Samsung printer drops a couple lines of print .
 

I have a Samsung SCX-4200 Laser printer.

When I print anything with more than one page it will drop the last 1 to 3 lines of text at the top of the next page after page 1. This will then continue to drop the lines on every page. This is driving me nuts, I just can't figure out what is wrong.
This was posted on another web site and there answer was that this is just the way it is with laser printers. I find this hard to believe.

Scale is set to "Shrink to fit page width (no problem in the width).

Margins at the top and bottom are set at 14.0, at the left and right they are set at 10.0.

No header information is used, left blank.


Does anyone have any ideas?

I would think the printer definition file might be incorrect with the imageable area settings.

All laser printers have areas on a page where they are physically unable to print. (top/bottom/left/right)
If the definition file is incorrect for the printer it could possibly be causing the problem.


What printer drivers are you using for that printer ? the Samsung unified driver ? or did you grab the /ppd file from the samsung driver and just setup the Printer in CUPS ?

http://openprinting.org/show_printer...msung-SCX-4200

a .ppd file is a printer definition. it tells the printing system the capabilities of the printer. What size paper it can handle, what the printable regions of the page are, if the printer is color or B & W, how many paper trays there are, if the printer can duplex, fold, spindle, mutilate, staple, or hole punch.

You can open the .ppd in a text editor and view it. it's written in a markup language (think HTML or Postscript) and isn't too difficult to decipher. Look for the pagesize, and imageablearea sections I mentioned and see what it is set to. Backup the file before you make changes then experiment a little.

for instance..

Using A4 for the example, notice how the imageable are is smaller than the PageSize ?

View the .ppd specifications for more information. I can't think of what else might cause your problem...
http://partners.adobe.com/public/dev..._Spec_v4.3.pdf
http://partners.adobe.com/public/dev...PPD_Update.pdf

http://partners.adobe.com/public/dev...dex_specs.html

I did see mention in the document about your paper size definitions must match the definitions in the imagable are otherwise printed information would be outside the printable area..

Even if this isn't the solution, at least it's a place to start :)


Also verify the DeviceAdjustMatrix hasn't been altered. See the Specs for information

farslayer, first off it's nice to hear from you, I hope ypou are doing well.

I'll try and check things out as best I can. This printer has cost me more time than any other item associated with switching to Linux (SUSE) and I am just plain fed up with it. When it's current cartridge ($80.00 bucks worth) is depleted I am going to introduce it to my neighbors sledge hammer ! I don't want to sell it or anything else, just beat the hell out of it and never buy another Samsung product again.

I thank you for your assistance, you always come through!

I'm actually rather fond of my Samsung printers and haven't had any of the issues you are describing. I've only purchased units with built in networking though so connectivity has been a breeze.

I can appreciate the 'Office Space' reference, but the proper implement of destruction would be a baseball bat :)

I remember you saying you had no problems with samsung, but you were using a networking printer. When the current ink cartridge ends it's miserable life I'll be contacting you for a current recommendation on a new printer.
Something that I think I should share is that the cartridge that came with printer when I bought it only lasted a few hundred pages, I complained and complained on several web sites and everyone said basically nothing except that the original cartridge when refilled would be the same as a "NEW" replacement cartridge so I kept having the original cartridge refilled with the same result. only a few hundred page life. Finally I purchased a "NEW" cartridge (one I have now) and it has passed 1000 pages witch was unheard of with the original cartridge and it's refills! Why, I really don't know but I would bet it has something to do with the chip in the orig cartridge. Thought you would like to know.

As for the Samsung printer, my main gripe is the hassle one has to go through to install drivers every time the occasion calls for it and the little things like what started this post. I wrote samsung and explained problems several times and not once did they ever reply.

I loved the video you supplied, now that is poetic justice, my kind for this printer anyway.
Take care farslayer, we shall talk again when new printer time comes, LOL

the original cartridges (ink or Laser) for most printers are limited and do not provide the same output as a retail purchased cartridge, so you were correct there.

A retail cartridge for your printer should prive an estimated 3000 Pages, depending on Page coverage. (more pages for text only, less for photos and graphics)

I agree on the drivers. Although Samsung provides their 'unified Linux Driver' I had nothing but trouble with it. It was easier to just choose standard postscript printer in Cups and give it the .ppd file that came with the Samsung driver. It was easier to install and setup and didn't do all the weird stuff to the system that the 'unified driver' did.

How true it is, so to speak, LOL.

I downloaded SUSE 11.0 and put it on a separate drive from the 10,3 version that I normally use, however I messed up I think by installing KDE 4.0 (think it's 4.1 now) lots of strange things happening. I wish I had optioned for KDE 3.5.9.
KDE 4 is really nice but it's for experts in my opinion at this point, and people willing to put up with and handle the many quirks.

I tried to down load the Samsung Unified Driver and install it as I did for SUSE 10.3 but I can't even extract the driver.

