HP4600 printer

[Cristina]

Hey,


Does anyone have an HP4600 printer? I am working with one. The problem I am having is with the cyan and yellow toner overspray. The yellow is not a consistant spray as the other 3 colors and prints larger "dots" than the other colors. I have found that this is a common problemwith these printers and HP doesn't seem to have any explanation.The cyan toner must spray more than the other colors because when printing, white paper has a light blue cacst to it. I tried turning off the background printing and that did nothing. I also tried to reduce the cyan density. Again, nothing. The color cast goes away when manually calibrating the printer.


Anyone think it may be a driver issue or something like that? HP has been no help at all... Other than beating the printer with a baseball bat, I'm at my wits end unless someone has some advice that may help!!!<img border="0" src= "smileys/smiley5.gif">

[PrintDriver]

Did your printer ever work correctly? Or is it doing this out of the box? What do you mean by manually calibrate? Outside the program you are printing from? Does it print weird from all programs? What operating system?



Only thing I could find (below).They say this particular problem (and this is yellow cast, not cyan) is a firmware issue with OsX but they aren't really sure. Niiice.<img border="0" src= "smileys/smiley13.gif"> Yer right. HP is not a very helpful site. And you have to copy paste into a browser window:



http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?locale=en_US&taskId=110&prodSeriesId=74301&prodTypeId=18972&objectID=bpm01418



Are you using OsX? If so, it could be a driver issue. I had to wait over a year for Epson to issue some OsX drivers that actually worked and color is just plain weird sometimes. Different calibrations necessary for everything.



VersionTracker.com has an HP laserjet color driver update 1.53 but it was released in September 03...

[Cristina]

Finally getting back to this issueand also your questions....


The printer produces good color but has had this problem right out of the box. Upon testing and researching, I have found that HP doesn't have an answer to why this is happening. I have seen this problem occur with other HP printers. The cyan tone goes away for a while when manually calibrating directly from the printer. But, that doesn't solve the problem or the yellow over spray probelm either... I am working on a PC platform, which is my fist headache! I have always used MACs until last year when I started this job... We have tried different firmware and drivers. Nothing helps. My boss is probably going to find a new home for this printer and call it quits...


Thanks for trying to help!<img border="0" src= "smileys/smiley14.gif">


Cristina

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes.

Art is knowing which ones to keep.

[D-Frag]

Hey Christina,


Having 2yrs of background experience on the HP3500, HP5000, and HP5500, I can honestly tell you that I have never seen nor heard of that happening, at least at the job I was at (we also sold them too). We were using ONYX as our ripping software, and I know our techy did ALOT of work on them to get them puuuurfect, but he never mentioned anything about overspray (and I myself have never seen it, even working as a Finisher) Have your replaced your printheads? I know that tubing that goes into the printhead and all of that stuff can be replaced, even though it is an expensive process to buy another one of those, its usually worth it. Also another question, were you using UV inks with normal inks? Only reason I ask is that might be a factor, but it sounds like a "hardware" issue and not a "Software" isssue to me. I know calibrating and all that can be a real nightmare, which is why there are service people out there to do all that for you, who know those printers inside and out, so maybe try an outside source instead of going to the problem (the maker) if that is the case. That is the only advice I can offer.

Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

[Cristina]

D-Frag,


We didn't replace anything because this problem has been happening from the get go. I met with another person who had the same printer and he has the same issues with it. I tested our HP 4500 and it has a consistant overspray pattern, which most printes have. Somewhere in the transition to the new 4600 model, HP did something weird! We installed the ltest firmware, which solved our color matching issues almost and have also tested several different drivers. We get the same thing. I have tried printing from different programs as well as using different file formats. Nothing has worked. We have spent months trying to get this printer up and running with no luck! WE don't want to replace anything on it because several other resources have had the same problem plus my boss is tired of wasting time with it. WE'll be using it somewhere else for now...


Thanks for your advice! Hey, wanna buy a printer?!<img border="0" src= "smileys/smiley15.gif">


Cristina

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes.

Art is knowing which ones to keep.

[D-Frag]

Lol, nah im good on printers!!! hehe, that sucks that the model you chose is a piece of crap, maybe your boss should have checked those "resources" before buying a $$$$$ machine you know!! Good luck, future advice....the HP5000 is a very nice printer! hehe

Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

[Cristina]

We did check out the printer but failed to hear about this particular problem... Chalked up to a lesson learned I guess. Glad it's not my $$$! We may be looking to but another printer to replace that one though. Are you serious about the HP5000? Wasn't sure if that was sarcasm or not...lol... We want something that printes really good quality/color and that is fast too!


