CONNECTING A PRINTER IN PEOPLESOFT
Does this look familiar?
Welcome to Peoplesoft printing! Some of you have been printing without a problem since the upgrade but most of you have seen the above message more than your fair share of times. This article will answer your most important question – why - and offer a solution. For those that have not seen this message, congratulations on nursing that LaserJet 4 or 5 this far! The rest of us who have upgraded to a new printer (most likely because we didn’t have a choice) have not been so lucky. Remember, USB printers are not supported for PS Printing.
The heart of the problem is driver incompatibility. There are a few select printer drivers on the Peoplesoft server, which is located and maintained in New Orleans, and if the printer driver installed on your local machine does not match one of them word for word you may get the above error. To fix this problem you need to know 3 things: what driver you have installed for your printer, what port your printer is installed on, and what printer drivers are available on the PS server. To get the name of the printer driver you have installed as well as what port it is installed to follow the below instructions.
Windows 9x
- Click Start, click Settings, and then click Printers
- Right-Click on your default printer and click on Properties
- Click on Details
- Make a note of the Port and the Driver (word for word) used by your printer
Windows NT
- Click Start, click Settings, and then click Printers
- Right-Click on your default printer and click on Properties
- Make a note of the Driver (word for word)
- Click on Ports
- Make a note of the Port
Windows 2000/XP
- Click Start, click Settings, then click Printers (or click Start, and then Printers and Faxes in XP)
- Right-Click on your default printer and click on Properties
- Click on Advanced
- Make a note of the Driver (word for word)
- Click on Ports
- Make a note of the Port
You will need the list of drivers that are installed on the PS server, which can be found in the article Printer Drivers Compatible With Peoplesoft.
Either there is a similar driver for your printer on the PS server and it is not a word for word match or your printer is not listed on the server at all. Let’s tackle the former first.
If your printer model is listed in PS but the driver is slightly different, the solution could be relatively simple. Using the above instructions, open your default printer properties and go to the tab that has your driver listed. You will notice an arrow next to the driver like below:
Click the arrow and you will see a list of other printer drivers available for your printer. If you see one that matches one on the PS server select it.
If your printer model was not listed or you could not find the exact printer driver on your PC, you will need to add a printer with a driver that is compatible with your printer and is listed on the PS server. We have found the HP LaserJet 4 driver to be the most compatible with HP LaserJets. We will use that as our example to list the steps to create one on your machine.
In Windows (not Peoplesoft):
- Click Start, then Settings, then Printers (or Start, then Printers and Faxes in Windows XP)
- Double-Click on “Add Printer”
- Click Next
- Select “Local Printer.” Uncheck Automatically detect if you have that option
- Click Next
- If you are prompted to select the Port use the same as you found for your default printer above. If you are prompted to select a Driver select HP as the manufacturer and “LaserJet 4” as the model (recall, this example assumes you have an HP LaserJet printer).
- Click Next
- If you were prompted for Port above select the Driver and vise versa
- Click Next
- Name the printer “Peoplesoft” for easy identification
- Click Next
- Say “yes” to printing a test page
- Click Finish
You may be prompted for your Windows CD during this installation, if so and you do not have it enter \\sh-csrv1\Guest\Utilities\PrintDrivers into the path and click “ok.” If that does not work call the helpdesk at x55470, menu option #2, and explain what you are trying to do. Otherwise, if the test page looks good you are ready to launch PS and add the printer. If the test page was just gibberish or the formatting was off you will need to try another basic driver such as the HP DeskJet 550c. Call the helpdesk if you can’t find a driver to work with your printer.
Finally, add the printer in Peoplesoft. Log into PS as normal and then:
- Click Start, then Settings, then Printers (within PS Desktop)
- If the printer is not already listed, double-click on “Add Printer”
- Click Next 3 times
- Double-Click on “Client”
- Double Click on your printer. If you created a local printer using the instructions above, it will be named “Client\<your userid>#\Peoplesoft” otherwise it will be named “Client\<your userid>#\<name of your default printer>.”
- Say yes to default
- Click Next
- Click Finish
For any questions or comments about this web site, please feel free to email us at sh-helpdesk@lsuhsc.edu