HP APS Bombs Out

[DotCom Editor]

I installed APS this evening. The monitor profiling went fine. I turned the monitor brightness all the way down to zero, but APS said it was still brighter than the target value. I guess APS made whatever adjustment was necessary. So far, so good.

Next, I tried to profile the trusty Z3100. But when I click Profiling, Printer, and then the Next arrow, the software comes back about 20 seconds later and pops up a dialog box with the message "Unknown Error."

In the main APS window (partially hidden by the error message) I can see: Printer Status = Connected; Calibration Status = "No Paper Found." Of course, paper is loaded and I can print without any problems from Qimage. HP Printer Utility also sees the printer and reports ink levels and the installed paper type and width correctly.

At the moment, I have two Z3100's sitting in the living room, a 24" (which is going back to HP, assuming they ever show up), and a 44" (which just arrived). Qimage and HP Utility see both correctly, but I thought having both connected (via Ethernet at different DHCP-assigned IP addresses) might be confusing APS. I disconnected one printer from the network, but this does not help; APS continues to return the same error message.

Any suggestions? As always, thanks for your input.

[rdonson]

Have you made sure you're running the latest level of APS?

[Edhopkins]

Can you give more information on how you are running?

Mac or PC?

Which version of the operating system?

Z3100 or z3100ps?

Which version of APS?

thanks

ed

[DotCom Editor]

Can you give more information on how you are running?

Thanks for the reply.

I'm running the latest version of APS, 1.31 for Windows; I downloaded it last night from the U.S. HP Web site. The PC is running Windows XP Home with Service Pack 3; all patches and updates are up to date and applied. The printer is the base model Z3100, not the GP or PS option. Calibrating and profiling the LCD monitor with APS worked just fine. Also, I'm running Norton 360 v2 as my security platform; disabling it had no effect. A couple of reboots were of no help. The HP Printer utility "sees" the printer(s) just fine, as does Qimage. I'm stumped.

[dkeyes]

This may sound obvious but I had the same problem on my mac, restarted the printer and reloaded the paper. Worked fine. Not sure if it was the restart or the paper reload that did the trick.
Good luck.

[DotCom Editor]

This may sound obvious but I had the same problem on my mac, restarted the printer and reloaded the paper. Worked fine. Not sure if it was the restart or the paper reload that did the trick.
Good luck.[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=214852\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I've tried both and then some. Reload paper, power printer down and back up. Remove then re-install APS. Reboot PC. Nothing helps. Still get "unknown error" when I try to profile the printer.

I'm shocked at HP's near-total unfamiliarity with the APS product. After spending most of the day with their online chat, and various support people (some of whom seem to have only recently learned the king's English), I've been told: 1) We support only printers, 2) APS requires the PS version of the Z3100, 3) You'll just have to live it this way, and 4) (by the Designjet support people in Boise) We're really not familiar with APS, we don't know what it does, but we'll do our best for you. The Boise people didn't know what APS was used for, though the people I spoke with were very polite, very professional, and very willing to help. They were great.

I'm nearly ready to have American Express put a hold on my $7,200 charge and tell HP to come remove it all. This is not a good way to start.

[scubastu]

Under the Printer Utility, is it showing the HPZ3100ps or just HPZ3100?  You may need to download the ps drivers for your printer.  I started with the PS but it could be that the APS is looking for a Z3100ps and doesn't see it.

Stu

[rdonson]

APS works just fine with a base Z3100.  You don't need the PS version.

I'm assuming your HP drivers and printer firmware are up to date.

It still seems like a problem with APS talking over IP to the printer.  Instead of DHCP have you tried a fixed IP address for each printer?  If you go this route check your printer driver to make sure its referencing the new IP address for the printer.

The remarks from the support people you've dealt with are ridiculous.  If support continues to be a problem read the following.

================December 6, 2007 at 10:17 am

To those of you who have outlined support issues on your Z series printer: my name is Ben Wolf and I am the product manager for the Z2100 and Z3100 series in the US. Let me personally apologize to anyone who has received a poor support experience from HP. I encourage anyone who has received an unsatisfactory result or had frustration with our support process to please contact me directly at ben.wolf@hp.com and I will ensure your problems are addressed.

