Prints coming out scrambled

I have this crazy issue and I'm trying to narrow it down. Let me try to explain.

What we are doing is creating labels(4x2 PDF) and sending them to a little Zebra TLP 2844 printer. I am dynamically creating these PDFs, obtaining the byte array, and firing off to the printer. What happens is this: we can print labels perfectly for a while, and then here and there will be a label that is completely scrambled. By scrambled I mean that all of the PDF is visible on the label, but not in the right locations. Sometimes it is like the label got split in half horizontally, and then the two halves get flip flopped. Sometimes this happens vertically. Sometimes it happens both vertically and horizontally. It is quite bizarre(I can post pictures if anyone would like to see). To try to troubleshoot this, I started saving the byte array to file before printing, and the PDF file looks like it should, but the corresponding printout is all scrambled. I'm trying to determine where the fault lies here; in the PrintManager library, or my printer. This is happening on every single PC we have set up like this(~20 PCs). Worth noting is that I have never seen a label come out bad when printing directly from Adobe Reader, which makes me feel like it's something I am doing. Thanks for any help!!

Hello,

This seems like an issue with the printer or the print driver being used. What PrintManager does is that it sends the PDF document to the print queue and monitors the print job for different events. There are a couple of things you can try in order to narrow down this issue.

There are several free PDF Readers/Viewer out there that you can try and print the label to the Zebra printer and see if this issue happens with some of them.

Monitor the PrintManager PrintJob events to see if it fires a Failed event in the case of the bad label, please note that the PrintManager will only fire the Failed event if the print driver returns an error.

Using the PrintManager, try printing these labels to a regular printer (using its print driver) and see if you can reproduce this issue.

You can try and update the Zebra print driver (if you haven’t already tried) to see if it fixes the issue.

Thanks,
ceTe Software Support Team. 

Thank you for the reply. I am happy to announce I think I have resolved this issue.

I tried what you suggested with the print events, and the only one ever getting fired was the Success one, even on a bad print.

I had previously tried printing from Adobe Reader and couldn't get a bad one to print, but tried again today because I needed to rule out your library. The first one I printed today from Adobe was bad!

Long story short, the printers were plugged into an unpowered USB hub and I believe this is what was causing the issue.

I would just like to compliment you all on some seriously awesome software. I think I have tried literally ever other .NET PDF library and yours is hands down the easiest to use and provides the most functionality. So keep it up!

Thanks