1050C Plus printing black seemingly random rectangular blocks

[pbrooks259]

1050C Plus printing black seemingly random rectangular blocks (pics attached; 1st pic (rectangular blocks)). I had this before once except was cyan and problem was bad main pca--a bad DIP chip as I recall. I suppose something could be up with the carriage pca. Printhead is new old stock 5/2010, yeah kinda old. I don't think a bad printhead would lay down ink in such an organized rectangular fashion; I would think it would just drip out all over.

And I recall solid black printing at one end of the page or across entire page in relation to an "out of memory" or a "low memory" problem (2nd pic). Thinking "process in computer" (send job as bitmap) would maybe resolve.

BTW, customer grabbed 5500 printer driver and started using it after being frustrated with an old? 1050C driver not working. I know the 5500 has worked for folks on the 1050C.

Trying to figure out for customer, but they got tired for the day and quit.

Any other thoughts?

Thanks.

[pbrooks259]

FWIW, ol' Ralph McGranahan, RMB Services told me this:

Yes, the image you sent to me with the all black and the black rectangles I think is a memory problem. Usually a power cycle on the plotter clears this up. I think this usually happens when there is something still in the plotter and possibly a corrupted plot data causes this. I don't think changing to process in computer or sending a bitmap is necessary, but you may have to also reset the computer. I doubt that the printhead is the problem.

Another tech Kiran says this regarding printing PDFs in Adobe Acrobat Reader & Foxit Reader, driver, etc.:

If they're printing PDFs and using Acrobat/Reader, have them try Foxit Reader instead. Adobe and Designets have never played nicely since the 450C. Using the 'print as image' option can help but generally only if the PDF is wonky. Sometimes just printing the PDF upside down will fix the problem. PDFs from AutoCAD are especially problematic with Acrobat because of all the layers needing to be flattened. This can take a long time in Acrobat/Reader, and take a fraction of the time in Foxit Reader.

Use the HP/GL2 Driver for Windows Vista x64. It's available from HP (still.) Install it as the 1050C or CM, it doesn't matter; the CM came with a hard drive, the C did not but it was optional. It doesn't matter because once you have the driver installed, go into the settings and set it to process the job 'in computer'. This puts the RIP process on the PC and not the printer. The printer will never run out of memory this way.

The option to 'optimize for images' or text only has to do with the way the printer puts down the ink. For text it can do bi-directional printing. For images, it's uni-directional in an attempt to hide banding. Either will work, one may look better than the other.