be to see if it is a ram problem ?


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## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

Yes to all of your questions. I wish I could answer no, because then maybe one of those otherwise good suggestions might work.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

Is it connected directly to your computer via USB or parallel, or via your network?


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## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

Via USB cable, just as before. Hell, I even tried via network, but that didn't help.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

I have a similar Dell printer, but I can't think of a thing to help. In the past I've seen similar error messages with PDF printing but not with my printer.


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## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

After reading your post, I did some additional tests. So far, the problem has been occurring only with .pdf files. Interesting.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

Somehow I remember something about going to print, selecting something like "Print As Image" in the Advanced Print Setup and it will print and somehow that solves the problem though I couldn't tell you why.


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## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

I'll give that a shot the next time I'm on the PC, which won't be until tomorrow evening at the earliest.


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## billsharpe (Jan 25, 2007)

Here's how Adobe says how to print as image:
https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/quick-fix-print-pdf-image.html

Bill


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## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

That hasn't worked, unfortunately. The problem still exists.

Now I keep getting:



> ERROR: syntaxerror
> OFFENDING COMMAND:
> 
> STACK:


or this:



> ERROR: ioerror
> OFFENDING COMMAND: image
> 
> STACK:
> ...


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## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

Here I am 7 months later and still can't get this resolved.

I have a Dell 3110cn color laser printer that has for a few years been working perfectly. It's a quality work horse that has never given me any problems--until recently. For some odd reason, when I print a .pdf, especially one that has graphics on it, I get instead some weird stuff. The first page is a brief bunch of messages/codes. See the attached .pdf file. Each subsequent page is entirely full of unintelligible gibberish. Oftentimes, dozens and dozens of these pages will spit out, thereby wasting tons of paper.

A few things to point out:


Long before this ever occurred, I upgraded the memory on this machine by adding a SIMM strip of additional memory, maxing it out. 
The problem first occurred immediately after I relocated my PC and peripherals, including this printer. I disconnected everything in one room and moved everything into another room. I reconnected it exactly as before.
The problem occurs almost all the time when printing .pdf files with images. For example, when I print GTC's NFL Sunday Ticket schedule (obtainable from the DirecTV programming thread here), it won't print; instead, this problem crops up.
The problem also often occurs when printing an image (.jpg, .png, etc.).
If my memory is correct, this problem began shortly after Adobe did a major upgrade to its .pdf software: Reader and Acrobat. I've got both installed.
"Print as image" doesn't always work as a fix, either, unfortunately.

I have tried troubleshooting it, but I can't for the life of me figure out what is causing this. I originally thought it would be a memory issue, but I added memory 2 years ago, and this problem first appeared about 6 months ago. I'm only now posting about it because I'm rather fed up, considering I have a lot of Christmas stuff to print.


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## billsharpe (Jan 25, 2007)

You say the printer is several years old and out of warranty. Perhaps it's time to get it replaced, although if it's only PDF files that are affected you could try opening the file in Acrobat then exporting it as a Word or HTML document.


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## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

To replace a color laser printer like this one would cost several hundred dollars, which is not in my budget. I don't believe trashing an otherwise well-running printer is the prudent thing to do.

BTW, it's not just pdf files. Most images give the same error.


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## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

I've attached an image I wish to print. It prints two sheets: page 1 the image is cut off; only about 20% of the image's left side appears. Then page two is the message:


> ERROR: undefined
> OFFENDING COMMAND: WM
> 
> STACK:


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## armophob (Nov 13, 2006)

I did not see in the the posts whether or not you upgraded to Windows10 around that time?


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## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

No, I'm still on 7, as I was when this problem began in April of this year.


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## armophob (Nov 13, 2006)

Lord Vader said:


> No, I'm still on 7, as I was when this problem began in April of this year.


All I have advice wise is when my HP color laser starts acting weird, I have to completely uninstall the software and blow out the drivers.
And then do a clean install of both after a reboot.
It has been a while for me though.

But I am sure that has already been done.


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## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

I don't remember if I did that, but I can always give it a try.


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## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

armophob said:


> All I have advice wise is when my HP color laser starts acting weird, I have to completely uninstall the software and blow out the drivers.
> And then do a clean install of both after a reboot.
> It has been a while for me though.
> 
> But I am sure that has already been done.


Well, THAT didn't work. In fact, it made things worse! My last fix attempt was to disconnect the USB cable and connect an ethernet cable and print via a network connection instead of a direct USB connection. Let's see if that works. So far a few basic pages printed. Now let's see if pdfs with graphics print.


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## scooper (Apr 22, 2002)

What kind of print languages does that printer support ? Most lasers support some form of HP's PCL, and a smaller number support Postscript. I have seen issues with PDF's and Post script in the past, but we're talking 10+ years ago.


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## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

It supports both, actually. 

It SEEMS to be working OK, for now, after I connected it via an ethernet cable and ditched the USB cable. I don't know why, but it does.


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## scooper (Apr 22, 2002)

Ok - if it supports both - I'd setup 2 different printers - 1 PCL, and 1 Postscript. They can print to the same printer port no issues. If one driver has issues, then try the other.


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