We have a designjet 600 and are using it as a network printer but we can not get it to plot. Any ideas?

Can you print anything on it? What happens when you try to plot?

If I try to send a drawing it says it is printing but nothing prints out. Nothing happens to the printer, no lights blinking or anything.

Again, can you print anything else?

Nope, can't print a thing on it.

Well let's think about this. First thing to settle is whether or not the printer works.

First, can the printer print any other type of print job? I understand that you say you can't print a plot.

If nothing else can be printed, then you need to go back to the start and make sure the printer is installed and shared correctly.

Disconnect the printer from the PC. See if your can print any standalone tests from the printer's maintenance menus.

If the printer works correctly, then reconnect the printer and print a test page from the PC to the locally attached printer. Then retest the printer from the network.

Lastly, are you sending a GL2 datastream to the printer or PCL, Postscript or PCL XL.

If you do not understand what I am talking about, do a “Print to File” from the driver. When prompted, name the print job gl2prob. The driver will then name the file gl2prob.prn.

Send the file to me at [email protected](no fee is necessary or expected.) I will read the print file and see if I can correct the problem for you.

I do have to know the datastreams that your printer can support.

I got this little snippet of information from the HP Customer Care database. While a USB connection is not an RS232 protocol, they both are serial connections.

http://welcome.hp-ww.com/img/s.gifhttp://welcome.hp-ww.com/img/s.gifHP Designjet 600 Printer - Data Loss or Communication Problems with HP/GL Files

When using the RS-232 I/O port of the original Designjet (C1633A/B) or the Designjet 600 printers (C2847A/C2848A) at 38.4K baud rate, data loss or communication failure may occur when receiving HP-GL files. This is caused by a timing problem when parsing Device Control Instructions used by the HP-GL language. Using HP-GL/2 does not have this problem when operating at 38.4K baud.

Since Device Control Instructions must be parsed immediately when received, the processor may miss incoming data while parsing these special instructions. Using 19.2K baud is the best alternative. This allows the processor more timing margin to parse the Device Control Instructions while receiving HP-GL instructions. Another alternative would be to change software to one that uses an HP-GL/2 driver (HP-GL/2 does not use device control instructions).