Anybody experienced with HP 350c plotter?

I want to print out my 2d drawings on a Hewlett Packard DesignJet 350c
plotter that I have, but when I try it the operation freezes up. Then I
lose the plotter in my printers. I have to reboot to get the plotter
back. I'm using Windows 98se and Solidworks 2003. I don't know if
there's a particular driver that solidworks needs to see or what. The
plotter prints out the Windows test page with no problems.

 

Well, I do regret (really) to tell you but the 350C is a POS, and the
drivers are worse. HP has long been known (in the printer/plotter
world) as a company that makes outstanding hardware and absolutely
shitty software and drivers. The 350C is an exception . . . the
hardware is shitty too. Unfortunately for you you're also using the
shittiest OS that Microsoft released since Windows 3.51. At least
upgrade to Windows XP Pro . . . you might stand a ghost of a chance of
making that POS plotter work. But I wouldn't bet much on it.

I'm not usually this cheerful . . . I just had enough experience with
the 350C to want to kick up my heels a little. You're lucky to be able
to get it to print the test page right.

Sorry,
Mark 'Sporky' Stapleton
WaterMark Design, LLC
www.h2omarkdesign.com
Charlotte, NC

 

JJ,

I have the exact same plotter at home. The difference is I'm running windows XP. Plotting works fine on my system with
the latest HP driver for WinXP. I don't know about Win98, but XP actually has a windows driver that works OK. You might
try loading the standard Windows driver if Win98 has one.

Malcontent

 

Thanks guys. I bought the plotter at an auction, so I got it pretty
cheap. I plan on using it to just make prints for checking drawings. I
guess I will get XP soon.
thanks again

 

You hit the nail dead center Sporky. Fortunately, I didn't pay much for my 350C. The plotter actually does line drawings
OK. My main complaint is with the damned cartridges. If I let the thing sit for more than a day or two without plotting,
the cartridges dry shut. At ~$36.00 / cartridge, it's not an economical solution.

Malcontent

 

Yup. Exactically (sic intentionally). But also dig the mystifying
(often non-functional) control buttons and the even more cryptic
instructions. The designers should be chained to one of their damned
machines and made to perform constant maintenance for at least a year as
punishment.

 

No, I'm on WinXP Pro.

Malcontent

 

Ooops,

I forgot to mention that I was on WinNT 4.0 before XP. I never used 98 at all.

 

Use rubbing alchol on the ink screen it will fix the cartidges.

 

Perhaps memory is an issue? There is an option for some HP "plodders"
to use computer memory instead of plotter memory. Sometimes that's
the way to get plots when other ways plotz.