This whole experience reminds me of the early days of the Internet, when it was all about sharing and helping, rather than hating and shaming. If ever there was an experience to cancel the social damage of social media, it’s my Z3200 debacle of early winter, 2020.
The story begins over a month ago when an uncommonly long power failure hit my neighbourhood. Over 12 hours of no electricity resulted in more than me having to cook supper on the barbeque, it also borked my Z3200.
The symptoms were simple enough: When I hit the “print” button, nothing happened. The print queue showed the problem. No data was being sent to the printer. Those who use these printers will know that HP chose not to use a simple USB connection, instead is uses an IP connection over an ethernet cable and whatever router the customer happens to have installed. This complicates things considerably.
I called HP support and was advised that, since my printer was well out of warranty, I was basically SOL. I pleaded my case, politely informing the support tech that my printer was virtually new, still on it's very first set of carts. HP advised me to check the IP address on the printer and compare it to that which the PC. Sure enough, they differed. During the power failure, the printer had voluntarily changed its IP address to something entirely, randomly new. It was like the printer had changed its phone number. From the printer’s front panel, I changed the printer’s IP address to match the PC’s expectations. That’s when things began to get interesting.
For those who don’t use this printer, invoking “print” automatically brings up a virtual web page inside whatever browser you’re using. There, you can view various statistics on printer use such as media consumed, ink usage and other accounting data. I guess that’s why HP decided to use this overly complicated system. This printer was aimed at businesses, not home hobby users like me.
Following my IP address gymnastics, the printer began to receive data, but the virtual web page looked completely different and lacked several features present in the original. Worse, prints came out rotated 90 degrees, off center and truncated in both axes. Nothing I could do in any of the printer dialogues resulted in any change whatsoever. I consumed a ton of media and ink in various attempts at repair, but the result was the same. Prints were useless.
Now what? I live in a rural area, nine hours and seven mountain passes away from the nearest service facility and winter is approaching in the Great White North. The choice was obvious. Contact Mark Lindquist. Mark knows so much about these printers, he even has a website devoted to their care and feeding.
I left him a contact message and sure enough, hours later, he responded. He suggested that my problems were probably simple and offered to call me on the phone to “walk me through” the solution. I demurred, not wanting to cost him time and money, and attempted on his advice to download and install from HP a new printer driver myself.
I failed. The new printer driver direct from HP wouldn’t contact the printer at all. Mark again suggested he call me, asking for my cell number. I relented and he called me on a Saturday morning and we began to attempt what appeared to be a simple software repair.
Two hours later, we were no further ahead. HP has apparently abandoned this printer (and it’s users) and not only is the current printer driver non-functional (at least on my machine), the printer isn’t even listed on the “supported printers” list in the HP Utility program, a general purpose tool that permits various maintenance operations. The Utility program itself has changed and it no longer functions well with these printers either.
Neither Mark nor I had an older, pre-changes version of the driver or the Utility program, both of which are vital. Without both, you can’t print. My near-new Z3200PS seemed destined for the recycle bin.
Mark subsequently contacted John Dean, another Z3200 user and “deanwork” on the forum, but it turned out that he also lacked the required driver. He in turn contacted Ernst Dinkla, another well-known forum member and Z3200 guru in the Netherlands. This was rapidly turning into a Global, “Save Peter’s Printer” internet enterprise.
Sure enough, a continent away, Ernst uploaded his archive of ancient drivers and utility programs to Mark, who subsequently uploaded them to me and, another two-hour phone call (from Florida to British Columbia) and a long install process later, we began to see light at the end of the tunnel.
I could once again see data spooling from the PC to the printer, but no web page appeared, without which printing won’t begin. Usually, it’s all automatic and the web page opens automagically. But in this case, nothing. I was stonewalled. In a fit of inspiration, I opened a new instance of Chrome and manually entered the printer’s IP address and... Boom! The web page appeared and there was my print job in the queue. I clicked on the job name, chose “continue” and lo and behold, the printer began to make those lovely “I’m getting ready to print” sounds.
It worked! One relatively unhelpful printer manufacturer, five people, two continents, several days, an unknown, unimaginable long distance phone bill and quite a few drinks later, I could finally print again. “Awesome!”, as the kids would say.
Can you imagine my delight? Can you imagine the extent of my gratitude? Even the recycle bin is happy. I was beginning to think I’d have to consign any further printing attempts to some service bureau somewhere. The horror! As we all know, “If it’s not a print, it’s not a photograph.”
Ernst, Mark and John Dean (“Deanwork”), for restoring my faith in the Internet and the community of photographers: THANK YOU!
