Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

baslinux - Re: [BL] postscript network printers

baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Baslinux mailing list

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>
  • To: baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [BL] postscript network printers
  • Date: Fri, 9 Dec 2005 02:19:20 +0000 (UTC)

On Thu, 8 Dec 2005, Anthony Albert wrote:

On 8 Dec 2005 at 17:04, sindi keesan wrote:
On Thu, 8 Dec 2005, Anthony Albert wrote:
On 7 Dec 2005 at 22:35, sindi keesan wrote:
QMS finally called back while I was here and explained that the flash rom
(eeprom?) on the 'controller' (motherboard) is bad ('image checksum
error') and no, we can't solder in a new one with a soldering iron, but I
can buy a replacement controller. They named two wholesalers.

Ahhhh... this explains much. Though, I would bet that you could
replace it with a sufficiently skilled touch. However, you'd probably
need to find another printer of the same model first, from which you
could download the contents of the flash, to program the new one before
soldering it into place.

They implied that it could not be soldered by hand. But my partner fixed
three dead motherboards by replacing capacitors and two of them still
work. I thought the rom (is this the CMOS?) is usually socketed.

It might be socketed (EPROM & EEPROM often are), but if it's plain ROM
or flash, then most likely, it's surface-mount soldered, which can be

They said it was flash rom. The only two things on the board which don't appear to be surface soldered are the lithium battery and a VALOR FL1012 which has something to do with ethernet.

What would the flash ROM look like? These other chips look connected by metallic spiderweb.

done by hand, but which is very tricky, as the leads are usually half
the size, and spaced closer together, as compared to "standard" sized
sockets, etc. It is quite easy to damage the board past the point of
repair if you're not practiced at it.

The shipping on a dead printer would be rather high but maybe someone will
sell just the board. I found a site where people were giving away various
HPs 'for refurbishing', or selling refurbished laser printers newer than
this one for $100-300. Probably all mono.

Most likely they are. Monochrome laser printers aren't too difficult
to come across - many businesses discard them when they start getting
unreliable, it being easier to replace them than to repair.

This one is color.

[SNIP]

HP printers (and most lasers), when hooked up to the parallel port,
will work pretty much like line printers, if all you're feeding them is
plain text. In DOS, you can do "copy file1.txt lpt1: " and it'll print
out okay.

Great, I will try printing text with it first.
It does PCL (no mention of 5) and if you add something optional, also ps.
Is PCL what the deskjets use?

I believe that the Deskjets use PCL, yes. The Deskjets do not use PS,
last I knew.

My other two HP laser printers use pbmtolj, as do the deskjets (you need to specify -r 300 because default is 75 dpi).

pbmtolj filename.pbm > /dev/lp0 should print graphics

First I need a long fat extension cord to another circuit on the sunporch.

Can't put the printer on the sunporch because it needs to be 50-90 F and it has gone down to 4F here at night. Maybe I can put the thing under my desk to keep me warm if I find two neighbors to help move it.

Anthony Albert
===========================================================

Sindi




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page