Punkrulz

Hey guys,

Man these printers are really beginning to become difficult to troubleshoot. One of my clients is utilizing an HP Designjet 800 Printer to print a lot of maps. Lately there have been some strange issues going on, but I was able to resolve them (primarily network communication problems). However, now the user is unable to print and I can't explain why.

She's attempting to print a 4mb map. When going under Printers & Faxes, and we're viewing the print job being sent to the printer, we can see that the print job is sending information to the printer. However, whenever the job gets to about 1.8 something mb, Windows will report that the printer has failed to print the document. I never see any specific reasons as to why, which is why this is becoming so frustrating!

Looking on the printer itself, it just sits there. It says it's processing the job but it isn't doing anything what so ever. Also, there are no error messages listed on the printer. What makes this more difficult is that there is no actual "software" from HP for the printer to report that it's having a problem and what the problem is. I have attempted to power cycle the printer, the computer, etc, and still haven't had any such luck with it.

How on earth can I figure out what the printing problem is, and then solve it with this Designjet???

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Aprox

Well, this is a complete guess but can you look in the printing properties or in the config menu on the printer itself for some sort of timeout option or something along those lines? If you can find something like that, and increase it perhaps it will work.

Punkrulz

I will double check for a timeout feature. I don't recall seeing one... but I also don't recall looking for one either. Strange though, the user claims that she has also printed much larger jobs than this one particular 4mb map... So I suspect the time out would have been hit then too.

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LeeJend

Details would help-
Interface (Parallel, USB, etc)?
Is the print job hosted on the connected PC or is it going over a LAN or WAN?
Operating system? (XP, VIsta, etc)
Any recent changes to map app or OS?
Did the problem start just after patch Tuesday?
New software installed?
Have you contacted HP support about the problem?
Have you checked the map applications forum/FAQ?
Will a large job work when the printer is connected to another PC?
Have you reinstalled the printer drivers? You should get an error message.

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j79zlr

I would check both the drivers on the PC and the firmware that the plotter is using.

We have a DJ 500 42" plotter at work, and a couple months ago it starting freaking out. The tech came out and just updated the firmware on it. Its been working fine since.

The strange thing is that it was working fine and had been working fine for a few years and just decided to stop without any changes.

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Punkrulz

Interface: Direct connected to Network
Print Job: Going over LAN I believe.
Operating System: Windows XP SP2
Recent Changes to either: Negative.
Patch Tuesday: Well, I guess you can say it has started after then.
New software: Negative.
HP Support: Negative, not directly, though with the importance of the client that is my next step.
Map App Forums: Negative, haven't looked at any, though the client called their support directly and they claim it's not an issue with their app.
Large Job: Unknown, this printer is only connected to one PC.
Reinstalled printer drivers: Negative, though I will do that momentarily. Haven't had the time to do that yesterday.

I hate those kind of things... what would get tweaked out that it just refuses to function anymore? I dunno... any who, I'm looking at HP's section for the Designjet. It doesn't appear that I'm able to download the firmware and install it. The only things I can download are their drivers. The section stated for firmware just says "obtain software" as if you have to get a CD Shipped to you.

*Sigh*

Edit: I was kind of going off of a hunch here. I did download a newer driver, installed a second version of the printer, but it was doing the same thing... of this 4.06mb job, the computer would send 1.87mb and stop every time. The new driver did not help it. I increased the I/O Timeout from 10min to 30min... still doesn't help.

There was one thing I've seen before. Lately we've been having some issues with the firewall interfering with the IP Addressing. Sometimes the firewall mistakenly makes a computer get an IP address on the public side... and sometimes it doesn't. We had to fix this issue before with this printer, which I statically assigned an IP address. One thing I noticed though was that it was PRINTERNAME.wp.comcast.com or something along those lines... I reset the card, and this time it correctly stated PRINTERNAME.DOMAIN.COM (keeping our domain masked.

I was optimistic, however that still didn't resolve the issue.

Well shoot... I've tried two other things. I have set the printer so that information is printed directly to the printer. This worked for the test page but that's about it. It isn't doing anything when it comes to any other job. Also, I set the printer up on the server, and then added it to the users computer, however this still isn't working...

Quickly running out of ideas. Now I am going to find a USB Cable that is hopefully long enough and maybe try connecting it directly.

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j79zlr

You can get the firmware here, you have to register though. http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport...SeriesId=25302

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Punkrulz

Yeah... already tried... but still says "Obtain Software".

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gadgeteer

Hi, I had some problems with my Hp printer and recently I found a great tech support site that help me solve my troubleshooting support issues. I really recommend it here is the page for HP Support

Good luck

Gary