Epson GQ-3500 Laser

The data light blinks after a printout.

The GQ must be installed in much the same manner as the cut sheet feeders and that is by reducing the number of lines per page to 63 (this must be adjusted for in your software). What is happening is that 2 or 3 blank lines are being pushed onto the next page and are sitting in the buffer waiting to be printed. Since the GQ only deals in whole pages it will wait for the page to fill before printing. You can clear the light by going off-line and pressing the paper feed button. You will see a blank page but to the printer it is not blank, it contains two lines of blank spaces.

I am getting line creep on multi-page documents.

This is caused by the same problem as above, the need to set the number of lines per page to 63. The blank lines are being pushed to the next page and there cause line creep.

My document won't print out.

The GQ deals in only whole pages and will not print unless it sees a full page or a Form Feed. Most software that supports laser printers will add a Form Feed at the end of the data when you order a printout. If not the data will sit in the buffer until you either manually force the page to be printed or the page is full.

What software printer drivers should I select to support the GQ?

Laser printers don't fall into any of the standard categories that you are used to. If you are using standard ASCII text only you can select almost any kind of dot-matrix printer driver. (We recommend the LQ-1500 or the FX). When you need to use some of the special features (fonts, expanded, super/sub script, etc) you either need a printer driver designed for the GQ, or you have to embed the escape codes into the document. Embedded escape codes are usually possible with word processing programs, etc. For many spreadsheets and bit-image graphics programs the escape codes must be part of the original program. The optional Font cards can be selected by SelecType or embedded codes. If you use one of the IC printer emulation cards you can select the appropriate printer driver in your software and avoid the use of embedded escape codes.

NOTE: If you use and emulation card you will be limited to the features of the emulated printer. You may loose some of the GQs built in features.

I am having problems with the LQ-1500 emulation.

The LQ-1500 emulation will support the standard text but not the graphics mode. Some features of the LQ will not work on the GQ. Compressed print is only available if you have the IC font card. The emphasized and double strike modes are hard to see as different from standard characters due to the high quality of the normal type. Bold type style can be selected from the SelecType panel, but this effects the entire document. Bold fonts will be available on the IC font cards.

The top of page margin is too large.

The top 1/4 inch of the paper in not a printable area. If you set the top margin to 6 lines you will get about 9 lines. you will have to change the top margin to correct for the 1/4 inch.

Display shows CH code when IC cards are used.

The Font IC cards can be used in either card slot but you must always fill the "A" slot first. You can't use just one card and put it in the "B" slot. The Emulation IC cards can only be used in the "A" slot. They can be used either with or without the Font cards. If you put them in the wrong location you will get the CH code.

The toner Out lamp is lit when there is still toner in the developer unit.

The first time that toner is placed in the developer unit the number of copies you can print out will be less than with later refills. This is due to the fact that not all of the toner is usable (some just stays in the unit). If you are moving the GQ from site to site you may cause the toner to move to one end of its tray. If this happens you will get a toner out light. To correct the problem just remove the developer unit and shake it side to side (along the long axis) to distribute the toner again.

Won't print full page or "Page Buffer Full"

The "Page Buffer Full" message or incomplete page printing happens most often when printing spreadsheets or large graphic files. This indicates there is not enough RAM memory in the printer to process the whole page. This can be demonstrated by changing the printer resolution in the Print menu to a lower number, for example: 150 dpi instead of 300 dpi. If the complete page prints or most of the page then the problem is due to inadequate memory resources in the printer.

You can either decrease the current print driver's resolution to 150 dpi or lower (this options is found under GRAPHICS) or you can install more memory in the printer.

Stops printing and "Continue" lights

This is normal when trying to print on odd size and small documents within the printer specifications without the AUTO CONTINUE feature turned on. The printer will stall momentarily, and you will have to press the CONTINUE button after each page. It also sometimes occurs if paper misfeeds and more than one sheet is fed at one time. To avoid having to press Continue you can turn the AUTO CONTINUE feature on.

• Enabling the AUTO CONTINUE feature on the printer.
• Press the SELECT TYPE LEVEL 2 button.
• Press the CONTINUE button until you reach AUTO CONTINUE OFF>
• Press the FEED button until AUTO CONTINUE OFF >SET.
• Press the COPY END button until AUTO CONTINUE ON>SET.
• Press the FEED button until AUTO CONTINUE ON>.
• Press the INITIALIZE RESET (you won't see any change, but the printer knows) button, then press ON-LINE.

Poor print quality

If print quality has declined, please read through the troubleshooting section of your printer user's manual as it has important instructions on how to handle and clean the various components and locations of these items.

These are a few important things to check in a laser printer which can affect print quality.

• Print density adjustment may cause print to be too light or dark/dirty background if adjusted too low or too high.
• Printer components may be dirty with spilled toner inside printer.
• Transfer charger wire may be broken or dirty and need cleaning.
• Glass lens on print head may be dirty and require cleaning.
• Cleaning pad may need replacing.
• Toner may be low.
• Imaging cartridge or drum may need replacing.

If, after cleaning or replacing the above items, print quality has not improved, the printer should be inspected or serviced by an Epson authorized servicer.

Windows 95 printing problem

Epson laser printers emulate HP printers, so if the Epson printer model is not listed among the Windows driver choices, you need to use the appropriate HP printer driver. Since you are using Windows 95, you should install the printer's emulation which is the HPLJ2 printer driver (32-bit).

There are three changes that you will need to make.

• Go to the HPLJII properties section, go to the tab called, "GRAPHICS" select the option called, "DITHERING." Under this option select "ERROR DIFFUSION."
• Under the tab called, "FONTS." Go to "TRUE TYPE FONTS." Select on this menu, the option called, "PRINT TRUE TYPE AS GRAPHICS."
• Make sure that the port settings are set to LPT1, NORMAL, STANDARD, bi-directional or SPP only. The printer does not support ECP or EPP. Any changes to your printer port will have to be done in your system's BIOS. Refer to you Windows 95 manual or contact your computer vendor for assistance.

Error Messages

A C0002, C0003 or C9999 error usually occurs if the printer cannot understand an instruction. So the problem could be a corrupted or wrong driver sending wrong instructions, in this case we would recommend reinstalling the correct driver. Do you use any non Windows applications where there is no problem or is the problem consistant to only one application or document in Windows? This would indicated the printer hardware is not the problem. Otherwise there could be something wrong with the printer if it is not understanding a valid instruction. On the EPL-7000 the C9999 error when printing in landscape mode can be solved by using the HPII driver rather than the HPIIP driver.

The C0004 error is a controller error or could also be caused by a failing fusing unit. If you are seeing this error at power up, then you are experiencing a hardware problem with the printer. If this is the case you will need to have the printer serviced at an Epson authorized service center. If the error message appears on the LCD when it is in a process of printing or receiving the data, then what you may be experiencing is a driver corruption, reinstalling the correct driver may help.

The C0008 error message means Privilege Violation. Your software application is sending a message or a code to the printer that it is not understanding. Make sure you have the correct driver installed.