Help printing troff!
12 messages in this thread
John,
I'm jumping in with off-topic with a question of real concern – and you
seem to be the resident HP4M guru, so here goes:
I've been having a lot of trouble with print smearing. Could something be
out of adjustment? is this a characteristic of the printer? I have not
experienced this with my previous laser.
Thanks in advance for your help.
…..Nancy
The HP4M manual has a few recommendations about smearing, as I recall. Can you
describe the problem in detail, like are they vertical or horizontal, dots or
lines, grey blotches, etc.? I got my HP4M a month ago. I'm still having
problems with the paper feed, it seems to pick up two pages on a regular basis.
John,
The important thing to make sure of about the toner smearing is that
the toner fusing assembly arms (two metallic arms in the back of the
machine, visible when the back cover is opened) are locked into place
during the initial setting up of the machine. Many people failed to do
this, and as a consequence, the toner was not totally fused to the paper
and smeared badly. Another possibility is trying to use the HP 4M as a
duplex machine. Although this isn't recommended, it can be accomplished,
but the user must be prepeared to run one of those laser printer cleaner
papers to clean out the accumulated toner in "all the wrong places".
As for your problem about the machine picing up two papers at a time,
this is (unfortunately) very common, but sporadic. Some people have
advised using slightly heavier paper (24 lb), but there is no proof that
this helps (although it might help the slight paper curling that the
machine does). Flaws and all, its a beautiful machine. I recently saw
the 4L and it looks almost like a toy next to the standard HP 4.
By the way, I solved the problem that generated this thread weeks ago.
I have found a way to dump MOST postscript generated files thru an ARexx
filter that I wrote – it seperates the even pages from the odd, and even
allows duplex printing (albeit a little too labor intensive).
// I'm gonna wait for
\X/ the A5000! <G> -RSL-
I've saved your message, Roy, and am going to check this tomorrow. If that
is, indeed, what happened, I'm going to complain to the store. They had
their salesman come out to my home office and set me up. I wondered at the
time if he was qualified. If that's the problem, I'll get back to you
with my heartfelt thanks…..Nancy
PS – You can find out just about anything on CIS, can't you?
Nancy,
I hope that my suggestions help. When I first bought my HP4M, I used
to log onto the HP Forum and heard all about the good and bad aspects of
the machine. All things considered, I'd buy it again (especially since my
last printer was a dot matrix!). If my suggestions fail to help, contact
those "suits" that sold it to you, it might turn out to be a problem with
the fuser mechanism. HP is great about replacing stuff under warrantee.
My cartridge practically came apart when paper jammed into it, and my
retailer asked no questions, just took my cartridge and gave me a brand
new one!
Good luck!
P.S. Users helping out each other is one of the great things about CIS in
general and the Amiga Forum in particular – it sure beats endless threads
contemplating whether you'd rather have Captian Kirk or Picard on your
side during your next galactic battle <g>!
// I'm gonna wait for
\X/ the A5000! <G> -RSL-
Can we see your way-cool script for PostScript and Arexx?
Please?
–Paul < Motorola Inside >
Gee… It's really not a pretty sight (but it does the job).
All it does is pass the PS file to par: looking for %%Page lines
intermittently toggling alternate pages onto par:. It's only 860 bytes
long each (one for even, one for odd). If you're REALLY that interested,
I'll email it to you (for your use only) if you want.
// I'm gonna wait for
\X/ the A5000! <G> -RSL-
John,
Does the HP4M have Postscript?
If two pages get grabbed on accident does it still print OK?
–Paul < Motorola Inside >
Yes, it has PostScript, no, it rarely magically picks up two pages without
jamming or misprinting. And it goes into a weird mode that I often "fix" by
power-cycling, after it jams.
It isn't like any examples in the manual. Rather, the print is so unstable
it will often smear with just a touch. This was not the case with my
former laser – an Alps HP clone. I'm wonder if something is amiss in my
toner cartridge – perhaps it is not mixing properly. I'll call the dealer
eventually (I think it's still under warrantee.) but I find I do better
with dealers and repairmen (being a woman) if I have some kind of "fix" on
the problem. This, BTW, is not something that has suddenly gone wrong. It
has been with me from the beginning.
Thanks for the response. Any help would be appreciated…..Nancy
It sounds like the fuser is not working. That's the mechanism that converts
the image from dust to ink, so to speak. When you installed the HP4, did you
close the metal arms inside the back cover? In my case, the instructions for
doing this were on a separate sheet inside the box. They may be within the
printed manual, too. Apparently, this adjustment is so important, they wanted
to repeat themselves.