HP Laserjet 4 Plus & a MAcintosh Quadra 650

[Berserker]

So I am working on refurbishing a set of Virtual World 3.0 pods

http://imgur.com/a/XlfoA

These run of Amiga hardware, with a Macintosh console utilizing a Nubus A/Rose card.

I have been looking for a printer I can use to print mission review sheets and after attempting to locate a local LaserWriter without much success, some former 3.0 pod owners said they were certain they that an HP Laserjet 4 Plus would work.  I found one on Craigslists, picked it up for $40 bucks, it tested great and had all the necessary cables (power and parallel).

I attempted to hook it up to the Quadra 650 and the system with it connected will not boot up, boots to a floppy diskette and ?, which freaked me out at first, but once disconnected, booted to the desktop.  I will have to double check what the OS is, but I believe it is 7.5.5.

Anytime I hook up the printer, the mac appears to lock up.  Reading some more today, I saw there is an M version of the HP Laserjet 4 Plus and maybe that is what I should have looked for.

Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.  Am I out of luck here, or is there a solution that will resolve the issue and allow me to print to the Laserjet?

Thanks

 

[jhorvath911]

I'm assuming from what you posted that you are connecting a parallel printer to the SCSI port on the quadra which will not work at all and will cause your boot problems.

As a possible solution (however I have not checked into this printer to know for sure) would be to get a jet direct print server that would let you connect the printer to Ethernet and then use Ethernet on quadra to connect the two.

 

[Unknown_K]

There is also a rare Nubus parallel card to connect printers to.

 

[Berserker]

Thank you both for the information, it appears I have some more work to do.

I did find a HP JetDirect 500 on craigslist, cannot find much info in regards to compatibility with classic OS, would that work?

Would my best/easiest option just to find a LaserWriter?

Thanks

 

[jruschme]

There is a JetDirect card that plugs into the LJ 4+. I think there are a couple of versions, but at least one has an AppleTalk port (in addition to Ethernet jack). I believe the part number is J2552A.

Damn, I wish I had saved mine when I junked my LJ 4.

 

[Gorgonops]

You're really lucky you didn't destroy the SCSI controller in your Mac by hooking that parallel printer to it. People have done exactly that by making the mistake of plugging one of the parallel port ZIP drives into said port. Hopefully the printer is okay.

(General warning about dealing with old/obsolete technology: unless you know for sure do *not* assume that merely because the plugs on two different pieces of equipment are the same that it's okay to plug them together. DB9/15/25 plugs were used for *all sorts of things* back in the day and cross-connecting some of these things will let the magic smoke out.)

And yes, to be useful to a "classic" Mac a laser printer pretty much has to have Postscript capability and so far as I recall the 4 Plus doesn't have it. Likewise I'm pretty sure the Postscript-equipped versions had an "M" appended to their model number, so the PS equipped version would be the 4M+, and I also think, but wouldn't swear to it, that the M versions came equipped by default with a Localtalk interface card in addition to the parallel port.

It's possible to upgrade a plain 4+ to a 4M+ by swapping in the appropriate parts from the latter, but I suspect it'll be more than a minor pain to acquire the parts ala carte. How are all your systems networked together? (I assume they are?) If you're using Ethernet one low/no cost strategy if you have a dingy old PC with a parallel port sitting around would be to set up a Linux print server with Ghostscript (a Postscript emulator) and expose it to the Macs via Netatalk, which would allow them to use the 4+ you already have. Fair warning, this is one of the less easy parts of Netatalk, but once it's set up it works well.

 

[PowerPup]

I still have my JetDirect ethernet card that I pulled from my LJ 4+ before I junked it. (Model J2550.) Worked great over AppleTalk.

PM me an offer if interested.

 

[Berserker]

There is just one Mac, the console, that loads the games into the pods.  The pods themselves interface through the console through the A/Rose card (modified by VWE) using token ring network and an arcnet hub.  It really is a very fascinating setup.  I just hope I did not waste any money buying the Laserjet if it is not going to work.

Sent you a PM PowerPup.

 

[techknight]

That thing looks badass. I would like to see a guts shot. 

 

[Gorgonops]

I still have my JetDirect ethernet card that I pulled from my LJ 4+ before I junked it. (Model J2550.) Worked great over AppleTalk.

Did you also pull the ROM SIMM that has the postscript interpreter on it? I don't think the JetDirect card will do much good without it, unless HP released PCL5 drivers for MacOS. (Never heard of any.)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/C3129A-C3129-60001-LaserJet-4-4Plus-PostScript-Simm-Kit-w-16MB-MEMORY-UPGRADE-/281729237990?hash=item41985f03e6

 

[PowerPup]

D'oohhhh... I didn't realize there were ROM SIMMs to pull out. (Would have done so otherwise.)  Once I picked up a smaller, faster LJ2100 I just wanted the 4+ gone.

 

[Berserker]

More good info Gorgonops.  Will the solution with the JetDirect card and the PostScript Simm Kit w/16MB memory upgrade be all that I need to make the 4+ work with the Quadra 650?

 

[Berserker]

techknight, I will take pics of the guts when I up at the site this weekend and post them for you.

 

[NJRoadfan]

The JetDirect and Postscript SIMM are all you need. That would make the printer equivalent to a "M" model. I wouldn't spend too much money on it though, in many cases ebay pricing makes it cheaper to just buy a 4M+ logic board and swap it into the printer.

 

[CelGen]

I seem to recall that when you used HP's driver package it included a PCL version of the driver for non M-series Laserjets. It's been a while.

 

[Berserker]

I appreciate everyones feedback.  I checked out a local computer shop this afternoon and found an untested HP Laserjet 4M+.  I am doubtful that the printer works, but I picked it up for $10 and it has the JetDirect card.

So besides installing the JetDirect in the 4+ I have that I know that works, what else will I need to remove and install?

Will I need to install any drivers or software on the Quadra 650?

Thanks again.

 

[CelGen]

Getting a used 4M that is dead is unlikely. Those things are basically bombproof and if say your fuser is dead you can still get refurbished ones for $30.

HP still has the mac drivers available for download off their website. The oldest they list is OS 8 but I've extracted and loaded them on machines running 7.5 and 7.6 with no problems.

 

[PowerPup]

Legacy drivers from HP's website: http://h20565.www2.hp.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?sp4ts.oid=14982&swItemId=lj_29264_1&lang=en&cc=us

Though the webpage only lists as low as Mac OS 8.6, when the installer is launched the embedded readme indicates it works with as low as Mac OS 7.5.

 

[Berserker]

So the 4M+ got the notirious PC Load Letter error message.

I pulled out the JetDirect card, the PostScript SIMM and the extra memory in the 4+ and was actually able to print to it.

I still need to install the HP drivers and find a way to get them on there, I am working on getting the 650 online after attempting to install an AztekMonster did not work (was hoping to be able to transfer and backup files using it).

Thanks everyone for your help.