Topic: z3100 Startup Problems (Read 9763 times)

Roscolo · « **on:** November 12, 2007, 08:22:47 pm »

Anyone else have problems with turning off the z3100 and turning back on? Mine has almost never rebooted well - stopping at 3%, or 24%, or 82%, or sometimes 100% - eventually I'll get an error message to turn the printer off and then turn on again.

This latest one is the worst so far. I was printing a 32x40 B&W. Had some faint horizontal pattern in the print and the print was taking much,much longer than usual. Set at multiple passes, it was still 2 hours in and only about 18-20 inches had printed. I had been scanning earlier with a SCSI scanner, while Photoshopping, and while printing and figured that was too many things at once.

So, canceled the print job. Turned printer off, and rebooted my PC (XP Pro). After printer initialized, the HP Printer Utility couldn't find the printer (connected via USB).

Decided to reboot - HP Utility still didn't find the printer connected via USB. Turned printer off and deleted the printer and uninstalled driver and software. Rebooted PC, but now I can't get my printer to initialize. Freezes at 3% or 24%, etc. Rebooting the printer has always been buggy - is it just mine? If so, I need to get this addressed by HP before warranty is out.

Need to get some prints done. Have to hang a show Saturday and I'm twisting in the wind!

Roscolo · « **Reply #1 on:** November 12, 2007, 11:14:37 pm »

Finally got printer to initialize after about 30 on / offs. Reinstalled printer. Tried to print the same file. 758 mb file.

Printer did the same thing - makes 2 passes over the paper spraying ink, then hesitates on the side for a few seconds. Then 2 more passes. You get the idea. Not sure if the horizontal pattern would have been there this time. Can't wait 10 hours per print. I canceled the print job in Windows and it continued to print, only instead of printing the image, it was just making passes over the paper or spraying Gloss Enhancer. Weird. Canceled print job with Red X button on printer. Hopefully it cancels print job and doesn't have to be restarted 30 times again.

Maybe Firmware is buggy? Before I upgraded to latest Firmware I was able to print file sizes much larger than this and prints were beautiful.

dkeyes · « **Reply #2 on:** November 13, 2007, 02:21:16 am »

I get very slow printing performance when I try to print 400ppi vs. 300 or 360. Same thing happens, prints a pass or two and parks itself, then waits and starts all over again. A print that normally takes 40+mins at 360ppi takes 2-3 hours at 400ppi. Must be some sort of interpolation thing because it isn't related to file size. I print my 40x50 images at 300ppi (same size as 30x37 at 400ppi) and it prints under an hour.

It sounds like you have too big of a file anyway for a 32x40 inch print (758mb). You really don't need much more than 300-360ppi. I've done some tests and couldn't really see the difference between 300 and 400ppi especially with a larger image that gets viewed from farther away.
-Doug

Roscolo · « **Reply #3 on:** November 13, 2007, 02:40:28 am »

Thanks. I may have it sorted. I cleaned under the carriage and where the carriage parks using coffee filter method on another post on these forums.

I had those files at 450 dpi. Seems like I printed a job for a client at 500 dpi and it wasn't slow, but I may not remember correctly.

I resized to 400 dpi and didn't use Advanced Settings for print quality, just the simple "Quality" setting and it didn't slow down. Unfortunately, I realized I had created the wrong custom size so I had to cancel that job. I'll follow up if resizing is the fix.

I'm printing from large format scans, so I would like as much detail as possible, but those prints were going to take longer than 5-6 hours at the rate they were going.

Ernst Dinkla · « **Reply #4 on:** November 13, 2007, 03:07:43 am »

Quote

Thanks. I may have it sorted. I cleaned under the carriage and where the carriage parks using coffee filter method on another post on these forums.

I had those files at 450 dpi. Seems like I printed a job for a client at 500 dpi and it wasn't slow, but I may not remember correctly.

I resized to 400 dpi and didn't use Advanced Settings for print quality, just the simple "Quality" setting and it didn't slow down. Unfortunately, I realized I had created the wrong custom size so I had to cancel that job. I'll follow up if resizing is the fix.

