Print Problems with Xerox Phaser 6120

Thanks for the responses Greg and Grant. Let me try to address all the questions.

Remember we are on our third one courtesy of Xerox customer support that has no better idea of what to do! This third new one is the worst of all. We originally tried going with DHCP and letting it find itself based on the default IP address from the factory. Same way we used the other two before they lost communication. We have printed 2 whole pages to this one under the default factory setup of IP with DHCP before it lost communication and everything just went into the print queue on the Mac. Tried rebooting both Mac and printer to no avail. Reading that DHCP could be problematic with the Xerox 6120, we turned DHCP off and manually input an address of 192.168.2.13. Default router is 192.168.2.1 and subnet mask is 255.255.255.000. All this works fine with the HP Laser jets on the network with their individual end node addresses.

We just started over and repaired permissions and deleted the 6120 in the Printer Setup Utility. We then used Rendezvous for setup. We tried to print a single page to it from InDesign. The printer console said "Processing...", then "Printing..." and then "Printing 1/1" and stayed on that message for several minutes before we canceled it.

We then deleted the printer again and set it up again with Greg's suggestion of IP Printing and chose Socket/HP JetDirect as suggested. We input the IP address where requested and tried the print job again. This produced "Processing..." and Printing.." and no more until job was canceled several minutes later.

We have in the past tried IP Printing with Rendezvous, IP Printing with Iternet Printing Protocol, and USB Printing with similar results to the above (making sure Appletalk was enabled when appropriate to those protocols).

I just tried setting it up in the Printer Setup Utility as an AppleTalk printer. The system found it (and the HPs). The end result was identical to the IP Printing/HP JetDirect option above.

I then just deleted and re-setup with IP Printing/Internet Printing Protocol. Same result as AppleTalk and IP/HP Jet Direct, "Processing..." then "Printing.."

Delete, try IP Printing with LPD/LPR. Same result.

Delete, try IP Printing with Rendezvous. Set 'pass' option. Printer console result: "Printing..", "Processing...", "Printing..", no more.

I just used Terminal to ping it and it responds to pings.

I am just about ready to throw in the towel on this printer.

Does anyone have a Xerox 6120 working with a Mac?!

Very, very frustrated! Print quality fabulous when it prints, but totally worthless currently.





iMac 17" LCD G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9) 768k

iMac 17" LCD G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9) 768k

Well, as stupid as it sounds, it currently appears that all of our problems have come from trying to use custom forms. All of our printing designated for this machine is on pre-printed heavier weight stock forms that are 8x13 or 8x13.5 in size. All of this is well within the published spec for the 6120. After talking with Xerox Customer Service they had verified the input of the custom parameters. They had also advised to use postcard for the weight setting. All of these have to be set through the tedious front panel process, since Xerox does not have their PrinterScout software available for Apple with this printer.

After having all of the lack of print and loss of communications problems outlined above, I once again deleted all reference to the 6120 with Printer Set-Up Utility. I reset the print parameters to plain paper letter stock. I re-added the printer as a Rendezvous device on the IP network, tried printing and was shocked when it printed. Printed several pages on letter, switched to legal and also printed several pages. Re-input 'custom' and no go! Set it for plain paper, all is well. Set postcard or heavier stock weight and the no print problems started again. Resolution was to leave it on plain paper legal size and re-size the job layout to print properly. Not an elegant solution, since it means the jobs will not print properly on the other printers now!

What appeared to be a communication problem actually turned out to be a lack of capability problem to process custom stock settings. In a true touch of irony, the stupid printer now gives us an error message after every job that says the physical print paper inserted did not match the selected size that was input on the front panel. Can't figure out how to print to custom stock, but it knows it when it feeds it! Of course this message has to be manually cleared with the front panel cancel button. Our advice is to pass on this printer unless all you need to do is to print plain paper on letter or legal.

Thanks for all the input.