Can anyone tell me how to clean a HP 500 plotters. It appears to need a cleaning.
Thank you
Forrest
Could be you need new print heads. I think there is a diagnostic you can run and tell you what's wrong, should be on CD that came with it.
If it's print heads that need replacing it comes up on the screen. You don't have to run anything. Just replaced a print head on my machine.
Is the 510 essentially the same as the 500? I'm thinking about getting a new plotter after "upgrading" to Windows 7 64-bit, because I can no longer plot in color on my HP-450C. (HP doesn't make a 64-bit color driver for it, only B&W.) I'm weighing my options:
1. Maintain a separate XP computer for plotting only.
2. Spend $200 on a third-party 64-bit driver for an aging plotter.
3. Buying a new plotter that includes a 64-bit driver.
I'm not very happy about any of these, but it looks like I'm going to have to choose one of them.
Something to try. Get a can of silicon spray and some tissues. Spray the tissues and run them up and down the round bar the print assembly rides on and the metal ribbon behind it. Do it till you have no black at all on the tissues.
Jim,
What flavor of Windows 7 are you running? I have an old HP print server (it is about 4" wide 8" long 1 1/4" deep and looks like a switch) the number I don't remember that we run two machines using XP Pro and two machines using Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit with no new drivers and all work.
FYI: CSDS says their repropgraphics business is booming. A lot of plotting for offices that no longer want to hassle with owning and operating plotters.
> FYI: CSDS says their repropgraphics business is booming. A lot of plotting for offices that no longer want to hassle with owning and operating plotters.
When I first opened up shop (1993) I used a service (Brownie's) for large-format plotting. It worked fine, as long as I got the file right the first time. I quickly learned that I rarely do so, and it was the need for full-size check plots that drove me to acquire a plotter in the first place.
That situation hasn't changed for me. Add in the fact that I can turn around a plot request in a few hours (if not a few minutes) rather than a day or more, and I think I'll probably continue to handle plotting in-house.
> What flavor of Windows 7 are you running? I have an old HP print server (it is about 4" wide 8" long 1 1/4" deep and looks like a switch) the number I don't remember that we run two machines using XP Pro and two machines using Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit with no new drivers and all work.
Hmmm...a print server might be the ticket. I've never used one, but will look into it.
Thanks.
When I stop at the office tomorrow morning I'll get the number of the print server for a reference for you. Also I'm with you on the need for full-size check plots. We use the HP 500 for those and then to make an "original paper print" (for 18"x20" or larger sheets) that we take down stairs to our Kip print machine to make whatever number of prints we need. I think our biggest day was 156 24"x36" prints of site plans and subdivision maps with their road plans. All of which I signed by hand.
> Something to try. Get a can of silicon spray and some tissues. Spray the tissues and run them up and down the round bar the print assembly rides on and the metal ribbon behind it. Do it till you have no black at all on the tissues.
Try coffee filters instead of tissues. No lint.
Bruce
The print server we have is a HP JetDirect 170X. It is 2000 vintage.
Networks and Plotters, ugh.
I show up at the office early Monday morning (5am) just so I can plot some maps before we head out for the week. One plotter (DJ5500) has some print head problem, the big xerox is just sitting there, nothing comes out. Frustrating. But Brownies (literally across our parking lot) wasn't open anyway. When I get back in the office on Thursday I have the "failed to print" to the Xerox message balloon sitting there waiting for me which is really useful. I can't turn off my computer because otherwise I will get caught in periodic scan hell (AV) when I turn it on just to do a few things before I go home. It scans on Wednesday morning at 3am if it is running.
Fortunately I had plotted one set a couple of weeks before but it's nice for everyone to have a copy.
I have stopped trying to keep up with having inhouse printing capabilities of anything over ledger size (11x17)
I send a PDF of anything larger out to a print company
Life in your part of Texas must be alot slower than where I practice. Most of my clients are New York City Aholes with A personalities, who want their job done yesterday or before. I do not have the time to sent PDF's to a print house, wait for them to print it and go get the prints.
