Error: limitcheck on HP LaserJet 8000

Hello all,

We have several users that are having intermittent problems printing to
a networked HP LaserJet 8000. The printer itself has 88 MB installed
RAM. Some of the users have had intermittent problems printing from
different programs (Word, Excel, Outlook, etc.), but it seems to occur
most while printing PDFs. One user has Windows 2000 and the full
version of Acrobat 5. While trying to print a PDF, the following error
occurs:

ERROR: limitcheck
OFFENDING COMMAND: clip

STACK:

-savelevel-


The same PDF prints ok on an HP LaserJet 5si.

Any ideas on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for
the help -

On 8 Dec 2004 06:50:03 -0800, bonzo59@netzero.net dijo:

>We have several users that are having intermittent problems printing to
>a networked HP LaserJet 8000. The printer itself has 88 MB installed
>RAM. Some of the users have had intermittent problems printing from
>different programs (Word, Excel, Outlook, etc.), but it seems to occur
>most while printing PDFs. One user has Windows 2000 and the full
>version of Acrobat 5. While trying to print a PDF, the following error
>occurs:
>
>ERROR: limitcheck
>OFFENDING COMMAND: clip
>
>STACK:
>
>-savelevel-
>
>
>The same PDF prints ok on an HP LaserJet 5si.

Sorry this is a bit late -- been too busy lately to read this
newsgroup regularly.

I have a 5SiMx and an 8000. I sympathize with your problem.

First, I assume you really have the 5SiMx, not the basic 5Si. The
difference is that the 5SiMx has the PostScript SIMM.

The 8000 has PostScript built-in, and all of them come that way.
However, the 8000 uses PostScript emulation licensed from Xionics. The
5Si PostScript SIMM is genuine Adobe level 2. And therein may be where
the problem lies.

I used InDesign these days pretty much exclusively. InDesign has
built-in PDF export. I also have PageMaker 7.0, which came with the
Acrobat 5.0 distiller. So, to create a PDF from InDesign, I can either
do the direct export, or I can print to distiller.

If I export from InDesign, the resulting PDF prints fine on the 5SiMx
at close to the rated speed, with nary a problem ever. But if I try to
print it to the 8000 I get glacially slow printing. And sometimes I
get error message and the whole print job bombs (similar to the error
message you reported).

If I create the PDF by printing to distiller, the resulting PDF prints
perfectly on either machine.

I've checked the settings and they are the same. I've queried people
at Adobe, including sending them samples of the PDFs. They have no
explanation. I have also queried HP, who are even more clueless.

My conclusion is that there is something screwy in the Xionics
PostScript emulation. At least I have a reliable workaround, so I
stopped worrying about it.

I have only a couple suggestions, and they may not help.

1) Assuming the 8000 is on your network, you can use HP WebJetAdmin to
connect to HP's website, from where you can automatically update the
firmware in the 8000. I have no idea if this update changes the
version of the PostScript emulation, but it might. It's worth a shot,
anyway.

2) I know the control panel on the 5SiMx offers a "personality"
setting. The choices are PCL only, PostScript only, or Automatic. The
default is to set it to Automatic. Thus, the printer switches to
PostScript whenever it sees PostScript data coming in. I don't know if
this option is on the 8000 as well. I could get up and turn it on to
check, but I'm too lazy. If it does, set it to PCL only and see what
happens. After all, non-PostScript printers are supposed to print PDFs
just fine. This would force it to stop using its flaky PostScript
emulation.

I hope one of those suggestions helps. Otherwise, I'm out of ideas.

--
Bogus e-mail address, but I read this newsgroup regularly, so reply here.