Printing problems

This is not mainly just in Auto CAD, but I don't know where else to post this. I have an HP Design Jet 650C, and every time I print to it, it takes for ever. I tried to print a file from Auto CAD 2008 and I let it sit for over 30 minutes, and it still didn't print anything. It was just saying "Receiving". It wasn't a 3D drawing, just a plain layout with about 50 lines total and a few words. Nothing big, nothing fancy. Also, when someone prints from another computer to the printer (the printer is connect to my computer), it slows my computer down, and has taken over 1 hour and 30 minutes before it would start to print. I tried to call HP and asked them but since this is an old machine and out of warranty, they wouldn't talk to me. Anyways, does anyone know how to speed this thing up at all? I know there is a space in the back for either ROM and something else, not sure. There is 1 ROM space taken up, but I don't know what size it is since HP won't talk to me. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

It's an HP/GL add-on card. Your card may have 16MB of memory on it.

OK...just to be clear, it's you and only one other person who "share" this printer?

Have you always had this problem (slowness) or is this something that just started happening recently?

Do you enable plot spooling or not? What about the other person(s)?

The spooling is on, and it "start printing immediatley". The other computer's Advanced Tab on the printers preference is all grayed out. I have been working here for about 5 years and it has always taken atleast 5 minutes for it to start printing, but the past few weeks, it has been taking much longer. If he ever prints from the dodge room or a PDF, it always takes atleast 30 minutes. The plotter is shared through the whole company (small company with 4 computers) but only him and I print to it.

Well one test you could run is hook the printer directly to your computer or his and run a test print. How does it perform?

The printer is connected stright to my computer. When I do the print test, it starts printing immediatley. I use this quite a bit because if the file takes too long to print, I cancel it, and then the printer is stuck on "Receiving" so do the print test to make it start printing.

OK then do a test print with the printer hooked directly to his computer and see what happens.

Is there an IT department? Who manages the hardware?

His prints almost immediatley as well. I don't have an IT department and I am really the only one that knows anything about computers, and I don't know a whole lot. I know some, enough to build my own cumputers and upgrades and what not.

So the slowdown comes only when the two of you are connected to the printer concurrently.

Well the print test always prints immediatley. It's Auto CAD and PDF files that take soo long. I have tried to print a 3d drawing before, I let it sit for over 2 hours, and it still didn't print so I just canceled it.

Are you using a parallel connector or USB?

It is a parallel connector.

Have you considered that you might need a firmware update?

I believe I have tried that before, and it said there wans't any new updates. Where would I go to check this?

Firmware updates can be found at the HP website.

By the way, what OS is being used? Is everyone's computer up-to-date with service packs and critical patches?

Have you tried disabling your antivirus software and see if that improves performance?

Everyone is on Windows XP, and everyone is up to date with SP's and updates. I turned off the antivirus and tried to print again. I tried it at 10:34 and will see how long it will take before it will start to print.

I was snooping around the office and found a HP Jetdirect card. It has a BNC, 10Base-T, and a LocalTalk ports on it. Any idea if I used any of these if it will make it faster?

I wouldn't install the JetCard just yet. Afterall, at one time the printer did work without any problems right? If it did so then, without the card, it should be possible to return it to normal function don't you agree?

Had you, at any time, just completely uninstalled the printer, from all systems and then reinstalling one computer at a time, testing it's performance as you go?

I have not uninstalled the printer in over a year when my computer got a virus and I had to fully restore the computer. I just remember being in school and when we click print, it would start printing within seconds. I have always had to wait atleast 5 minutes before this one would start printing so I just thought it was the printer. Even after I reinstalled the printer after my computer had the virus, it still took about 5 minutes for it to print.

We have a DesignJet 500+ (24" width roll). It takes about a minute for our plotter to get up to speed which doesn't bother me much. We have had a couple of problems similar to yours over the time we've had the printer. At first I thought it was the cable so I switched to a parallel/USB pigtail. That worked for a while then we started having problems again so I installed a standalone PCI based parallel port I/O card. That worked for a while and we had problems yet again so I went back to the parallel/USB pigtail and so far no problems. I have no idea what caused the problems. So, as you can see, I have shared your frustrations.

The last time I switched back to the parallel/USB pigtail I uninstalled the printer then turned off the computer. I switched cables, turned on the printer, then I turned on the computer and went ahead and loaded the original drivers.

Are you plotting in the background? That really slows things down. Options, Plot and Publish, Background processing options, uncheck for plotting and publishing.

Also go through the list of .pc3 files listed to make sure they do exist, eliminate any you don't need. Finally try to reduce the .ctb or .stb files to less than 20.

Go through Options, Files, each path statement to ensure that they do indeed exist.