I'm printing from large format scans, so I would like as much detail as possible, but those prints were going to take longer than 5-6 hours at the rate they were going.
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Are you both using Qimage and is the image file so big that Qimage has to downsample the resolution for the native resolution (say 300 PPI) of the Z3100 ? You also let the printer start as soon as Qimage can deliver the first data ? Qimage's default setting for the anti-aliasing is MEDIUM and with big files that is horribly slow, the settings LOW and OFF speed it up. When the driver has to do its job together with Qimage and the last is already taking 100% CPU activity you also get the data very slow to the printer. In that case I rather gather the data from Qimage first and then start the printer (spooler settings). I also have the anti-aliasing filter at LOW or OFF.

I've mentioned it in the Qimage list but I think the majority isn't interested as they have smaller digital camera files and only encounter the fast upsampling routines of Qimage.

Ernst Dinkla

try: [a href=\"http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/]http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/[/url]

dkeyes · « **Reply #5 on:** November 13, 2007, 03:19:20 am »

I'm not using Qimage, I'm on a Mac. Although someone mentioned in another post that you can figure out a way to use Qimage on the mac. I'm curious to know what file sizes people use on the z3100. I know I've read a few posts. Maybe I'll start a thread.
-Doug

Roscolo · « **Reply #6 on:** November 13, 2007, 03:29:20 am »

I am not using QImage. I'm using CS2.

UPDATE: Just resized this image to 360dpi - so that's 32"x40" at 360dpi and problem is still there. Print carriage makes 1-2 passes, then goes to right side and does a little wiggle movement back-and-forth 3-4 times.

This is ridiculous.

Only other thing I can think is my Yellow Cart says it's low (14%), but I'm printing B&W Grayscale, so don't see why that would matter. Guess HP still has some kinks to iron out. At this rate I will have to cancel / reschedule my show.

Ernst Dinkla · « **Reply #7 on:** November 13, 2007, 03:54:12 am »

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I am not using QImage. I'm using CS2.
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O.K. It was just a guess.

Any kind of spooler disc issues that show more after installing the new driver ? One harddisc the application + driver have the spoolfiles on ? Something you had correct with the old driver ?

I had to cancel a job yesterday and that X button does wonders again. The driver cancels without traces and Qimage comes free without a hickup. No other way is as reliable in my book.

Ernst Dinkla

try: [a href=\"http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/]http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/[/url]

Ernst Dinkla · « **Reply #8 on:** November 13, 2007, 04:01:46 am »

Quote

I am not using QImage. I'm using CS2.

UPDATE: Just resized this image to 360dpi - so that's 32"x40" at 360dpi and problem is still there. Print carriage makes 1-2 passes, then goes to right side and does a little wiggle movement back-and-forth 3-4 times.

This is ridiculous.

Only other thing I can think is my Yellow Cart says it's low (14%), but I'm printing B&W Grayscale, so don't see why that would matter. Guess HP still has some kinks to iron out. At this rate I will have to cancel / reschedule my show.
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My yellow cart is low too but doesn't give that problem. Any sign that one of the heads isn't clean enough, that wiggle may be some testing on droplet creation.

Ernst Dinkla

try: [a href=\"http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/]http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/[/url]

Roscolo · « **Reply #9 on:** November 13, 2007, 04:31:08 am »

Quote

Any kind of spooler disc issues that show more after installing the new driver ? One harddisc the application + driver have the spoolfiles on ? Something you had correct with the old driver ?

try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=152340\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Sorry, but I'm not sure what you are asking here.

The problem still exists. Is it possible to go back to the old driver and previous firmware? Now I wish I had not "upgraded."

Thanks for the help.

EDIT UPDATE: This appears to be resolved. Thanks for your question, it got me started looking in the right direction, although I don't know if my solution is the ideal printing setup - maybe someone else with more knowledge can chime in.

