The HP 3000 division showed evidence that it is making HP’s printer group more aware of the business server, to improve communication between MPE/iX and the latest LaserJet products.

A crowded meeting of SIGPrint at HP World uncovered a long-awaited patch that will permit MPE/iX to communicate completely with the newest of HP LaserJet printers. But LineJet and LP printer users are still looking for a smoother fix for the 3000 operating system to avoid a power-cycle when those printers jam or run out of paper.

Patches MPELX39A (for 5.5) MPELX39B (for 6.0) and MPELX39C (for 6.5) — specifically address the JOBID function which was causing “endless” printing when using the setting PJL_SUPPORTED=TRUE. Customers want to use PJL to enable page-level recovery (PLR) from errors during long print jobs. HP said when placing the patches in general release that “At the current time the Worldwide Technology Expert Center is not aware of any problems with page level recovery on LaserJets with MPELX39 installed.”

“CSY is engaged with the printer division in Boise,” said CSY manager Ginny Bratrud at the meeting. “They’ve let us know that they’ve got some new products coming out, and we’ll make sure that we can get some testing done on the 3000. We can make sure their new products are not going to break when you hook them up on the 3000.”

The A and B LP Series printers need to be upgraded to C level firmware to enable PLR, Bratrud said. “In order to get the latest function code supported on the As and the Bs, there’s a lot that has to go into that,” she said. “The memory that is in those printers is not big enough to support the [new function code for PLR.] You need to upgrade the memory, and upgrade to the newer C board to make it work.”

Smith-Gardner MACS sites can’t use the upgrade at this time, because it can slash printing speed of LineJets. Shipping manifests

contain some extraneous font-directive characters prepended to nearly every line of output. “With the new firmware upgrade, each line

caused a noticeable pause to occur in the printer,” reported Chris Bartram, a consultant working at the US Mint. “This pause effectively slowed the printer down to a fraction of its original speed.”

Bartram noted the LineJet fixes for printing cost more than $1,000 per printer in new hardware. “The upgrade required new memory chips to be purchased and installed in the printer,” he said. “The firmware upgrade itself was downloaded into flash memory. We spent about $10,000 in parts for upgrade kits for the 6-8 line printers we have installed; none of which were more than a year old at the time.”

Other sites can deploy the new function code and power-cycle their printers in the event of a paper out or jam. The MPE spooler then communicates with the printer and does a silent run in the printer’s view box. Data is sent to the printer, the printer interprets it, but does not start printing until the printer reaches a target starting page specified by the spooler. The printer “begins printing on the page where the jam occurred, or will back up a couple pages,” Bratrud said.

“We know a lot of you don’t want to do the power cycle,” she added. CSY is still working with the LineJet and LP engineers to “see the differences in behaviors of the printers, and see what it would take if we made an investment [to fix the problem].” HP has only begun an investigation of what would be required to fix the problem without a power cycle.

Not the best of solutions, Bratrud admitted, but HP continues to work on the problem. A white paper that details the workaround for LineJet PLR is at the HP LineJet Web site at www.linejet.hp.com/info_library/pdfs/plr092899.pdf

Bratrud also noted that the new LineJets introduced in February with an internal JetDirect network card can experience hangs while working with the bundled MPE/iX print spooler. A fix is available for the function code inside these printers. LineJets shipped after August are not affected, as they have the new function code already loaded. LineJets using external JetDirect units aren’t affected. Customers can get the new code by contacting Bratrud via e-mail at ginny_bratrud@hp.com.

“We want to make sure the customers have all the pieces in place,” Bratrud said. “The escalation manager walks them through the process.”

HP is still trying to understand why performance degrades on printing using the LP and LineJets with MPE/iX barcode applications, Bratrud said. HP engineers have been able to duplicate the problem.

The SIGPRINT meeting was one of the first to include an official support representative from HP’s Boise LaserJet organizations. Bringing the HP 3000 and other non-Windows servers to the attention of HP’s printer support team has been a long process. Bratrud said that help from the Response Center will now include a team knowledgeable in printer problems.

“When you call it’s not going to be someone who has server knowledge and no printer knowledge,” Bratrud said. “This team will handle all the printer calls in a better and proactive manner.”

The finer points of understanding computers other than PCs still might be outside the grasp of printer experts, however. Product marketing rep Pat Cooper from the LaserJet Solutions Organization assured a room full of HP 3000 customers that Boise has engineers who understood their servers. But Cooper didn’t seem to understand which operating system runs the 3000.

“We are trying to focus on non-Windows applications, which in some ways is kind of unheard of in Boise,” Cooper said. He explained that the Boise Hardcopy Customer Care Center’s 700 support engineers include “six that are Unix engineers. All you need to do is tell the support center you need a Unix engineer, to get into our advanced technical support team.” Support from the Hardcopy Center — where there may or may not be MPE/iX-savvy engineers — is available at 208.333.2551.