XP Printing problems

[Jantzen]

Since rolling out all our users with XP pro, with have started to find various printing issues!

We have 2000 server and mainly HP printers but now we are finding that when printing drawings to plotters or A3 printers there are lots of detail missing?
This also occurs when printing programmes?

The problem did not occur when using 98! It seems as thought the XP print drivers are not yet fully working?
Has anyone else found this???

Cheers

J

 

[bcastner]

Are you sure you are using the latest HP drivers rather than the default XP ones now nearly 2.5 years old?

Check the HP site first.

The other thing to check is that the printers are shared in RAW mode. Check the printer definitions on the sharing machine as well as on the local machine Under the Printers and FAXes applet.

 

[Jantzen]

I have all the latest drivers from HP and they are set to RAW mode but still find that plot drawings are not complete?
Also many drawings are duplicating incomplete wasting rolls of paper.

 

[bcastner]

If parallel devices, are you using a fully qualified bi-directional cable, and have bi-directional support enabled on the printer?

If so, this little workaround often works:

On the sharing maching go Start, Printers and Faxes, File, Server Properties, Drivers, and delete the driver for the device.

Then remove the share for the device.

Re-add the share and your latest driver set. This often helps HP printers for reasons that are a mystery.

 

[Jantzen]

Still having major problems printing to HP Designjet 1055cm and 750c using 2000 and XP drivers!

Since rolling out XP to all our users the plotting seems to be inconsistent with large black prints across the A0 and A1 pages?

All was ok when using 98 OS?

We are using a 2000 print server!

HP do not have any more up to date drivers?
We have locked down our build but problem is inconsistent?

Does anyone have similar problems?

Thanks

J

 

[talcs]

We also seem to be having a few problems printing to a Lexmark c910. Although it prints okay, when the printer is selected within an Office app, it seems to grind everything to a hault. I know this doesn't help you much though.

 

[compgirlfhredi]

Here is some additional information which you may find useful if your plotter has HP-GL emulation.

The HP-GL language is the most widely used plotter language, originally developed for pen plotters. HP-GL/2 is a new generation of HP-GL with several enhancements, including compacted vector formats and additional commands for raster plotters. HP-GL/2 has become an industry standard; most of the plotter manufacturers implement this language in their plotter models. However, some features of HP-GL2 are not implemented for certain models. HP-RTL (HP Raster Transfer Language) is an extension of HP-GL/2, which makes it possible to plot bitmaps on raster devices. This Dual Context Extension is not implemented in some models either. If your plotter is HP-GL/2 compatible, and you want to drive it in HP-GL/2, you may choose one of the following three drivers:

Hewlett-Packard HP DesignJet 650C
Encad NovaJET II
Generic drivers: HP-GL/2 for Pen Plotters
These drivers use different levels of the HP-GL/2 language. If your plotter has problems with the complex driver, you will have to use a simpler one.

The HP DesignJet 650C driver uses most of the available HP-GL/2 and HP-RTL commands. Use this driver if your plotter supports the dual context extension and can switch randomly between HP RTL and HP-GL/2.

The Encad NovaJET II driver is similar to the HP DesignJet driver but without the HP-RTL implementation. If you use this driver, pictures will not be plotted.

The Generic drivers: HP-GL/2 for Pen Plotters uses only a subset of the HP-GL/2 commands (the polygon fill and pen setting instructions are not used). If you use this driver, the pens have to be set on the plotter control panel and in the Plot Setup/Pens and Media dialog box. Pictures will not be plotted and the fills will be decomposed in lines.

Note that the HP-GL/2 emulation of some raster plotters emulate a pen plotter. For these plotters use the Generic drivers: HP-GL/2 for Pen Plotters driver.

One commonly observed problem is that the lower left corner of the drawing is shifted into the middle of the paper. This is because there are two types of HPGL plotters. In case of large format plotters (A0, A1 or E, D), the origin is in the center, and in case of desktop plotters the origin is in the lower left corner. In such cases, use another driver or select another HPGL emulation on the plotter. Our HP drivers with center-origin are: DraftPro, DraftPro DXL, DraftPro EXL, DraftMaster I, 7580B. On HPGL2 plotters, the origin is always in the lower left corner.

IMPORTANT: If you use a driver made for a different plotter than your own, the margins may be different on the plotter and in the driver. To avoid clipping your layout, use a somehwat smaller layout size and place the layout in the middle of the page.


Right now, you occupy a point where three lines reach across the expanse of time and space and intersect only there, and that you and only you possess.

 

[compgirlfhredi]

Have you tried any of these?

http://www.jsiinc.com/SUBK/tip5000/rh5088.htm

There are an estimated 500,000 HPGL plotters worldwide. The HPGL plotter driver which is distributed with Windows Windows 98 wasn't written by Microsoft or Hewlett Packard. It was written by a company in Texas for an earlier version of Windows, and was only developed to work with one particular application.
Common problems with the Microsoft driver include:
· Unrecoverable Application Errors
· General Protection Failures
· Out of bounds pen movements
· Incorrect line style
· Poor performance for wide lines
· Errors rendering arcs
· Spurious lines
· Incomplete plot
· Low resolution affecting curve smoothness
· Polygon fills do not take account of pen widths
· Incorrect text sizing, positioning and/or
rotation
· Drawing does not fit on the sheet

A number of applications for Windows can directly export postscript data, and files produced this way should work. There is, however, a postscript producing printer driver for the HP750C Plus printer. You can use this driver to produce valid output from any application which prints via the standard mechanism. I believe there is a Pulsar plotter/rtl driver for 2000/xp something like "pl532en.exe?

This page was helpful when I needed a certain driver for my HP

http://www.printer-drivers.com/companies/456.htm

Right now, you occupy a point where three lines reach across the expanse of time and space and intersect only there, and that you and only you possess.