Printer Hex Dumps for Problem Isolation

Resolving The Problem

This document provides information on putting an IBM, HP, or Lexmark printer into hex dump mode to see which printer controls are being sent to the printer hardware. This is done by adding special HP PCL5 controls into the DATA portion of the Initialize Printer (INITPRT) tag.

This document was last updated on 23 October 2013.

Caution: When experiencing problems with printers, it is highly recommended to discuss the problem with a representative of the Rochester Support Center before putting a printer into hex dumpmode. The problem may be a known issue that can easily be resolved through configuration changes, printer hardware settings, or Program Temporary Fixes (PTFs). In these cases, putting the printer into hex dump mode may not be necessary.

There are certain scenarios where it is helpful to put the printer into a hex dump mode. When the printer is in this mode, it does not print the spooled file as it normally does; it prints a hex representation of the data that it is receiving. Some scenarios in which this may be helpful include:

o	You are getting output that is not correct on a Client Access PC5250 printer session. A communications trace shows what data is getting sent to the PC, but we suspect that the PC may be altering the data before sending the final datastream to the printer. Putting the printer into hex dump mode what the printer is receiving from the PC.
o	An ASCII printer is attached to the system via OEM twinax emulation box. A source/sink trace shows what *SCS or *IPDS data is being sent to the box. However, a hex dump is required to see how the emulation box is doing the transform to ASCII data stream. If using host print transform, the hex dump could be compared to the s/s trace to make sure the emulation box is not altering the data.

When a printer is in hex dump mode, it is dumping out the data that it is receiving. It is not processing any of the commands that are being sent, including form feeds. Therefore, after you finish printing a spooled file with the printer in hex dump mode, the "empty the printer buffers" button must be pressed to get the last page of data ejected by the printer. Usually, this is just the start/stop button; however, you may have to experiment or refer to the printer user's guide.

Hex dump mode is standard on all IBM and Lexmark printers. Unfortunately, there is no hex dump mode that you can select on Hewlett Packard printers. There is a way to get somewhat of a dump on HP printers. This works only if using host print transform on the printer. To do this, create a customization object with the following data in the INITPRT section of the WSCST source:

:INITPRT
     DATA='1B451B267330431B283130551B59'X.

This is of limited value if the printer was not using Host Print Transform (HPT) in the first place because the action of turning on host print transform may mask the problem. It also does not dump the data in hex but rather in character representation.

For more information on modifying a Workstation Customizing Object (WSCST) to put an HP LaserJet or DeskJet printer into hex dump mode, refer to the following document:

N1010140: Instructions for Modifying a Workstation Customizing Object (WSCST)

For instructions on using Host Print Transform (HPT) with various types of device descriptions or Remote Output Queues (RMTOUTQs), refer to one of the following documents:

N1010288: Using Host Print Transform (HPT) with a *LAN Device Description
N1019713: Using Host Print Transform (HPT) with a Remote Output Queue (RMTOUTQ)
N1019712: Using Host Print Transform (HPT) with a *LCL or *RMT Device Description
N1019470: Using Host Print Transform (HPT) with a PC5250 Printer Session at V5R1M0 and Above
N1019670: Using Host Print Transform (HPT) with a Third Party Emulation Package