Alex Scoble's IT Notes - An Information Technology Blog

Color Pring Queue Issue Resolved

You can read my Computerworld blog to see how I resolved my problem controlling amount of color prints made to our Canon iRC6800.

Thanks to Andy of Absoblogginlutely for your comment that was the key to the answer.

What Else? Canon Copier Problems

Oy! Did I mention how much I hate Mondays? Not only am I working on the Exchange server problem, but I was just told that our new Canon Copier is having problems with printing black.

Yet another thing to get resolved with a vendor today.

Called them up so hopefully a tech will be out tomorrow to fix it.

Kind of embarassing when a new piece of equipment like that has problems. Of the few copiers that I've been involved with, this is the first time I've seen one have two issues like this right out of the box.

Dell M5200N Printer Issue

Was getting an error generated by setpagedevice PS command when sending print jobs from Word or WordPerfect. User was trying to print an Avery label 2164 to a specific Dell M5200N workgroup laser printer outside her office, but the job wasn't going through.

I kept playing around with the printer and desktop, making sure that everything was as it should be and couldn't get it to work. Called Dell tech support and got no help there. The best the support person could do was recommend a system refresh...for an issue that was happening from multiple systems and multiple apps to the same printer for the same label size.

So I went back and tested printing to a different printer and it was working fine. Then went over the settings of the two printers with a fine tooth comb. Saw that paper size for Tray 1 on the offending device was set to Universal and Letter on the working printer. This paper size is set by the paper size set on the tray itself. Looked at the tray and sure enough the little plastic tab that determines paper size was off by one click.

Fixed the paper size tab and voila the problem went away.

Lesson to be learned from this? If a support tech doesn't give you a valid answer, have them transfer you up the chain or call another tech. Chances are if you are a decent IT person calling a level 1 tech at a company like Dell or HP and they tell you something that sounds bogus...it is.

Basically Dell's support is falling into the same mode as other large companies. Too many customers and not enough good techs, so you get shuffled to the level 1 call center people first who don't know much and are running off a general script.

In this business, so often it's not what you know or even your techniques that make you better, it's in getting the answers you need from others. Shows how dealing with people is so important for this business and it's certainly a skillset that I'm constantly working on.

Dell M5200N Printer Report

While I'm on the subject of hardware, might as well talk about my experiences so far with the Dell M5200N Laser Printer.

Pretty nice boxes really. I now have 6 of them in service here. Started out getting one as a letterhead printer to replace a dead HP LJ 3Si.

They are actually Dell branded Lexmark printers. 35 ppm, optional envelope feeder, duplexer, etc (the usual stuff). Our letterhead printers are purchased with 192 megs of memory, Envelope feeder, 3 years of onsite next day service and an extra 500 sheet paper tray. Printer comes with one 500 sheet tray built in and you can add 4 more, built in ethernet and 64 megs of memory. Max resolution is 1200x1200dpi.

They are pretty fast too, when they say 35ppm they mean it.

The envelope feeder is great since our secretaries print out a lot of addressed envelopes throughout the day and now they don't have to stand next to the printer and feed in envelopes as needed. A stack of 75 is put into the feeder and then just filled up as needed.

I'm sure the big question that is on your mind right now is why I didn't go with an HP 4000 series. Cost. Dell keeps giving us deals on these printers to the point where they are more than $1000 less than a comparable HP. Cost per print is also less. Remains to be seen whether maintenance costs over the life of the printer will eat up the difference, but that will only happen after year 3 since the printers all have 3 year onsite service contract with Dell. I'm not expecting problems with them any time soon though, so far they've run great and I would highly recommend these printers to anyone who asked me for my opinion on a good workgroup printer.

Cost for each printer was around $1700 with 128MB of extra memory, 3 year support, extra 500 sheet tray, envelope feeder and toner cartridge.

If you need a tabloid size (11x17) printer though, HP or Lexmark are still your only choices. Neither the M5200N or the slightly newer and faster M5300N handle tabloid. Since this is a law firm, tabloid printing isn't much in need, however and we do have some Ricoh networked copiers that can handle that larger size if needed (for network diagrams for instance).

Oh and did I mention that the printers are a nice charcoal grey with some gunmetal plastic trim? Kind of like the stealth bomber of printers :D.

Again, if I have any issues with the printers I will update you on this site.