I faced a problem that an HP printer printed only one copy of a document no matter how many copies had been specified in the settings when sending print job. It felt like the field containing the number of copies was just ignored by the printer (or its driver).
The printer used the latest available version of HP Universal Print Driver downloaded from the official website so it was no need to update the driver.
Mopier Mode
If you open the contents of the .prn file that printer generates before printing, you can see the following useful information in the print job parameters (highlighted in yellow).
@PJL SET QTY=2 – the number of copies.
@PJL SET PROCESSINGBOUNDARY=MOPY – the MOPY mode.
After looking up on HP forums, I have found that the problem may be related to the enabled Mopier (multiple original copy) mode in the driver settings. This mode supposes the decrease of traffic between a computer and a printer, when printing multiple copies of same documents. In this mode, only one instance of the job is transferred to the printer, and the QTY parameter specifies how many times the job should be printed. BUT, in order this mode to work correctly, the printer should have enough internal RAM or the HDD to store the print jobs. Such a memory is not installed in many models of HP class SOHO printers (HP LaserJet 1160, HP 1200, HP 1320, etc.).
So, the document is immediately printed as the print job is received from the computer.
How to Disable Mopier for an HP Printer
In this case, Mopier mode should be disabled:
- Go to Control Panel -> Devices and Printers -> open the properties of the HP printer you need;
- Go to the Device Settings tab;
- Scroll down and find Mopier Mode in the Installable Options section and disable it;
- Save the changes.
After that when you want to print several copies, several identical jobs will be created, which will be sent over the network and printed.
If the internal hard drive is installed on your printer, but the jobs from the local cache are not printed if the Mopier mode is enabled, make sure that the following option is enabled in the same section of the printer settings:
Printer Hard disk — Not installed
Enable this option.
Change the Print Processor to WinPrint
If you have disabled the Mopier mode, but the problem of printing only one copy persists, try to change the print processor of your printer.
To do it:
- Go to the Advanced tab in the printer properties;
- Click Print Processor;
- In the list of print processors, select the default Microsoft print processor winprint instead of the current HP print processor;
- Save the changes.
