HP100 design jet - beware

[Aussie John]

I thought I would mention that once they are out of warrantee HP will not supply spare parts for repairs.

[Anonymous]

As is the case with any manufacturer. HP DOES have parts available, and you can have what they refer to as a service call done. Prices vary from unit to unit. But they do have parts that you can purchase through third parties. HP doesn't sell parts for DesignJet models directly to the end user (other than easily upgradeable parts, and consumables).

[Aussie John]

I have since discovered that in the event of a problem HP will take the printer away and sell you a refurbished unit at about 1/4 price. This is the case in Australia at least as the repair generally requires "special equipement" and there are only a few across the globe that can achieve that. This is what I was told by an authorised repairer (they are unable to get spare parts). My undrstanding is the HP100 has been problematic. Luckily when mine suddenly started to turn it self off mid stream it was fixable by updating the firmware. Unfortunately it cost me $165 to find that out.

[Anonymous]

It's so hard to find good help anymore. . .I worked in the DesignJet support center here in the states. . .I won't bore you with details. . .but there are two types of people that work in support centers. . .those that are there for a paycheck (which I refer to as Docu-Drones; they have a series of documents that have various scenarios, and the solution to each). . .and the people that actually like the stuff, and are fascinated by it. I was the latter. . .but when I was there, some of my peers had not even touched a computer in their life until they started working there. . and yet. . .they were telling people what to do with their PCs and MACs. It eventually got to the point where other agents were sending people away to try a fix; usually. . . "go to the web site and download the latest version of firmware" when a simple, "Are you using windows? Have you restarted your PC lately? When was the last time that you ran a scandisk / checkdisk on your system?" is what they should have been doing. . .but I digress.

What I'm getting at, is that I feel your pain. On a lighter note. . .it could have been worse. . .they could have tried to hit you with a 1000 USD service call to try and 'ficksit'. . .

[Anonymous]

Either of you know about the new(er) HP 110plus nr, wide format printer??? Comes with a roll feed, low volume work, color, 24"x36" size. Sounds perfect for me, if, ...IF, ...it works with Tiger.

-Jay S.

[Aussie John]

Jay I cant say definitively but I'd be surprised if it didnt, but you never know!! Are you able to test one out?

[Anonymous]

It looks like the answer to your question is a yes and a no. They don't have any drivers that are created for tiger at this point, but you can make use of a generic hp driver. It may not have all of the functionality of the drivers literally programmed for tiger, but it might work for you. Here's what I found:

HP Printers - Mac OS: Print only HP Drivers (non-Postscript) built into Mac OS X v10.4 (Tiger)
Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger and HP Drivers
The latest HP printer driver for this device is built into Tiger for print only functionality and does not require a download or reinstallation of any HP software to print.

This document applies to raster (non-Postscript) HP Designjet, Deskjet, Business Inkjet, and LaserJet printers.

In order to best take advantage of the latest HP driver and new Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger features, it is recommended that you delete original HP printer queues from Printer Setup Utility and create a new HP printer queue.

Tiger - HP printer setup instructions:

Upgrade install from Mac OS X v10.1, 10.2, 10.3 - select 'Reset Printing System" option (from the Printer Setup Utility pull down menu) to delete all previous printer queues. The HP printer queue can also be deleted manually from Printer Setup Utility.

From Printer Setup Utility, click on Add, select connection type (e.g. All, Bonjour, USB, Appletalk) and create new HP printer queue. The Printer Setup Utility is found in the Applications/Utilities folder.

Clean install - If there is a clean install of Tiger, follow step 2 to add a new HP printer queue.


NOTE: Please note that Stuffit Expander is no longer included with Tiger, .sit file downloads will require downloading Stuffit at URL http://www.stuffit.com/mac/downloads.html . This link will take you outside the Hewlett-Packard web site. HP does not control and is not responsible for information outside the HP web site.

In other words HP is saying "Um. . .we're working on it. . .but here's a way to get it to print. . .and No. . .we don't know when we'll have some actual drivers out for it, so in the meantime. . .we'll call these the drivers, and pretend that you're stupid if you call in for tech support and want to have the features of the drivers on other versions of O/S'es"

[Anonymous]

Thank you both. I don't know anyone here in town who has the 110plus. But am asking around.

The driver difficulty is becoming routine, with Tiger. Ugh. I love the Macintosh, ...but have gotten used to using my wife's PC laptop (literally and figuratively) and I must say, ...it's not bad.

PCs are simple tools actually, ...if you happen to have a good PC guru near at hand, ...just in case.