I have an HP Designjet 650C. It has started experiencing data loss issues. What I mean by that is when I send a drawing to the plotter, sometimes a drawing will plot just fine, and other times, it will skip large amounts of text or linework.
It is getting frustrating, because of the wasted paper, ink, and time. It is becoming a roll of the dice as to whether the plot will print correctly.
Sometimes a reboot fixes it, and sometimes it does not.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance. I will be in the field most of the day today, and will check back in this evening.
Jimmy,
Check your print cartridges. Low ink or bad contacts are a possibility.
Dave
Thanks, I will check them when I get back to the office.
Years ago I saw the same problem... As the drawings become larger and larger in file size, these older plotters are unable to hold all the data that we send them and they solve that problem by just dropping some here and there. Is there an option to spool in the computer rather than the printer? Am I remembering that wrong? I thought that's how we solved it but this was nearly a decade ago. Shortly thereafter, Canon had fantastic deals on their new iPF series of plotters and the dealer gave us $1000 for our trade in of an old HP 450 DesignJet (purely a promotion from Canon as who would pay $1000 for that!). I've since moved on from that office but I know the old HP still sits in the back store room "just in case".
I have the same problem about once a year with my HP430, but I doubt it is the plotter. It somehow always involves Mtext. The file size or physical drawing size is not relevant. I can plot correctly to a little printer, I can write to a pdf and then plot the pdf correctly, and once converting the entire drawing to a block allowed a good plot. It is a mystery to me, and why only now and then once a year is equally mystifying. But always Mtext is involved.
Are you plotting directly from Autocad, or are you perhaps plotting a PDF?
I have this happen with my 10 year old DJ800 - it runs out of memory on large PDFs, even if it could easily handle the drawing when plotted from Autocad.
Thanks for all of the replies. I have not had a chance to check the connection between the cartridge and the carriage yet.
I am plotting straight from Carlson/autocad. The weird thing is that it is sporadic of what the plotter leaves out. This morning, it was linework, and all of the mtext was fine. The other day, it was mtext that was left off.
The plotter prints great, but has just started this in the past few weeks. I really don't want to spend $1700 on a new plotter, but I sure can't keep wasting time and money on incomplete plots. I live to far away from a print shop to use them on a regular basis.
Thanks again. I'll check the cartridges when I get a spare few minutes.
That sure sounds like the problem I have now and then. Sort of like random splotches left off the drawing. That's what is really dangerous. A whole blank drawing or half a drawing is easy to catch, but some things left off here and there you could easily overlook, especially when you have checked the AutoCAD screen and everything looks great.
Bruce,
That is what concerns me. A drawing getting out without some little bit of important info that I may overlook. That is one drawback to being solo, not having another person to take a look at the drawing before it goes out the door.
Thanks again for all the replies.
Jimmy