Windows 8 updates causes PCL XL error when printing to printer
We excountered problems with various brands of printers suddenly unable to print after march 2015 updates to Windows 8 and 8.1.
PCL XL error
subsystem: kernel
error: IllegalOperatorSequence
At first the workaround appeared to be simply to reinstall the driver or to use a PS driver instead of the PCL6 driver originally installed. To our surprise the issue came back shortly after.
Here’s a list of things we tried:
- Reinstall driver
- Reinstall using an alternate driver (PS vs PCL6)
- Updated printer firmware
- Uninstalled Microsoft Updates (and reinstalled the drivers when that failed to fix the problem)
In our case it appears there was a combination that affected the printing. The anti-virus is somehow causing the issue in combination with the update. So here are the steps to fix the problem:
- Disable the anti-virus
- Install/reinstall the print driver (PCL6 or PS)
- Test
- Reactivate your anti-virus
- Test (if the problem returns, turn the anti-virus off and test again.)
UPDATE: AVG kindly provided these instructions:
- Go to advanced settings
- Click Web Browsing Protection on the plus sign next to that
- Online Shield plus sign
- Directly click Expert settings
- In the settings window on the right uncheck “Scan encrypted (TLS and SSL) network traffic.
-CTBOB team
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