Which Designjet do I need? Do I need an HP Jetdirect print server for my Designjet? Which Interface do I use (USB, LPT, Ethernet)? My Designjet is telling me “Maintenance Advised” what does this mean? I have an error message on my Designjet, what do I do.? When printing I cant use my PC, is there a way to make printing faster? I have just installed the latest driver for my printer and in AutoCAD I now get a “memory Allocation Error”. I want to upgrade my Current plotter to a Designjet, Is my Plotter worth anything? Why should I buy new, when many plotters are available 2nd Hand? Why should I buy HP inks when bulk suppliers / refill outlets say their inks work just as well? How can I find updated drivers and firmware for my Designjet? In AutoCAD 20xx series, my drawings are clipped, how can I prevent this? My cutter has started tearing the paper rather than cutting clean, what can I do? The Lines on my drawing are jagged, what is the cause? All my drawings come out with black streaks on them, no matter how many times I clean the printhead, the marks keep coming back, how can I stop this? I am a single Mac user printing through Vector works what is my cheapest solution? What is the best solution for a Mac network with or without additional PC’s? My Designjet 400 series starts to boot up but suddenly stops and I have 3 orange lights on, What do I do? Why do my mono line drawings have a green or purple tint to them? Why do blues sometimes come out as purple? What is the difference between an A1(24”) and A0(36”) Plotter? Do I need a Roll feed Kit? Why do I need extra RAM? Why Do I need an HP-GL/2 Card for my Designjet 500 series? My Printer is in warranty who do I call? The warranty on my Designjet has expired, can I extend the warranty? What is the difference between PS and non PS Designjets?. What is a RIP? I have Just purchased an HP Designjet and it comes up with the REPLACE PRINTHEAD error message. The information on this page is purely for guidance only and may not be suitable for soem IT environments or workgroups. Please investigate and verify in detail before undertaking any decision(s) 1, Which Designjet do I need? With Designjets starting from as little as £815.00, There is a Designjet out there for everyone. The main things to take into account when looking for a new Designjet are: What will the Designjet be used for, how many users, and how quickly do you need your prints. A single user might only want a sheet fed, entry level mono printer, whereas a local authority would need a Roll fed, 4 colour plotter with a fast plotting speed and high capacity inks for minimum disruption to workflow. At TCS we are committed in matching the right plotter to your needs. Give us a call to discuss your requirements.  [Back to Top] 2, Do I need an HP Jetdirect print server for my Designjet The model of Designjet you own dictates how you connect it to your network. Designjets with built in 615N print servers are very easy to set up. You simply plug them into a hub /switch and run the setup CD. The printer will be found automatically and you can then set up your own network address. You decide if the printer is to be shared and the software then allows you to install the driver before finishing setup. The printer is then ready to be used on the network and all that is left is to set up the client driver on PC’s that need access to the plotter. On Designjets without built in print servers It is just as easy to set up the printer on a network, but you need to know a bit about windows networking, you install the printer locally via USB or LPT cable, then you need to give it a share name and install all the OS drivers you need for your network on the PC it is connected to. When sharing a plotter in this manner, the host PC may suffer from slowdown when client PC’s are trying to print. If you own a Designjet 500 series printer, you can purchase an additional HP-GL/2 Interface card to help with this problem. When connecting a Designjet 500 to a network the HP-GL/2 card is always recommended. Please note: we offer on site installation, training and setup service from as little as £120.00 plus VAT  [Back to Top] 3, Which Interface do I use (USB, LPT, Ethernet)? If you are connecting directly to one PC, under windows 98SE, 2000 or XP, either Parallel or USB is usually fine. However, the way XP handles USB devices may cause you to lose the device occasionally. This is because XP assigns virtual USB ports to multiple devices on the same USB bus. If the plotter is switched off or disconnected when the PC is booted up, it may be found later as a new device on a different virtual port, and the driver may need to be installed again. LPT ports have a similar problem in that all parallel devices must be switched on prior to the host PC being booted up. This can cause problems if the printer is shared on a network. An Internal or External print server is the best overall way to connect your Designjet especially if it is to be used on a network as the network port created will always be available as long as the printer is switched on.  [Back to Top] 4, My Designjet is telling me “Maintenance Advised” what does this mean? This is a message from the front panel of all Designjets except 200, 300 and 400 series. It comes up after a combination of Time, Prints processed and physical state of service station and spittoon. It simply means that the Designjet is due for a service. Please call us for local and national prices.  [Back to Top] 5, I have an error message on my Designjet, what do I do? All Designjets with a front LCD panel do 1 of 2 things. They either give a user fixable message such as “feed paper”, “align printhead” etc. or they give a numerical code with the wording “call HP support” which usually means there is a serious problem sometimes needing a callout. We will be happy to translate any error codes and can arrange callouts to anywhere in the UK. Older Designjets, Series 200, 300 and 400 use a system of still and flashing error lights. For a translation of these please ring us. Many error codes mean calibrate, clean or reseat, and can be carried by the end user if they are aware of what action to take  [Back to Top] 6, When printing I cant use my PC, is there a way to make printing faster? Sometimes when printing through AutoCAD, the host PC can slow down or even freeze during the printing process. This is perfectly normal when the print job is bigger than the printer memory can handle. Installing extra memory to the printer will always help but may not always solve the problem. Printing through HP-GL/2 can also help as can printing direct to a network print server. Please call to discuss the best way of solving your problem.  [Back to Top] 7, I have just installed the latest driver for my printer and in AutoCAD I now get a “memory Allocation Error”. This should only happen in, but is not limited to AutoCAD 2000 or later versions. It is a known AutoDesk problem and is to do with the way spooling is carried out in AutoCAD. You can download the AutoCAD plotting patch called “plotupdate.zip” from www. Autodesk.co.uk. or install the HP Designjet driver from the Autocad setup CD. Call us if you are still having problems.  [Back to Top] 8, I want to upgrade my Current plotter to a Designjet, Is my Plotter worth anything? We are always happy to offer something for your existing plotter, up to £2800.00 on selected models. Please call us for eligibility and value  [Back to Top] 9, Why should I buy new, when many plotters are available 2nd Hand? With HP offering trade-ins against old plotters, the only plotters still available 2nd hand are either not working or approaching the end of their working life. I have many horror stories I would be glad to share with reference to 2nd hand plotters, some amusing some not. BUYER BEWARE!!! If you really want 2nd user then we often have ex demo or trade ins for sale., most of these come with some warranty and all are tested by our technical team prior to sale. Please call for latest pricing and availability of ex demo / used stock.  [Back to Top] 10, Why should I buy HP inks when bulk suppliers / refill outlets say their inks work just as well? The saga of 3rd party consumables goes on. Firstly HP have a vast technical team in Barcelona who only deal in media and inks, secondly all the components of the printing system are designed to work with each other. Profiles between ink and media are carefully complied and tested and are only embedded in the firmware of the printer and the driver when everyone at HP is satisfied that the best possible results are being produced. Although 3rd party refillers / bulk suppliers say they will give a guarantee that their products will not harm the printer, I don’t know of any that have paid out when a problem arises from the use of non hp supplies, the main reason for buying non HP is price. However, Designjet printers need to clean the printheads more often with non HP inks than with HP inks due to their unique formula. So while refills, bulk supplies may seem cheaper. They actually don’t last as long or give the quality and consistency of colour you need.  [Back to Top] 11, How can I find updated drivers and firmware for my Designjet? Drivers and firmware updates can be found by clicking on SUPPORT in the left hand column of our web site or by opening system maintenance from the services tab of your Designjet driver (selected printers only). We do not recommend that firmware should be upgraded without technical supervision  [Back to Top] 12 In AutoCAD 20xx series, my drawings are clipped, how can I prevent this? This is mostly due to trying to print a drawing border to the same size page e.g. A1 landscape border to A1 page layout. The printer has its own non printable area of 17mm top and bottom and 5mm each side. If this is not taken into account, image clipping occurs. The best solution is to buy oversize paper A0+ =914mm wide and A1+ = 610mm wide. With this size in your paper layout, the drawing plus the non printable area fit nicely without clipping. For a full range of oversize media please call our supplies department.  [Back to Top]  [Back to Top] 13, My cutter has started tearing the paper rather than cutting clean, what can I do? If you have a Designjet 500 or 800 series printer, then the cutter is user changeable and you just need to order spare part number C7769-60163 from either our web site or by calling. If you have any other printer you need a technician to come on site and replace the cutter for you. Call us for details.  [Back to Top] 14, The Lines on my drawing are jagged, what is the cause? In 90% of cases this is caused by bald patches on the carriage belt. These can be purchased as part of a service carried out by our service engineer or individually as a spare part. Please call for ordering information.  [Back to Top] 15, All my drawings come out with black streaks on them, no matter how many times I clean The most common cause of black streaks on a drawing is paper dust on the printhead, simply take a lint free cloth moisten with warm bottled or deionised water (or a PC wipe impregnated with IPA) and wipe the printhead till clean. On older Designjets you may also have to prime the printhead using the plunger assembly. If this works at first but the printhead gets clogged again very quickly then you may have a full spittoon assembly. The spittoon takes away the excess ink from the printhead, which is designed to form a solid gel in the bottom of the spittoon. When the spittoon is full the gel transfers back to the printhead and is then wiped off on the wipers of the service station. Every time the printhead passes the service station, threads form from the ink gel and paper dust and are transferred at random on the paper leaving black streaks. Black is the most often used colour in line drawings which is why this rarely happens with the other colour inks. If you have this problem we can replace the service station and spittoon assemblies as part of our Advanced Service carried out by our HP accredited Technical team. Please call for details.  [Back to Top] 16, I am a single Mac user printing through Vector works what is my cheapest solution? The cheapest solution for a Mac (OSX) printing through vector works is a Designjet 100 with additional Microspot X-RIP 100 software (£99.00). The Designjet 100 comes with a Mac quick draw driver but there are problems when printing direct from some applications as the Designjet 100 is not a postscript printer. The X-RIP software allows you to print direct from Vector works, through the RIP using the File / Print command. This is not the best solution but it is the cheapest. If you want a roll fed printer, then you would need a Designjet 500 A1 plus HP-GL/2 Interface plus Microspot X-RIP 1.6 (349.00) for non OSX users you would need Microspot Graphipak 36 (369.00) instead of X-RIP.  [Back to Top] 17, What is the best solution for a Mac network with or without additional PC’s? The best overall solutions for Mac networks or mixed Mac/ PC environments are the Designjet 800PS for Line drawings / Images in low productivity, or the Designjet 1055CM for High productivity line drawing / GIS or the Designjet 5500 for high productivity GIS / Fine art. All the above printers have an embedded postscript, Pantone certification, and virtual computer for fast on board processing of jobs direct from application. Please call us for latest prices on these models.  [Back to Top] 18, My Designjet 400 series starts to boot up but suddenly stops and I have 3 orange lights on, What do I do If you have 3 steady lights on it is probably a problem you can fix yourself, such as a paper jam or dirty slider rod. If the 3 lights are flashing then it is normally not user fixable and would require a callout. In either circumstance you press the cancel button and the printer will display a sub code (a different sequence of lights). If you phone us we can diagnose the fault over the phone and give free advice on how to fix yourself or we can arrange a callout if needed.  [Back to Top] 19, Why do my mono line drawings have a green or purple tint to them? In all printers, if there is a problem with the black printhead, the print firmware tries to create a composite black from the other colours. In Designjet 500 / 800 series printers this comes out as a green / dark brown. In other Designjets it comes out as a dark blue/purple. When this happens the first thing to do is to Clean the black printhead. simply take a lint free cloth moisten with warm bottled or deionised water (or a PC wipe impregnated with IPA) and wipe the printhead till clean. On older Designjets you may also have to prime the printhead using the plunger assembly  [Back to Top] 20, Why do blues sometimes come out as purple? This Problem is to do with the Printer colour Map controlled through the driver., If the fault is in the driver you can tell the driver to print in pure black in COLOUR CONTROL under the OPTIONS tab in the driver dialogue box in FAXES AND PRINTERS. If you need to have colour as well as black, then again under COLOUR CONTROL set the colour correction to MANUAL and tick the no colour correction circle. If the printer still prints blue as purple then the problem is in the firmware which can be updated by clicking on SUPPORT in the left hand column of our web site or by opening system maintenance from the services tab of your Designjet driver (selected printers only). On selected models the colour maps have recently been upgraded to help with this problem.  [Back to Top] 21, What is the difference between an A1(24”) and A0(36”) Plotter This question isn’t as silly as it sounds, there appears to be a lot of confusion over the sizes of paper a Designjet can print too. Very Simply, the printer width = the shortest edge of a piece of paper in portrait mode. Therefore a 24” (610mm) printer maximum paper size is A1 and a 36” (914mm) printer maximum paper size is A0. the reason for HP developing 42” printers is to address the fact that graphic houses wanted to print 40” x 30” landscapes as this is the natural ratio for images / Photos  [Back to Top] 22, Do I need a Roll feed Kit Whether or not you need a roll feed kit depends on the amount of printing you wish to do. If your output is 2-5 A1 prints a day, then loading individual sheets isn’t a problem. However, if you are printing 10+ A0 every day loading sheets becomes tedious very quickly. Other factors to take into account are whether you want to print to non ISO page sizes, banners, posters etc. Finally, the main benefit of a roll feed is that rolls of paper are much cheaper than single sheets. All Designjets other than the 100, 120 and 430 come with a roll feed as standard, the only Designjet where there is no roll feed option at all is the Designjet 100+ but this has a 50 sheet feeder tray for paper up to A2. If you are still confused then give us a call to discuss your requirements.  [Back to Top] 23, Why do I need extra RAM The most common misunderstanding people have is that extra memory will increase the print speed of their printer. Unfortunately the printer carriage is a mechanical device with a given set of speeds depending on the print mode. What extra memory actually does is reduce the processing and therefore spooling time of the printer which may reduce the overall printing time. Another advantage of extra memory is that the printer can process larger jobs, which has enabled Designjets such as the 500 series CAD printer to print large format graphics. Please give us a call if you have any more queries on this  [Back to Top] 24, Why Do I need an HP-GL/2 Card for my Designjet 500 series? The HP-GL/2 interface card for the Designjet 500 series, is the most useful accessory available. It provides 3 main functions; firstly it gives you an additional 16mb RAM in the printer, Secondly it gives you an additional RAM slot in which you can add a further 128mb RAM giving a total of 160mb RAM in your printer. The most important feature it provides is the direct translation of HP-GL/2 /RTL data from your CAD application. HP-GL/2 is a vector language written by hp for plotting vector drawings. All inkjet printers have to print raster data (bitmaps) by their design. This means they have to take into account all the drawing data and all the blank data, as it is just as important to know where not to print. Therefore a dwg that is 2mb in AutoCAD is over 90mb when spooled to the printer via PCL3 (windows printing Language). HP-GL/2 only takes into account the drawing data so the file spooled to the printer is much smaller. This reduces spooling / processing time, and in network environments makes collisions and bottlenecks less likely. I would recommend the HP-GL/2 for use in all networks especially when a jetdirect print server is not being used as it will help eliminate slowdown of the host PC.  [Back to Top] 25, My Printer is in warranty who do I call? If you have a problem, and your printer is in warranty, you should call HP Support on 0870 8422339. It is an automated system and the queue sequence is 1, 2, 3. If however your printer is out of warranty or you get the message “MAINTENANCE ADVISED” please call us and we can give you free advice on how to fix the problem or arrange for a technician callout.  [Back to Top] 26, The warranty on my Designjet has expired, can I extend the warranty? If your Designjet is no longer covered by an HP warranty, don’t worry. All current and recently discontinued Designjets can be covered by a post warranty pack which covers all travel, parts and labour. The pack is peace of mind wrapped in cellophane. Your Designjet should be in good working order at time of purchase, Call us for details on how to extend your warranty before you have a problem.  [Back to Top] 27, What is the difference between PS and non PS Designjets? The main difference between the PS and non PS printers is the addition of an Adobe postscript level 3 RIP either as software on entry level printers or as embedded firmware on production machines. This gives the user the ability to use a pantone calibrated palette to assist in colour management plus the use of icc profiles. It also allows users in a Mac environment to print postscript files direct from vector programs such as In-Design, Quark and Illustrator. In the case of the Designjet 1055CM you also get a hard drive and with the Designjet 800PS you get 64mb RAM in addition to the standard specification of the non PS models.  [Back to Top] 28, What is a RIP? Very basically, RIP stands for Raster image processor, it is a hardware or software solution (sometimes both) that allows you print files that otherwise the printer would not be able to handle. Raster images are based on an amount of dots in an area at a certain dpi containing print information, Whereas vector graphics are based on colours within certain geometric shapes. This means that vectors can be enlarged without the image falling apart (pixelation). By their nature printers are Raster based, this means if you enlarge an image, at some point you will run out of information to enable the printer to complete the job. By using a RIP, you allow the printer to process vector graphics (postscript, pdf, eps) which can then be scaled to the size needed without pixelation occurring. A particular advantage of software RIP’s is, you can calibrate the rip to use a certain ink with a type of paper in order to achieve better colour management , print to print, job to job. The final advantage of software RIP’s is that they use the host PC processing power to spool the job to the printer, rather than the printers 300mhz processor and limited memory, this means the job is processed much quicker, making you more productive.  [Back to Top] 29, I have Just purchased an HP Designjet and it comes up with the REPLACE PRINTHEAD error message. On Average Designjet printheads should be changed every 3-5 ink cartridges, however, if you are using a non bonded (usually cheaper) paper the nozzles get clogged up o lot quicker. Try cleaning them first with a lint free cloth moistened with warm bottled or deionised water (or a PC wipe impregnated with IPA) and wipe the printhead till clean. Or take the printhead out and shake once or twice with a bit of force (outdoors is best as ink may come out of the printhead in a large splash). If this doesn’t work and the printhead is in warranty, send it back to your supplier for a free replacement.  [Back to Top]