New paper presets for Z2100 and Z3100

[rdonson]

I  actually got an email from HP alerting me to the release of new paper presets for my printer.   The paper presets can be found on the same page as the drivers and firmware for your particular Z printer.

I've placed the Technical Newsletter that describes how to install them on the Z3100 wiki here.



I didn't see anything new here for the papers that I'm using.  YMMV

[Jim Cole]

Hi Ron,
Thanks for the heads up. I went to look to see if there was anything worth downloading (like baryta papers) but I had the usual HP website experience.

After going to the Z3100 Knowledge Center and clicking on the Paper Presets link, I got the following:

" The page you are looking for is either no longer available or has been moved. To see if it is still available or to find similar information, please try the following:
If you typed the URL yourself, please make sure that the spelling is correct.
If you clicked on a link to get here, there may be a problem with the link. Use your browser's "back" button to choose a different link on that page.
Use the search on the top of this page to find what you are looking for.
You can also browse the www.HP.com website for the page you are looking for.
We apologize for the inconvenience! "
 
I don't know how a company as big as HP can live with this disaster of a site. Oh well, nothing new.

Jim

[dandeliondigital]

I  actually got an email from HP alerting me to the release of new paper presets for my printer.   The paper presets can be found on the same page as the drivers and firmware for your particular Z printer.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=197733\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Hi Ron,
I have the Z3100ps and every day for the past 2 weeks I have checked on my drivers and downloads link to see if they are every going to get the Leopard Drivers for the Z3100ps model out.

So...yesterday when I checked the HP site, I was very surprised to see this in my HP products drivers and downloads list which I is set up specifically for my Z3100ps printer, as an available update...

Type:   Driver
Version:   CR2.3 (11 Apr 2008)
Operating System(s):   Mac OS X 10.5
File name:   MacOSXHPDesignjetInstaller.dmg (143 MB)   
Descripton:
This software installs the Raster Driver to be able to print your HP Designjet Z3100 Series on Mac OS X 10.5
   
As usual when you read the above you see that it mentions the Z3100, but not specifically the Z3100ps, so as has happened numerous times before, I am not sure if this software really is for my ps model printer or not.

Where is the ps driver? They said Spring for the ps driver, but will it be Summer?

OTHER PS MODEL OWNERS, if you are using the ps model, have _you_ gotten this download notice? Installed it? Can vouch for it being for the Z3100ps.

Also, this morning's e-mail had the notifications for all the presets that are listed twice, once for PS printers and the other for plain Z3100 printers. Is the distinction here that I am supposed to automatically divine that the non-ps paper presets are for the raster driver, and the ps presets are for the yet to be released ps driver? Any clarity on this issue would be a help. Why would they provide ps presets if they haven't shipped a ps driver for Leopard? Will it actually be here soon? Which presets would you use?

My workaround for now is that I am now using the Tiger PS driver and APS on my Tiger install to profile my Z3100ps,  and manually putting the profiles APS creates on the Leopard computers for soft proofing. I am printing from pdfs on the Tiger machine using a pdf workflow rather than using Apple printer sharing given that HP has stated bluntly that the drivers need to be the same across computers if you are using printer sharing. That's one thing that was stated clearly, but on other matters HP sure does love to muddy the waters for ps model Z3100 owners. Why do they do this? If find it very insulting, and irritating.

So I wonder if I can install this newest raster driver on my Tiger install (do I need to remove the older software or can I install over the prior install), and on my Leopard installs and use printer sharing successfully at least for the raster driver. Anyone out there doing that yet? Or do I stick with pdfs and Tiger?

I use the ps driver for 90% of my work, and my experiments with the raster driver haven't been as successful as I had wished. I'd like to start again trying to get comparable results with the HP raster driver, but I will wait to hear from other users before installing over my working install.

Love to hear what others with Leopard and the Z-ps model are doing to get through this driver update delay.

Thanks in advance, and so long for now, TOM

[Colorwave]

Tom-

I'm not sure what page on HP's site you are checking with, but the new driver and firmware for the Z3100ps GP were released on April 11 and May 12.  Like you, I never got any notice for this, or the paper preset release that the other Ron got, in spite of being signed up for notifications.

I learned of this last week and installed it without any anxiety.  Unfortunately, it was a four day ordeal for me, but you can read all the gory details here, if you wish:
http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/index....17&#entry197817

I really can't say if I recommend you following my footsteps or not, although it is finally all sorted out for me and working as designed (except for the printer no longer sleeping when connected to my network).  I cloned my hard drive to an external drive before reinstalling Leopard.  It is rather time consuming if you have a big drive, but it is an excellent safety measure with software as complex as this.

