How to balance Lexmark power saving and cloud availability
How to balance Lexmark power saving and cloud availability
The Print Director app on Lexmark printers keeps a live connection to the PDServer. The PDServer uses it to hand released jobs to the printer, finish cloud workflows, refresh the printer’s settings and ask the printer for meter readings, supply levels and alerts.
To keep that connection answering while nobody is using the printer, the app keeps the printer’s processor available even when the panel goes to sleep. This is the Keep device CPU available for cloud requests setting. It is on by default, which is how every earlier version of the app has always behaved.
Turning it off lets the printer’s processor sleep as well, which saves some energy while the printer is idle. The cost is that requests from the PDServer can wait until something wakes the printer.
What the setting does
| On (default) | Off | |
|---|---|---|
| Panel | Sleeps as normal | Sleeps as normal |
| Printer processor | Kept available by the app | Allowed to sleep when nothing else needs it |
| Releases and cloud workflows started at the panel | Immediate | Touching the panel wakes the printer; app 3.0.2 and later reconnect straight away |
| Requests the PDServer starts while the printer is idle | Answered straight away | May wait until the printer wakes |
| Energy use while idle | Printer’s normal sleep power | Can be lower, depending on the printer and its other apps |
Neither setting can wake a printer that has entered Hibernate (or deep sleep), and neither setting changes when the panel sleeps: that is still controlled by the printer’s own power settings.
What depends on the printer being reachable while idle
With the setting off, these requests from the PDServer may wait until the printer wakes:
- Download-print deliveries nobody walked up for, for example cloud printing to a printer that does not use secure release. On a local network the PDServer falls back to sending the job to the printer’s print port. On a cloud-hosted PDServer with no route to the printer, the job waits until the printer wakes.
- Meter readings, supply levels and alerts requested remotely.
- Settings refreshes pushed from the PDServer.
Anything a user starts at the panel is barely affected: touching the panel wakes the printer, and from app version 3.0.2 the app reconnects to the PDServer immediately (version 3.0.1 can take up to a minute to reconnect after a wake).
When to turn it off
Leave it on unless reducing idle energy use matters more than immediate remote requests. Two things limit the saving:
- The printer can only sleep its processor if every app installed on it allows that. If any other app keeps the processor awake, turning this setting off saves nothing.
- The app still wakes the processor briefly and regularly to keep its connection to the PDServer alive, so the processor sleeps in short periods rather than continuously.
Tip: if you turn it off to meet an energy target, measure the printer’s idle power draw before and after. The saving depends on the model, its firmware and the other installed apps.
Before you begin
- The printer must run the Print Director app 3.0.1 or later. Earlier versions do not have the setting and always keep the processor available.
- To change the setting from Resource Manager for one printer or many, you need Print Director 2.5.15 or later. On earlier versions, change it on the printer (see below).
Step 1: Check the current value
- In Resource Manager, go to Print Management > Shared Devices and double-click the Lexmark printer.
- Click Controller in the list on the left, then Initialisation in the second list of settings pages.
- Under App settings on device, click Read settings.
- The output lists Keep device CPU available for cloud requests with the value set on the printer. If it says the setting is not configurable in this app version, the printer runs an app older than 3.0.1 and always keeps the processor available.
Step 2: Change it on one printer or many
- Open the settings:
- For one printer, open its Initialisation page as in Step 1.
- For several printers, go to Print Management > Lexmark Integrated, select the printers, edit them, and open the Initialisation page.
- Under App settings on device, click All app settings.
- In the PDServer connection group, tick or untick Keep device CPU available for cloud requests. When editing several printers, first tick the change box to the left of the setting so the change applies to all of them.
- Close the window and save.
- Send the change to the printers:
- For one printer, click Set all settings (or Initialise).
- For several printers, select them in the Lexmark Integrated list, right-click and choose Send all settings.
Printers running an app older than 3.0.1 are skipped for this one setting, and the output says so. Everything else in the push is sent as normal.
Step 3: Confirm
Click Read settings again, or check the push output: each printer reports the value it was sent.
Changing it on the printer instead
On the printer’s web page open Apps, then Print Director Lexmark Integration, then Configure, and change Keep device CPU available for cloud requests.
Resource Manager is the source of truth: the next Send all settings, Set all settings or Initialise from Resource Manager replaces a value changed on the printer.
Troubleshooting
Releases or cloud workflows are slow to start after the printer has been idle. If the setting is off, requests the PDServer starts while the printer is asleep wait for it to wake. Turn the setting back on for printers where immediate remote delivery matters.
The setting keeps changing back. Resource Manager pushed its own value. Change the setting in Resource Manager, not on the printer, and send it again.
Turning the setting off made no difference to power use. Another app on the printer is keeping the processor available, or the printer’s own power settings keep it awake. Check the printer’s installed apps and power settings with the printer’s documentation.
Read settings says the setting is not configurable. The printer runs a Print Director app older than 3.0.1. Update the app to use the setting.
Related
- How to store held print jobs on the PDServer: the Lexmark download-print option, which relies on the connection this setting keeps available.
- How to harden the security of Lexmark printers.
| Document revision date: 2026/10/23 Software version: 2.5.15.3 |