Cristina<img border="0" src= "smileys/smiley1.gif">

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes.

Art is knowing which ones to keep.

[D-Frag]

HP5500 is extremely nice but the HP5000 is better!! the 5500 is a little bit faster, but they are both extremely nice printers, I loved working with them, the 5500 still had some feeding issues and stuff, which I don't know if the tech ever fixed, but it wouldn't load or print media straight sometimes (and the take up reel didnt work worth sh*t, we would let it run all nite, come in and media would be allover the floor). But the 5000, very solid, fast printer, with a 60inch parameter, very nice....recommend that one over the newest one. Plus your ripping software is almost as important as the printer, the new ONYX I heard prints stuff almost twice as fast as the old ONYX program, so that alone tells ya the the software is important....ONYX is the best out there, and you will notice that when you look at the price tag.

Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

[Cristina]

We don't have a ripping software. We are hooked up directly to a network using HP Direct cards so each computer has its own IP address... Does it really make that much difference in quality? I know it matters for speed, but... I will check out the HP5000 printer.


What system so you work on, D-Frag? Just curious... We are using Dell with Windows 2000... I want my MAC back!!!!!!!!!<img border="0" src= "smileys/smiley13.gif">

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes.

Art is knowing which ones to keep.

[D-Frag]

Well im currently working on a PC, the one that was used for ripping jobs was also a PC, and I have to tell you it really does make that much difference in your jobs, especially when doing color correcting and such. Even if you have a densitometer hooked up to all of your "Networked" pc's your still not going to have consistant color with what is on screen. The ripping software is the second most important thing in printing, it really is that important. The PC that we used to rip all of our jobs, didnt have anything installed on it except the bare minimums, and ONYX.....that was it, nothing else. It had 2000 i believe or 98 as the OS, a ton of memory, didn't have a manufacturer, our tech built it himself. Point is having decent ripping software can make or break you on quality, make sure you set up correct profiles for all of your media too (like switching from OCE Photomatte, to Epson Polycarb) you would need to change the profiles for different media, or else the printer doesnt know how much ink to lay down with what. From the sounds of it, it seems like your boss had no idea where to start when buying this thing....best advice I can give you is call a local business that handles computer (printer related) problems, find the best one you can to come in and re-work all of your stuff. If you wanna buy ONYX, its REALLY EXPENSIVE.....but then again so is a printer too, so you kinda have to go ALL OUT and get the best of the best, and have everything compatible or else you run into never ending problems, which I think is what is happening here.


I know you set profiles on the actual printer menu...like (photomatte, backlit, glossy, etc....) so to get even better buy a ripping software where you actually hook up the computer directly to the printer and have them on the same page as far as media, drivers, dye inks, or UV inks, with printers these days getting to be like mini computers, you really do need to incorporate more things into your production. I really hope that helps ya, if you were in Arizona I could point you to like 4 different companies that could help ya out, but I dont think your that lucky!

Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

[PrintDriver]

D-Frag, the printer they are having trouble with is a laser jet I do believe, from the model numbers given. HP acknowledges the problem in the tech site I listed above but has no answer for it. Very nice of them. If the printer has been giving trouble right out of the box maybe there is some recourse (probably not worth it at this point but maybe BBB or other consumer Advocate ).



I know people with HP 5000's and 5500's. They love em both. They're "large format" and inkjet Christina, if that's what you're looking for? What would you be using the 4600 for if it worked?

[D-Frag]

Oh sh*t my bad <img border="0" src= "smileys/smiley9.gif">


can i add this to the "stupidest post I ever made" thread??

Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

[PrintDriver]

LOL, D-Frag.

Might not be stupid...and you did give a lot of really good info...

Depends on what they are using the printer for.<img border="0" src= "smileys/smiley1.gif">



What I don't get is how a company can acknowledge a problem but not offer to fix it - even if it means upgrading the customer to a different but better printer. "Oh, it's broke, and we know it, but we ain't gonna do nothing cuz we're a big multinational company"???



I'm still curious about Cristina's laser engraver... I can't even get my boss to get me one of those (green with envy).

