3IU4TOB@CMUVM.BITNET (03/14/91)
I am interested in hearing about anyone's experience with the QMS 410 printer, in particular in a mixed PC and Mac environment.
AUIDCC@DUCVAX.AUBURN.EDU (03/15/91)
QMS customer support is practically non-existant. I would look at another brand with better support.
van@group1.UUCP (Van Bagnol) (03/15/91)
In article <9103132036.AA25566@crayola.cs.UMD.EDU> 3IU4TOB@CMUVM.BITNET writes: >I am interested in hearing about anyone's experience with the QMS 410 printer, >in particular in a mixed PC and Mac environment. We have a PS-410 and we love it. We have a network of Macs on Appletalk, a Compaq 386-33 running Unix on the parallel, and a generic 386 running DOS on the serial. It's the only printer that can do all three without having to do the dip-switch/rotary-dial/reboot dance. We seem to have an intermittent problem, though: when printing one job in PostScript on the heels of another job in HP emulation, the auto-sensing software gets confused and still thinks it's in one emulation and we end up with printouts of the PostScript source. BTW, anyone else run into this problem? Van Bagnol -- Van Bagnol / Group One, Ltd. / (415) 398-7565 / "Be cool, have fun." "Do what I mean, not what I say." "Parang lumakad ko sa loob ang panaginip..."
shepperd@dms.UUCP (03/16/91)
In article <9103132036.AA25566@crayola.cs.UMD.EDU> 3IU4TOB@CMUVM.BITNET writes: >I am interested in hearing about anyone's experience with the QMS 410 printer, >in particular in a mixed PC and Mac environment. We have 4 of these things. All of them are on the appletalk network and are connected to a terminal server via the serial port and one is also connected via the parallel port to a PC. They are used regularly by VAX/VMS users, MS-DOS users via DECnet-DOS and, of course, the Mac users. Most of the time they work quite well but... >From article <9103151458.AA04825@crayola.cs.UMD.EDU>, by van@group1.UUCP (Van Bagnol): > We seem to have an intermittent problem, though: when printing one job in > PostScript on the heels of another job in HP emulation, the auto-sensing > software gets confused and still thinks it's in one emulation and we end > up with printouts of the PostScript source. > > BTW, anyone else run into this problem? > We have this problem too. If I setup a test case with a MAC and the VAX blasting files to the printer (both PS and HP from the VAX side and PS from the MAC side) while I'm standing there watching it, it'll work flawlessly. It will fail at random times for unknown reasons and always requires its power to be cycled to get its attention back. All 4 of them exhibit the problem. QMS has replaced the printers with new ones, btw, but the problems persist. The other anomoly is that it will, for no apparent reason, disappear from the appletalk network at random times for random periods, usually coming back sooner or later. This causes no undo grief for the Mac users especially if it does this in the middle of their print job. I cannot determine what makes it do this. Also the HP emulation is not complete. It won't do all the pitches and point sizes that the HP protocol allows for even though it'll do them if given a PS command to do so. Voluminous documentation (even a video tape) accompanies the printer, however, the HP escape codes that it'll process are not included (so you need an HP manual to find those) nor does it include a document that describes ALL the PS commands it'll process (it describes only some of the PS commands). It would be a great printer if it only worked. -- Dave Shepperd. shepperd@dms.UUCP or motcsd!dms!shepperd Atari Games Corporation, 675 Sycamore Drive, Milpitas CA 95035. Nobody knows what I'm saying. I don't even know what I'm saying.
bryan@CS.UTEXAS.EDU (Bryan Bayerdorffer @ Wit's End) (03/16/91)
In article <9103151457.AA04775@crayola.cs.UMD.EDU> AUIDCC@DUCVAX.AUBURN.EDU writes:
=-
=-QMS customer support is practically non-existant. I would look at
=-another brand with better support.
Maybe you should qualify this by saying that this has been your experience---it
hasn't been mine. Tech support for my recently purchased PS-410 has been
prompt, patient, and mostly competent.
Those who bought one of the early 410s should note that the revision 7 (and
possibly earlier, if there are earlier revisions) firmware has a bug that causes
the PostScript `show' operator to produce "undefinedresult" or other strange
errors when attempting to paint characters from a font for which a Metrics array
has been defined, when the Metrics array contains non-integer values. This bug
can interfere, for example, with printing TeX .dvi files using Tom Rokicki's
dvips, when resident PostScript fonts are used by the .dvi file instead of, or
in addition to, TeX's own CMR fonts.
A fix is available in the form of a new set of ROMs from QMS Tech support
(205-633-4500), and I presume that these new ROMs are already installed in the
410s now being shipped. Generate a "Test Configuration Page" (push test/cancel
while offline) and check the firmware revision printed on this page before
calling.
