Alfredo asks:
>b) A 4mPlus supports the Mac's AppleTalk protocol (through either
>LocalTalk, with inexpensive/slow PhoneNet cabling or standard/fast
>EtherNet cabling).  Just out of curiosity, why are you using a 4mPlus with
>windows, which is prone to exit back to dos at the most inconvenient
>moments?  Granted, the 4mPlus supports all kinds of protocols and cabling
>schemes, so this is just a -- perhaps loaded -- question from a Mac lover.
>For windows/dos, a 4plus (without the "m") is enough.
 
The main reason I use one is so that I can use PostScript and AppleTalk
rather than the some of the other oddball protocols. My WinNT system is
connected to a LaserJet 4MV via AppleTalk; it was the only protocol that
worked straight out of the box. Unlike the recommended protocol, AppleTalk
does NOT require me to find the printer's MAC address, or to change it when
I change printers or MIO cards. That plus the ability to use PostScript for
complex graphics is reason enough to invest the extra money in the 4Mxxxx
printers. (Not to mention that they work with our Macs!)
 
The original post asked for help with a PostScript error. One problem I've
discovered is that with all the combinations of protocol and language
supported by the 4M/5M printers, you can occasionally get into trouble on a
heterogenous network where all devices have their own ideas about how to
talk to the printer. Around here, we have Macs, a WinNT PC, a Win95/3.1 PC,
a Unix box, a Classic 3000 and a RISC 3000 using variously the parallel
port, AppleTalk, EtherTalk, and two flavors of TCP/IP (JetDirect and
lpr/lpd). I'm constantly impressed that the printer sorts this mess out
with as few problems as it does. (Sometimes I think I should put up a
Novell network just to see what happens :-). )
 
When everybody gets their drivers to use PJL, problems like the poster's
should go away. Meanwhile, some printer drivers encapsulate their jobs in
PJL, while others rely on a printer timeout in order to end a job, and
still others rely on PostScript job management. What may well be happening
in this case is that a PostScript job sent by a computer that doesn't do
job management (e.g., a PC using the parallel port) is timing out, leaving
the PostScript interpreter in a wierd state. The MIO error forces the job
to complete, and the PostScript interpreter then complains about the state
of the stack.
 
It would help to know not only the protocols used, as Alfredo says, but
also the types of hosts that are sending the print jobs that cause this
error and any information about the printer drivers you might have. It
would also be nice to know the type of document you're printing: graphics
or text-only, and the identity of any other hosts on the network.
 
-- Bruce
 
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