Here is where I downloaded the driver and firmware (the paper presets are on the non-PS download page, for some reason).  

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechS...5&swEnvOID=4019

Best of luck,
Ron H.

[rdonson]

Hi Ron,
Thanks for the heads up. I went to look to see if there was anything worth downloading (like baryta papers) but I had the usual HP website experience.

After going to the Z3100 Knowledge Center and clicking on the Paper Presets link, I got the following:

" The page you are looking for is either no longer available or has been moved. To see if it is still available or to find similar information, please try the following:
If you typed the URL yourself, please make sure that the spelling is correct.
If you clicked on a link to get here, there may be a problem with the link. Use your browser's "back" button to choose a different link on that page.
Use the search on the top of this page to find what you are looking for.
You can also browse the www.HP.com website for the page you are looking for.
We apologize for the inconvenience! "
 
I don't know how a company as big as HP can live with this disaster of a site. Oh well, nothing new.

Jim
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

This expeience was no less goofy than other HP website experiences.  The email provided this [a href=\"http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&taskId=135&swItem=pl-60645-1&dimid=1045583356&dicid=alr_may08&jumpid=em_alerts/us/may08/all/xbu/emailsubid/mrm/mcc/loc/rbu_category_Z3100HPBondandC/alerts]link.[/url]
This is disturbing because the link is to the preset for OS X.  I have Windoze and I'm registered that way with HP.  Also strange is that this is the HP "Business Support Center" website.  

Anyway, I logged in from this URL, selected "Download Drivers and Software" from the left part of the screen.  Another screen appears and I select my printer and OS and miracle upon miracle I'm at the appropriate screen.

Hope this helps,

[Jim Cole]

Thanks Ron,

The link got me to the right place. Unfortunately, there is nothing new in the presets that I need so no downloads for me.

Jim

[dandeliondigital]

Hi ron H,
Question: Did you apply the firmware update that is on the same page as the Leopard downloads for the drivers that you sent me to? What's up with the Dots vrs underscores in the Firmware naming?

It is strangely similar to the last firmware revision from NOV 2007, and I'm not sure if it's new or not. Do you know if the one listed: "TR12-TR12PS_06_00_00-7 18 Apr 2008" in the file "TR12-TR12PS_06_00_00-7_mvl40-x86-opt_B.fmw" is necessary for the Leopard drivers?

If I check my HP Z3100ps printer I find the firmware I have installed (November 2007 that had a creation date of AUG 2007) is called TR12-TR12PS_6.0.0.7. So we have underscores and we have dots. Is there a difference? And I just noticed and we also have "00" vrs "0"? If this is an update, why did HP use this nomenclature!

I'd rather not have to update firmware, but I need to be sure I get the right firmware and driver software working in concert.

Do you or anyone know for sure?

Also, FYI, I never received any notification of the PS Driver from HP and I cannot get to the download page via the usual HP sign in and search methods, only through the link you sent me was I able to get the new drivers and FW. When it comes to the HP website, it's got major bad things happening.

Thanks in advance, and so long for now, TOM

Here is where I downloaded the driver and firmware (the paper presets are on the non-PS download page, for some reason). 

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechS...5&swEnvOID=4019

Best of luck,
Ron H.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=197819\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

[Colorwave]

Hi ron H,
Question: Did you apply the firmware update that is on the same page as the Leopard downloads for the drivers that you sent me to? What's up with the Dots vrs underscores in the Firmware naming? . . .It is strangely similar to the last firmware revision from NOV 2007, and I'm not sure if it's new or not. Do you know if the one listed: "TR12-TR12PS_06_00_00-7 18 Apr 2008" in the file "TR12-TR12PS_06_00_00-7_mvl40-x86-opt_B.fmw" is necessary for the Leopard drivers? . . . If I check my HP Z3100ps printer I find the firmware I have installed (November 2007 that had a creation date of AUG 2007) is called TR12-TR12PS_6.0.0.7. So we have underscores and we have dots. Is there a difference? And I just noticed and we also have "00" vrs "0"? If this is an update, why did HP use this nomenclature!
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=198393\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Tom-
I don't want to assume anything myself, or steer you wrong.  I'll answer my part, but HP really needs to guide you on some of this, so I strongly suggest you call HP tech support to confirm the details.  I know that the versions on the page I linked to are the ones I installed, and think that the underscores and dots are only different in web and printer formats that they are presented in, and truly the same files (but not positive!).  HP has some strange nomenclature, and is particularly annoying in naming its installers with generic, non specific names, so don't draw too many conclusions from version numbers.  I thought that this was recently released, due to the dates shown on the download page, but I could be completely mistaken if they were reposted.  It would seem odd, though, for them to reupload a file if it was not updated as well.
Regarding the HP website:  you are using the new, improved HP site.  Everything is nice and straightforward and streamlined, right?   Oh yeah.  They just changed the color scheme.
-Ron H.