Fixed slow printing on hp z3100:

What I did:
- Went to Control Panel
-Printers
-HP Z3100
-Right click, then Properties
-Changed setting from "Spool print documents so program finishes printing faster" to "Print directly to the printer."
-Then I closed that out and went back to printing - selected "Best" quality (600dpi) under Advanced settings (haven't tried Multiple Passes yet).
-Printer carriage is no longer stopping on the right side, printing smooth, no flaws in print. Estimated print time on front panel for this 32x40 print is about 36 minutes - what I'm used to.

So, 12 hours and literally all night later, after removing heads, doing the coffee filter clean, re-align, recalibrate, and a bunch of stress, it all comes down to one click of the mouse. Gee, that's never happened to me before

Ernst Dinkla · « **Reply #10 on:** November 13, 2007, 05:41:04 am »

Quote

Sorry, but I'm not sure what you are asking here.

The problem still exists. Is it possible to go back to the old driver and previous firmware? Now I wish I had not "upgraded."

Thanks for the help.
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

A file that gets near 800 Mb and the translation of that file to larger prints with 600 PPI or 1200 PPI native resolution gets close to the limits of memory control in the application and the OS. If the spool files of CS + the driver are on the same disc the application and the driver run on, you strain the bus capacity of that disc. If the printer data also has to be brought to the printer at the same time the system may no longer cope. So by sending the data to another disc for spooling and have the printer run after all the printer data is collected in the spooler you may get enough data in time to the printer. On the condition that the connection to the printer copes as well. I have three systems here, the fastest for editing, a similar one for printing and the oldest and slowest for scanning. Not all are on all the time. The printer server is on the general ethernet but has a separate GB card that links it to the Z3100. There's a network bridge in the print server so I can see the printer on the other systems too. But that network connection to the printer has only one task and is a straight one, no switches etc. The printer server has a harddisc raid + a HD for the printer spool file. I still may send the data after the application and driver work is done with files like that as it is easier to cancel when it looks like the system is overloaded. Qimage reports a lot back like native resolution, processing stage, etc. so one knows when things get stretched.

Ernst Dinkla

try: [a href=\"http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/]http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/[/url]

Roscolo · « **Reply #11 on:** November 13, 2007, 06:30:49 am »

Thanks, Ernst. You've given me a better understanding of what's going on here. I was already thinking about taking an older Windows box I've got laying around here and setting it up just for scanning. I may get another one and set it up just for printing. I never had this problem before and I was printing files that were on the same disk as the OS. I did do a rebuild of my XP Pro a week ago, and I know from the Asus forums that I didn't get my disks set up properly, so I'm going to do another reinstall after I get past this show.

Is there anything wrong with changing to ""Print directly to the printer" in the z's Properties?

Roscolo · « **Reply #12 on:** November 14, 2007, 02:30:54 pm »

Just to follow up, my solution above has completely solved the slow printing problem. Printing 32x40's at 400 dpi at Best quality with Multiple Passes with no delays. Each print takes about 38 minutes.

dkeyes · « **Reply #13 on:** November 14, 2007, 04:01:02 pm »

Quote

Fixed slow printing on hp z3100:

What I did:
- Went to Control Panel
-Printers
-HP Z3100
-Right click, then Properties
-Changed setting from "Spool print documents so program finishes printing faster" to "Print directly to the printer."

[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=152343\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I'll have to see if I can do this on mac OSX to solve the same problem with larger files.

Mary K · « **Reply #14 on:** November 14, 2007, 05:28:26 pm »

Quote

I'll have to see if I can do this on mac OSX to solve the same problem with larger files.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=152808\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I posted a comment about this procedure several days ago -- it has worked fine for me so far. I'm running Windows XP and printing to a 44" Z3100 via Photoshop CS3. The only problem with this temporary fix is that you will no longer have an option for a print preview -- something I usuallly do, especially when doing large prints.

I've talked to HP tech support about this, and they tell me it is a known issue and will be fixed with a driver update.

Author Topic: z3100 Startup Problems (Read 9763 times)