HP 5si MX Printing Problems With Dos Apps. Windows 2000

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bugsy Stewart
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Bugsy Stewart

We are experiencing some technical problems, with an old Dos
application/database.

We have two HP 5si MX printers. They have recently been swapped
around, so essentially both printers are the same, just in two
seperate locations, even down to the number of tray's etc. We'll call
them Printer 1 and Printer 2, for ease in this discussion. I have
printed off the configuration just to ensure that they are identical
and are essentially the same. The only difference is that one show's a
PCL menu and one doesn't......

Both are networked and using NET USE in the command prompt, both are
available for use by users within the company, from the various DOS
databases which we have.

However, I guess that's not really the problem.

The problem is that when printing to Printer 2 from the DOS app, the
prints appear fine, however, when printing to Printer 1, there appears
to be a 6 line gap, before printing begins.

This strikes me as a margin issue, but, I can find no way within the
Menu system on either printer to vary the top margin.

I've looked at various resources on the 'net and find a few which
mention HP Printer Codes, etc., but, I cannot see why swapping out one
printer for another should require using Printer Codes. Especially
given that if user's alternate between the two printers, one prints
fine and one doesn't, and, nothing has changed apart from the printer
defined to print on.

Any help with this problem, would be greatly appreciated.

Ian
 
... The only difference is that one shows a PCL menu and one doesn't
Click to expand...

I suspect this may be the source of your problem.

First, print a test page on each and see what is different. Print both
a PCL test page and a PostScript test page on each printer

If one shows only a PCL menu and the other shows both PCL and
PostScript, then the one with PCL only doesn't have the PostScript
SIMM installed.

On the control panel there is an option to set the printer to "PCL
only," PostScript only," or "Automatic." (It may say something similar
to "automatic" -- I can't remember exactly what it says and I'm too
lazy to get up, turn the printer on, and observe what it really says.)

The "automatic" setting means it interprets the data stream and if it
sees PostScript data it switches to PostScript mode, and vice-versa.

It could be that the data your DOS app is sending is expecting
PostScript only, and if one of them is set to PCL only (or doesn't
have a PostScript SIMM), then the job may print with unexpected
results. (Or vice-versa, if the DOS app is anticipating PCL).
 
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