But I want a thru-cutter anyway. More $$$.

[Cristina]

Yes, PrintDriver, our printer is a laser jet printer. And D-Frag, I didn't realize that the printers you spoke about were wide format until I checked them out last night. No, we aren't looking for a wide format printer because we already have the HP Design Jet 120 printer.


PrintDriver, our company has a printing process that we print directly on metal to make recognition plaques and products. The overspray and color cast affects the quality of our final piece and we can't use it. HP has been no help (you foundwhat they said about it)and I agree that they should offer to upgrade us to another printer. Anyway, as I said before, not my $$$ spent!


PrintDriver, what do you wanna know about my laser engraver? That piece of equipment is new to me and I've only been doing testing and have created a few new products for our company... It's nice but I want to get more experience on it. What is a thru-cutter anyway?

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes.

Art is knowing which ones to keep.

[PrintDriver]

For your printing on metal have you considered any of the new UV curable ink printers? I don't know if they make one small enough for your application (or pocketbook - kinda pricey <img border="0" src= "smileys/smiley2.gif">) The ink goes on like an inkjet but is then cured hard under UV lights.



On the engraver... Kinda curious about the software. How easy it is to pick up and use. If it engraves to tiff or other black and white format and if you like the quality of it. Or does it just do line art. Who makes it and how big is the cutting area, ventilation issues, all that good stuff...



I've only seen em at signshows and the salesguys there are all hype. Haven't been able to convince our owners that such a thing would be handy even though we have a 5' x 10' CNC router that has paid for itself many times over. A laser would just be a smaller, more fine-tuned machine for smaller pieces.



A thru-cutter is a laser that is powerful enough to actually cut out shapes thru 1/2" acrylic, like letters and cute little animal shapes (gettin all warm and fuzzy here). It will engrave as well.

[Cristina]

We have a patented printing process to print on metal so the option you mentioned hasn't been thought about. However, in the future we may need to progress in that direction due to the material availability that we use...


We have an Epilog tabletop laser. Check out their website at http://www.epiloglaser.com/24tt.htm ("")


This has the capability to engrave or cut! It's AWESOME!<img border="0" src= "smileys/smiley10.gif"> It will cut wood or metal up to 1/2" and is much more versitile than ythe thru-cutter that you wanted... It doesn't take any special softwae other than Corel Draw or PhotoShop. The sales guy told me to use Corel but I've tried sending from PhotoShop and it works fine. The files can be ANYTHING...line art, grayscale or even color images and it holds excellent detail! You will see some of the capabilities when you check out the website. We have ours set up in our office area and the ventilation takes any smell right out. There really isn't much smell depending on what you're doing with it. Cutting acrylic produces that lovely "burnt plastic" smell <img border="0" src= "smileys/smiley11.gif">but we don't cut much of that right now.


Definitely consider changing your "wish list" from the thru-cutter to the Epilog laser!!! I'm still learning and actually plan on attending another training seminar in June to expand my knowledge..

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes.

Art is knowing which ones to keep.

[PrintDriver]

Thanks for writing back. I got slammed at work today and couldn't check this til now. Just got home.



Yeah, the 32EX is about what I want. A larger cutting area would be sweet but can't have everything. Will request a brochure tomorrow from work to check the specs. I'm guessing $30K+ but may be pleasantly surprised... Maybe.<img border="0" src= "smileys/smiley1.gif">

[Cristina]

PrintDriver,


Glad you were impressed with EPILOG's site. They really are the best laser and work with you after buying one. They don't just leave you hanging if you have questions, like HP!<img border="0" src= "smileys/smiley7.gif">EPILOG may cut you a deal with the laser - we got a good deal on ours. They'll come and give you a demo before you buy. If you get to a tradeshow soon, check out their booth and you'll really be amazed!Hope you canconvince your boss on getting one! It really will pay for itself in the long run because there are infinite things you can make with it!!! GOOD LUCK!<img border="0" src= "smileys/smiley4.gif">

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes.

Art is knowing which ones to keep.

[jstanaway]

Great to hear such nice words about our products. If you ever have any questions about the laser, please let me know - I do the marketing and graphic design for Epilog, so I get to spend a lot of time playingwithengraving too creating samples. It's definitely a graphic designer's dream!

James Stanaway
Marketing Mgr
Epilog Laser
jstan@epiloglaser.com