[dandeliondigital]

Hi Ron H.,
Well I thought I'd let you know that I've got everything working so far. One thing that is frustrating is that even over a fast wired ethernet network, the HP Software seems to work painfully slow. It seems like it's hung, but if you are patient it will finally complete, but it's really slow IMHO. (I wonder if it's PowerPC code running in Rosetta?)

On the updates for Leopard, rather than wait, I installed the new PS Driver, and then I went ahead and did the Firmware Upgrade, and early this week the PCL3 Raster Driver, and today I installed the APS v1.32 Mac which isn't supposed to be compatible with the Z3100ps, but so far it appears to be working just fine. Been calibrating with HP Printer Utility and today with APS and made a profile today with APS.

My next area to tackle is to try printing on more glossy papers including some of the photo air dried glossy papers which were performing very badly for me in previous testing due to roller marks. Even after getting the star wheels replaced in January, I was still having trouble with star wheel and pinch roller marks. Did not get the actual pinch rollers replaced. Anyone out there know if there is a specific fix coming soon for marks from the pinch rollers? I seem to remember that was discussed a while back. Also, I get pinch roller marks whenever I calibrate or profile on any glossy media. Can that cause any problems? I've asked HP, but they are mum on that.

I actually printed a job today and all went well for a change. What a wonderful change. It's so great when it's working.

Thanks for the help, and so long for now, TOM

Tom-
I don't want to assume anything myself, or steer you wrong.  I'll answer my part, but HP really needs to guide you on some of this, so I strongly suggest you call HP tech support to confirm the details.  I know that the versions on the page I linked to are the ones I installed, and think that the underscores and dots are only different in web and printer formats that they are presented in, and truly the same files (but not positive!).  HP has some strange nomenclature, and is particularly annoying in naming its installers with generic, non specific names, so don't draw too many conclusions from version numbers.  I thought that this was recently released, due to the dates shown on the download page, but I could be completely mistaken if they were reposted.  It would seem odd, though, for them to reupload a file if it was not updated as well.
Regarding the HP website:  you are using the new, improved HP site.  Everything is nice and straightforward and streamlined, right?   Oh yeah.  They just changed the color scheme.
-Ron H.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=198400\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

[peteh]

Hi Ron H.,
Well I thought I'd let you know that I've got everything working so far. One thing that is frustrating is that even over a fast wired ethernet network, the HP Software seems to work painfully slow. It seems like it's hung, but if you are patient it will finally complete, but it's really slow IMHO. (I wonder if it's PowerPC code running in Rosetta?)

On the updates for Leopard, rather than wait, I installed the new PS Driver, and then I went ahead and did the Firmware Upgrade, and early this week the PCL3 Raster Driver, and today I installed the APS v1.32 Mac which isn't supposed to be compatible with the Z3100ps, but so far it appears to be working just fine. Been calibrating with HP Printer Utility and today with APS and made a profile today with APS.

My next area to tackle is to try printing on more glossy papers including some of the photo air dried glossy papers which were performing very badly for me in previous testing due to roller marks. Even after getting the star wheels replaced in January, I was still having trouble with star wheel and pinch roller marks. Did not get the actual pinch rollers replaced. Anyone out there know if there is a specific fix coming soon for marks from the pinch rollers? I seem to remember that was discussed a while back. Also, I get pinch roller marks whenever I calibrate or profile on any glossy media. Can that cause any problems? I've asked HP, but they are mum on that.

I actually printed a job today and all went well for a change. What a wonderful change. It's so great when it's working.

Thanks for the help, and so long for now, TOM
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=200170\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

This is from Ben Wolf a month or so back.It was from a email reply, from myself saying ,I have a problem with my Z3100ps GP and saying YOUR HP website SUCKED.

"I am aware of the shortcomings with both our phone agent support and website technical info.  Both are being addressed; however it is unfortunately a fairly detailed process as it does not affect just the Designjet printer line.  Our call center is changing its entire location and staff, and the field service team is taking steps to improve onsite performance.

Regarding the web site, this too has undergone some transformations and the transfer process was not as seamless as it should have been."

That was dated 5/04/08.