I take customer satisfaction on our products very seriously. This is not corporate lip service: every customer is important to me, and if you are not satisfied, I will personally get involved to resolve whatever issues you may be having.

Regards,

Ben Wolf
Creative Segment Mgr
====================

[dkeyes]

Can you still access the printer via photoshop? Can you print? If not, I would agree with Ron that you have a network problem. I had many network problems early on, had to use manual IP address (not DHCP). If you can still print, it would have to be an APS issue.

Here is how I set up my printer via the web access.

Went to this page and hit "networking" in upper right corner

[attachment=7920:attachment]

Created a manual IP address and made sure last box in list is unchecked. That last box being checked is what caused me all my connection problems.

[attachment=7921:attachment]

This is on a mac but should be similar on your pc.

[rdonson]

Also, I'm running Norton 360 v2 as my security platform; disabling it had no effect. A couple of reboots were of no help. The HP Printer utility "sees" the printer(s) just fine, as does Qimage. I'm stumped.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=214766\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I'm not verry familiar with Norton 360 V2.  I assume you use that as your software firewall as well?  Have you set up the firewall to allow APS to talk via IP?  Perhaps your disabling of it didn't fully disable the firewall and network monitoring it does.

[DotCom Editor]

Thanks for your reply. In my Windows system, DHCP assigns IP addresses automatically. That has worked just fine for years.

Windows sees the printer just fine.
Printing from Photoshop works just fine.
Printing from Qimage works just fine.
HP Utility sees the printer just fine and returns installed paper and ink level info.
ONLY APS bombs out.

After exchanging e-mail with HP's Ben Wolf, I spent three hours on the phone with a technician. Still no luck.

I'm not quite ready to buy a Mac, that's because I just spent a bundle on the Z.

[PJTraveler]

I actually had the same problem.  Found the answer on about the 3rd tech I talked with.
For me the issue was that my firewall blocked snmp which is used by
APS.  once I fixed the firewall issue, it worked fine except for the clunky UI

[DotCom Editor]

I actually had the same problem.  Found the answer on about the 3rd tech I talked with.
For me the issue was that my firewall blocked snmp which is used by
APS.  once I fixed the firewall issue, it worked fine except for the clunky UI
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=215930\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Thanks. Alas, no luck. I have two PCs about 18 inches apart, plugged into the same Ethernet switch. APS works on one machine (which I use for business stuff), but not on my "photography" machine. A very nice senior technician from HP Boise has spent hours with me on the phone. We're still trying. He is very determined to figure this out.

[DotCom Editor]

Still no luck.

HP has been on the phone with me for more than 12 hours over a week. They sent me a Linksys router so I could isolate the PC and the Z3100. No luck. Though the browser can see the Z's internal Web server just fine, APS still bombs out when it tries to find the printer to initiate making a profile. Oddly, on another PC on my same home network, APS works just fine; but this is not my "photography" PC. The engineer from HP has been excellent and supremely professional; likewise, I have been very polite and soft-spoken throughout. We've managed to have a few chuckles about this along the way. HP says they are totally committed to fixing this, and will not give up. We'll see where it goes from here.

[Shutterbug2006]

Thanks for the reply.

I'm running the latest version of APS, 1.31 for Windows; I downloaded it last night from the U.S. HP Web site. The PC is running Windows XP Home with Service Pack 3; all patches and updates are up to date and applied. The printer is the base model Z3100, not the GP or PS option. Calibrating and profiling the LCD monitor with APS worked just fine. Also, I'm running Norton 360 v2 as my security platform; disabling it had no effect. A couple of reboots were of no help. The HP Printer utility "sees" the printer(s) just fine, as does Qimage. I'm stumped.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=214766\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Disabling Norton 360 isn't enough. Temporarily uninstall it. Confirm the problem no longer exists, then download the symantec tool that will remove all traces of norton software from your system. Reboot your system, then reinstall the Norton 360.

[colinm]

As has been said above me, the current Norton products are rather horrible.

If you haven't already tried it (and your version of the Norton "tools" has it), open up the Network Map feature and set every device to Full Trust.

The Norton firewall is absolutely braindead in recent versions. Setting everything to full trust will (or at least should) allow it to bypass the firewall entirely, which I'm guessing is where the problem is occurring, from far too much experience.