There is a workaround for this bug for those using dvips, but I'll let Tom post
the official word on that.vmd@aloft.att.com (V Mark Dennis) (03/16/91)
>In article <9103132036.AA25566@crayola.cs.UMD.EDU> 3IU4TOB@CMUVM.BITNET writes: >I am interested in hearing about anyone's experience with the QMS 410 printer, >in particular in a mixed PC and Mac environment. We have 5 QMS410s and we are having a terrible time with them. In our case, they are set up on a Sun network. With the exception of a printer that is connected to a Sun 3/80, the printers were configured with this postscript code: %! executive serverdict begin 0 exitserver executive statusdict begin 0 setsoftwareiomode statusdict begin 25 19200 67 setsccbatch end quit We connected a terminal directly to the printer to do this. The Test Configuration Page shows this: Serial RS-232C: Postscript, 19200, none, 8, 1, XON/XOFF/DTR In the case of the Sun 3/80, the communications protocol was set to: DTR/DSR The 3/80 also required a special null modem that is different from the ones that we use on the other suns. In all cases, we are getting messages like this: psbanner: sun:bkp Job: stdin Date: Fri Feb 15 15:17:54 1991 psif: sun:bkp 3b107qms serial start - Fri Feb 15 15:17:56 1991 psif: initial status - %%[ status: idle; source: serial 25 ]%%^M /u/ps/pslib/psif: 22068 Emulator trap - core dumped psif: sun:pgm 3b107qms serial start - Thu Feb 28 14:59:04 1991 psif: initial status - %%[ status: idle; source: serial 25 ]%%^M psif: ERROR: printer is idle, giving up! /u/ps/pslib/psif: 2790 Killed The stuff in %%[]%% and "Emulator trap - core dumped" come from the printer. The rest comes from the transcript software that we are running. We don't think the software is the problem because we have other models of QMS printers and a Data Products printer that work just fine. As you can see jobs are getting killed. In fact, on one printer about 100 jobs were killed in a 3 week period. If anyone has had the same experiences or even has a fix please respond through this group or by e-mail. Thanks, Mark Dennis att!aloft!vmd
kenw@skyler.arc.ab.ca (Ken Wallewein) (03/17/91)
In article <9103151457.AA04775@crayola.cs.UMD.EDU> AUIDCC@DUCVAX.AUBURN.EDU writes:
QMS customer support is practically non-existant. I would look at
another brand with better support.
I haven't found that to be so. I wouldn't call the support perfect, but
it's a long way from non-existent. Maybe it's just better in Canada :-).
However, we have had problems with the PS 410 getting into odd, and
highly useless, states. We run exclusively over AppleTalk with Farallon
Star controllers, which are active repeaters. The 410's will become either
totally uncommunicative, or will communicate to the extend of showing up in
the Chooser, but nothing more. When this happens, they seem not to
communicate via the serial port either. The only recourse is to do a
"brain wipe" by powering up the unit with both front panel buttons pressed,
and reloading the configuration parameters.
QMS tells us that the version 8 ROMs, due this week, should cure the
problem.
/kenw
--
/kenw
Ken Wallewein A L B E R T A
kenw@noah.arc.ab.ca <-- replies (if mailed) here, please R E S E A R C H
(403)297-2660 C O U N C I Ldmarcher@ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (david m archer) (03/17/91)
In article <9103151457.AA04775@crayola.cs.UMD.EDU> you write: > >QMS customer support is practically non-existant. I would look at >another brand with better support. I don't know about this. While their tech. support works on a "you call us, we'll call back in a few hours" basis, i've at least had calls returned within the same day. This is not something that QMS alone does. However, with this particular printer, the QMS-PS-410, we have 1, and are extremely unhappy with it. So far we've had 4 separate printers, one of which recently had a brain transplant (firmware revision 8 - fixes a nasty bug that prevented printing on legal paper using HP LaserJet emulation. One of the other printers belongs to another department; they have no problems, but their usage is very limited. Another was the original printer, the 2nd was a DOA (to replace the original one). A summary of the problem we have is that the printer just dies. Way too often. Needs to be turned off & back on again. Happens in the middle of a printing job, generally. Occurs more frequently when the paper runs out or a job is canceled. Cannot be instantly duplicated. Has not happened while trying to print from the serial/parallel ports, at least not that I can remember. It appears to be a mystery to both ourselves and QMS. Unfortunately, I've not been able to test the printer in a controlled environment (one mac, one printer), as we are "resource poor", and I can't take the printer & a mac and go in a corner to figure out what is going on without disrupting other users. This is perhaps the only reason why I don't go around screaming that the PS-410 is a piece of junk. Then again, we also "overload" the printer a great deal, it's not uncommon to have 4 users trying to print 10 pages each all at once. It shouldn't cause a problem, but the QMS PS-410 is only a "personal" printer with "network" capabilitys. It's not meant to print 400 pages a day (which is roughly what we average). I'm sure the printer would work much better in a lower usage environment. Then again, it crashed today (saturday) twice while only two macs were even on, with very limited printing. But, all in all, I'd say, perhaps the printer isn't all that bad, but I still wouldn't buy another one. And I really wouldn't buy another QMS printer of any brand. Call it a bad experience rather than a bad product. --- Note: I do not represent my employer or school, & sometimes not even myself. Dave Archer | Internet: V116KZND@UBVMS.CC.BUFFALO.EDU ! | dmarcher@acsu.buffalo.edu | Bitnet: V116KZND@UBVMS | C116KZND@UBVM | GEnie: D.ARCHER | Prodigy: Surely you jest!
