HP OfficeJet 8000

The last couple of weeks we have had increasing problems with our printer for the entire family. We are using a HP OfficeJet Pro 8000, that is connected to the 1 Gb switch together with the workstations and the router.
More and more documents and web pages failed on printing but remained in the queue and blocked other jobs.
We are using both Secunia and SlimDrivers and neither reported a missing update.

To fix the problem I changed both the printer and the workstations:

• The WSD was configured for discovery only.
• The existing printer registration was deleted from Devices and Printers.
• The port was deleted.
• The driver was deleted with installation image - together with other HP drivers.

The firmware was updated, so I downloaded and installed the complete package for the printer from HP Support.
Also I downloaded and installed the SLP update.
All our computers are running Windows 7 x64, and used the same installation set.

After a restart all print jobs, that failed before, runs with success.
:-)
We are now challenging the printer for the next couple of weeks with various jobs. If we can avoid a purchase of a new printer, we think we have a success.

The conslusion for the moment must be something like: Do not trust central driver updates.
I know I have said something like this before (ati-driver-on-windows-7), but it is still relevant.

ATI Driver on Windows 7

I did not downloaded a driver for my ATI 4850 card when I installed Windows 7 (x64) as the installation found the card and installed a suitable driver. But inspired by a colleague I took a look at the installed driver version, which were 8.6 while the the ATI driver site gives version 10.6 on the latest driver suite.
I downloaded the full Catalyst Software Suite, but made a custom installation where I unselected "The Lord of the Rings free trial", "HDMI/DP Audio driver" and "Communication Opt-In".
After installation the driver version is 8.7. Not a major leap in driver version, but the date of the driver is now 2010-05-27 instead of 2009-08-17.
At the end of the day I have learned that I can not trust Microsoft to update my drivers, even the hardware have been identified correct by the installation.
By the way - I can not feel any difference...