R14 and HP500PS Plotter

[PLB]

I work at an office that has recently bought an HP500PS plotter. We are also using R14 (uh-oh unsupported). When we first received the plotter, it seemed to be quite slow. After the service tech fixed it, it seemed to run better. Now, the plotter is a giant pain. It is crashing on every other plot. HP has been asking all kinds of "Did you try..." questions but, they aren't fixing the problem. The plotter is connected to the LAN and is connected to a co-worker's computer through his LPT1 port. Printing through both systems is giving the same basic result. We have tried to plot directly from my co-worker's machine (eliminating the network) and have tried plotting through the network. Nothing seems to fix the problem. Sometimes, we can send a few small drawings (one at a time) and it will print fine, then, it will crash in the middle of the next plot.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks in advance,

 

[PLB]

Sorry for the typo... The plotter is an HP 5000PS.

 

[MikeMilburn]

I had been been having probs with a Design Jet 250, sometines it would plot sometimes not and ocassionally the lines would not mach up as the print head moved back and forth. No one could figure it out, so on a whim I had a look at the bar toward the back of the plotter, the one that the print head runs on. An accumulation of paper dust, dirt and assorted crud had made the bar slightly gummy, after wiping it off with WD-40 it hasn't crashed since and you couldn't ask for a bettewr plot. I'm not saying this is your problem but when the obvious fails....Mike

 

[PLB]

Thanks Mike for the good idea... Unfortunately, my co-worker here has already tried that.

Paul

 

[MikeMilburn]

Can't blame a person for trying, I hope he's got all his fingers left, I forgot to mention (sorry) that ribbon bar or whatever they call it will take a good piece of hide from you if you're not careful.
Did you try setting the printer memory to 'in computer' under the advanced settings of the printer setup. Yes I'm clutching at straws here ...Mike

 

[PLB]

Yeah Mike, we've tried just about everything. We have also heard that the HP5000PS plotter doesn't like working with Autocad. Go figure! I would certainly imagine that plotting Autocad drawings has got to be a major percentage of the business for HP, but, if you ask them, They have never heard of anyone having problems before. My co-worker has tried loading Autocad 2002 and sending al kinds of plots. The foolish plotter is running without a hitch. I guess we will need to upgrade to 2002 if we want to have the plotter run well.

Anyway, thanks for the great brainstorming,

Paul

 

[AB2]

AB2

My group has been using a HP 5000ps for about two years, with our share of strange problems. We run both AUTOCAD14 and LAND DESKTOP 2002. We found that we were having driver glitches. After several downloads we connected. Try the HP website and check for current service packages, and look for the HP 1050 Driver. We have one Problem still and that is the plotter always wants to add about 3/4 inch to the top margin, thus we end up with out of center plots. any Ideas?

 

[AB2]

AB2
AMMENDMENT TO FIRST POSTING ON THE DRIVERS FOR CAD 14, IT IS NOT THE 1050 DRIVER, BUT THE (GL2). ALSO CHECK THE AUTODESK SITE FOR UPDATED CAD 14 SEVICEPACKS. SORRY ABOUT THE BUM DRIVER#.

 

[PLB]

Actually, since you posted the different driver number, we've been trying to use different driver numbers here. We have found that the HP750C Plus driver seems to be working best of all. As far as downloading goes, we tried that and are finding that they do not support anything older than 2000. R14 stuff just doesn't seem to exist.

Anyway, for now, we are using the 750C Plus driver with fairly good results.

Thanks for the help!!
Paul