I downloaded it, opened up a terminal, signed in as root and typed:
#tar -XZF [Downloaded file name(xxxx.tar.gz)]

However it did nothing! I thought maybe it did something but I just don't get to see it, so I tried to execute the installation program.

#./cdroot/autorun It did nothing but bring up another prompt.

One thing I did see was on the SAMSUNG download site the file is called:
DR/2000707/20070720152943906_UnifiedLinuxDriver.tar.gz
however when you download it, it drops off the DR/ and becomes:
2000707/20070720152943906_UnifiedLinuxDriver.tar.gz

I don't remember if it was this way when I set up the printer for SUSE 10.3, but it's like that now.

Unless I did something wrong, I believe it has something to do with the new SUSE 11.0 and since you taught me how to use the download and install instructions I believe it's SUSE 11.0

I tried extracting the downloaded file as above.

message: No such file or directory.

What is happening, my procedure is exactly as "Samsung" describes one to do!.

farslayer, what is this PPD file procedure and cups you are talking about? Can I do it with my printer, if so how? You mentioned less confusion and increased capabilities I think. I would actually settle for something that just worked for a change.
I have no idea how to go about extracting the PPD file from Samsung's UnifiedLinuxDriver or what to do with it. If you have the time, maybe this is the way to go, what do you think?

Another thought, I would think one needs to be able to extract the samsung driver to be able to access any file such as the PPD you referred to, if so that takes me back to step one witch is "no such file or directory", is this the case or have I jumped the gun due to a lack of knowledge again?

the -xzf should be lower case in the command to extract the files. You are correct you will need to extract them to get to the .ppd file.

tar -xzvf filename.tar.gz


then search through the extracted files until you find the .ppd file(s) figure out which one is for your printer and copy it to a place you can easily find.

Open a web browsr and browse to:

http://localhost:631

That should show the CUPS web management interface.
Click on Add printer, and just step through the add printer wizard.
At some point it will ask what printer or give you the option to use a .ppd file.

If you do decide on this form of vengence, I highly suggest a pair of good safety goggles. A nice corneal injury takes all of the satisfaction of a good sledgehammerin'.

Good advice.. Been there, Done that.. and you are right it's very painful. Thank goodness mine wasn't too severe, although now I sometimes wonder if that helped contribute to the severe decline of my vision :(

Take a look:


linux-jgbc:/home/x15/Desktop # tar -xzvf 200707/20070720152943906_unifiedlinuxdriver.tar.gz
tar: 200707/20070720152943906_unifiedlinuxdriver.tar.gz: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
tar: Child returned status 2
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors

linux-jgbc:/home/x15/Desktop # tar -xzvf DR/200707/20070720152943906_unifiedlinuxdriver.tar.gz
tar: DR/200707/20070720152943906_unifiedlinuxdriver.tar.gz: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
tar: Child returned status 2
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors

linux-jgbc:/home/x15/Desktop # tar xzf 200707/20070720152943906_unifiedlinuxdriver.tar.gz
tar: 200707/20070720152943906_unifiedlinuxdriver.tar.gz: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
tar: Child returned status 2
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
linux-jgbc:/home/x15/Desktop #


I tried different things, one thing that struck me as being strange was on the Samsung download site the file starts off as DR/200707/200707,etc this is what they say the file name is. When you download it it drops the DR/ of the front end and becomes 200707/200707,etc, this seems strange to me. Anyway as you can see it says the file can't be found. But it is on the Desktop

Any suggestions?

The problem is the slashes in the file name.. try this..


And here is extracting.. I only listed some of the .ppd files in the output.

farslayer, I was able to extract and save the SCX4200.ppd file

I then opened up firefox and went to localhost:631, clicked on add printer, filled in information, then it asked me for a username and password, I took this to mean the username and password to my system so I entered them but it just returned with the same question, enter username and password.

Is the localhost:631 a web site that I have to join, were they talking about there user name and password or the one for my system, anyway it wouldn't accept mine.

What did I do wrong?

More news-

I joined CUPS.

Everything went as you said till CUPS asked for a user name and password!
It turns out that SUSE has some sort of proprietary naming convention that doesn't agree with CUPS.
CUPS has a work around but fall short in the explanation area of how to incorporate it, at least to me.

As follows, they instruct one in 3 steps, 2 & 3 or no problem since they tell you what to put into these steps, but for step one they say " Go to /etc/cups/cups.conf" here you are supposed to insert information witch I think is steps 2 and 3 witch is the word "Basic" for step 2 and the word "NO" for step 3!
Problem: what the heck is "/etc/cups/cups.conf " I have no idea how to get there or what interface to use! This could have easily been a preprogrammed thing (check box if you have SUSE) but now it is confusing.

Can you help?

Earlier you said something about your eyesight going down hill rather fast, I was unable to send you a PM so if you send me an email explaining the problem I might (hopefully) be able to help.