stellr@NEXTADM.CC.VT.EDU (Ray Stell) (03/18/91)
> > > QMS customer support is practically non-existant. I would look at > another brand with better support. > > My boss had just the opposite experience. He hadn't even bought one and he got tech support. I cannot account for the disparity here, just thought I'd mention it. I am not associated with qms.
cb@execu.com (Christopher D. Brown) (03/20/91)
In article <9103151457.AA04775@crayola.cs.UMD.EDU> AUIDCC@DUCVAX.AUBURN.EDU writes: > >QMS customer support is practically non-existant. I would look at >another brand with better support. I have found found QMS customer support to be prompt and courteous. They have Fed-X'ed driver diskettes. They replaced the entire QMS 410 for a problem which I was prepared to live with. I love QMS and the QMS 410!!!!!!!!!! -- Christopher D. Brown Digital: {uunet|cs.utexas.edu}!execu!cb Analog: Phone (512) 327-7070, FAX (512) 327-7133 Physical: Execucom, 108 Wild Basin Road, Two Wild Basin, Austin, TX 78746
lindsay@WAIKATO.AC.NZ (03/22/91)
In article <9103132036.AA25566@crayola.cs.UMD.EDU>, 3IU4TOB@CMUVM.BITNET writes: > I am interested in hearing about anyone's experience with the QMS 410 printer, > in particular in a mixed PC and Mac environment. > We have a large number of these printers in a PC / Vax /Mac environment, the Macs and PC's being supported via Pathworks. We evaluated these printers against a range of other postscript printers and they compare very favourably with other offerrings. In particluar, their processing speed is comparable with a number of 8 ppm postscript lasers we have. In our particular environment the printers are locked in postscript and we have a print symbiont that handles text to ps conversion. Now for the downside. We have encountered 2 major bugs in the printer firmware. The first was a simple programming error which resulted in a printer response message not being formatted according to the postscript bible. In version 1 at least of the firmware this was correct, but by version 5 it was a problem. This will probably only cause a problem if tyou are interpreting repsonses from the printer (as you need to do in a Vax environment). Version 7 of the firmwarecorrects this problem. The second bug, has just in fact been found today and is a serious one. The printer gradually consumes available memory until it runs out completely and crashes. This takes a variable amount of time and appears to be related to the complexity of documents printed. It is easy to track, just print a status page ocassionally and see it disappear. On a busy VMS queue, it takes only about a day!!. When it does crash it trashes all your settings such as baud rate etc. No valid postscript command to reset the printer or cause it to carry out garbage collection is effective. One wonders how such a fundamental bug can get through product testing. Before looking further at this printer I would suggest you ensure that this particular problem is fixed. At this time QMS can not give us a fix for the problem.
jjwcmp@ULTB.ISC.RIT.EDU (Jeff Wasilko) (03/23/91)
While I don't have a 410, I've had very good experience with QMS's tech support. While their call-back support scheme is sometimes maddening, they ususally do a good job of estimating call back time. We had a few inital paper-transport problems with our 2210 (a 22ppm 11x17 printer), and the tech support folks gave good, solid advice. We eventually needed a service tech to adjust the feed-mechanism, but I can't speak highly enough of the tech's skills. The tech support folks even helped me write a quick piece of PS code to get a list of all fonts resident on the hard disk... Based on what I've heard about the 410, I'd say that QMS released it a little too early. Jeff -- | RIT VAX/VMS Systems: | Jeff Wasilko | RIT Ultrix Systems: | |BITNET: jjwcmp@ritvax +----------------------+ INET:jjwcmp@ultb.isc.rit.edu| |INTERNET: jjwcmp@ritvax.rit.edu |____UUCP:jjwcmp@ultb.UUCP____| |Ask me about the Desktop Publishing Mailing list -- All platforms welcome. |