Make my Printer cry

  • Thread starter Thread starter John O
  • Start date Start date
J

John O

This is, admittedly, a bizarre issue. I need to send a postscript or pcl
file at a Laserjet 2300d, and have it choke. No typos in that sentence. :-)

I need to demonstrate what happens when a printer runs out of memory.
Problem is, this HP has 48 MB of RAM, and HP uses some sort of compression
technology. But....I know that PowerPoint can generate some ugly postscript.
It's not a bug, it's a feature, and I'm going to exploit it! Soooo, what
kind of ick can I put into a pres that will generate a massive, ugly,
barely-legal ps file?
 
gradients
EPS files with gradients
JPGs with gradients
TIFs with gradients

you get the idea.
 
I need to demonstrate what happens when a printer runs out of memory.
Why?
Click to expand...

It's part of a printer servicing course. We break it, then the student gets
to see the failure in action. These new HPs are pretty hard to break,
though.

-John
 
I need to demonstrate what happens when a printer runs out of memory.
Click to expand...

Various things can cause a printer to run out of memory and various things
might happen as a result.

PS printers: Assuming the error page feature is turned on in the printer's
setup (some printers allow it to be turned off) the printer will generate an
error page then flush the job that caused the problem, or it'll simply reboot
itself.

If all you need to do is demo an error page, put this in a notepad file named
ERROR.PS and send it to the printer:

%!PS-Adobe
Make smoke come out of my ears
%%EOF

If you want PS that's liable to break something, though, make a slide that has
layered up bitmaps and shapes with semi-transparent fills, one atop the other.
That'll give you PPTPS at its sheer ugliest.


PCL printers ... It's been a while since I fought with 'em. ISTR that the
common memory errors were 20 and 21. One's a straightforward "I haven't got
enough memory to buffer this full page" kind of thing. Unless you're printing
color on huge sheets or have lots of other stuff loaded that's eaten all the
available memory, I kinda doubt you'll see this one on a 48mb printer.

To avoid these errors, you used to be able to put the printer in another mode
that rasterized/printed bands at a time instead of a whole page. That saved a
lot of memory (only needed enough for a smallish band) but meant that the
printer had to rasterize each band quickly enough to keep up with the rotating
print drum. If it failed to do that (usually because you'd sent it a LOT of
detail on a single band ... Loads and loads of teenytype, for example) then
you'd get the other of the two error messages.

This was back when memory = money and 1-2mb printers were hot stuff. I wonder
whether the things even support banded printing any longer.
 
Insert two or more pictures that are larger than the slide size. Have one
run over the right side of the slide, the other over the left side. Make
sure major parts of the two pictures overlap. Now, to make sure it dies, add
a slide sized box over top of the pictures with a graphic fill set to 95%
transparent. Should bomb it out - does here. (I know the 4050 is hard to
make die - we have one for just that reason. However, this should do it by
overfilling the memory and the page margins, then trying to put transparent
over top.)

--
Kathryn Jacobs, Microsoft PPT MVP
If this helped you, please take the time to rate the value of this post:
http://rate.affero.net/jacobskl/
Get PowerPoint answers at http://www.powerpointanswers.com
Cook anything outdoors with http://www.outdoorcook.com
Kathy is a trainer, writer, Girl Scout, and whatever else there is time for
I believe life is meant to be lived. But:
if we live without making a difference, it makes no difference that we lived
 
I love the 'inhouse tech support nitemare' of sending a document to print that contains graphics.

The job enters the print queue in software
The data starts to reach the printer
Someone turns * off * the printer
Someone turns the printer back on
The computer continues sending the data where it left off

Results ..... lots and lots of gobbledeegook over lots and lots of pages

,_Xw©"d2oÃa2oÄe@¨vXª"e2îɤsÛ»q4sc>-G~
ad infinitum


I call it 'Art'



TAJ
 
I could send you a picture of me in my 12th grade Prom dress. ???
No no no, that's not what I meant by "barely legal." :-) And I'm sure it
would print just fine, too.

Thatks for all the tips, we'll be trying some of these today. I like the
idea of a busted ps file, just open up a good one and replace something that
looks important with some text from a help file. That should do it.

-John
 
Combine that with some of the pics of me 24 hours after Sea Worms and I
think that should do it. <g> I sure know that it made me overflow. <gag>
 
I could send you a picture of me in my 12th grade Prom dress. ???
Click to expand...

ROFL!

Or better yet, of Reilly in your 12th grade Prom dress!

PhotoShop. Use the Power wisely.
 
ROFL!

Or better yet, of Reilly in your 12th grade Prom dress!

PhotoShop. Use the Power wisely.
Click to expand...

LOL!

Hmm..come to think of it, wonder what he would look like in Pepto Bismol
Pink and Chartreuse??
 
Combine that with some of the pics of me 24 hours after Sea Worms and I
think that should do it. <g> I sure know that it made me overflow.
Click to expand...
<gag>

Well...I think we can get a very good idea of how you looked in Pepto Bismol
 
Hmm..come to think of it, wonder what he would look like in Pepto Bismol
Careful. We don't want Mikey to overflow again.
Click to expand...

Ah..good thinking. He's been through enough overflows.....or was that
outflows...???
 
Back
Top