Troubleshooting quick reference

Phaser 360

Troubleshooting quick reference tables

Media feeding or jamming problems

Image Quality Problems

Printing and installation problems

Network problems (Macintosh)

Media feeding or jamming problems

Symptom Solution

Paper jams or mispicks at the standard paper tray or transparency tray.

Is the paper too thick or thin for the printer? Use standard office paper 60 to 120 g/m2 (16 to 32 lb.) or Tektronix transparency media. Refer to Acceptable media sizes, types, and weight for more details on the type of paper you can use with the printer.

Do not load the tray beyond the fill line. Paper tray capacity is 200 sheets paper or 50 sheets transparency. Transparency tray capacity is 175 sheets transparency.

Check that the maintenance tray is inserted correctly and latched firmly into place.

You may need to clean the media-pick rollers. Refer to Cleaning for upper media tray jams: media-pick roller.

Paper-feed problems at the Lower Paper Tray Assembly.

Use standard office paper only, 60 to 120 g/m2 (16 to 32 lb.).

Do not load the tray beyond the fill line. Paper tray capacity is 625 sheets of 90 g/m2 (24 lb.) paper.

Paper jamming inside the printer.

Remove and relatch the maintenance tray. Refer to Replacing the maintenance tray.

You may need to clean the paper-feed rollers. Refer to Cleaning for jams and ink smears: paper-feed rollers.

Paper jamming at manual feed slot.

Wait until the front panel prompts you before inserting media into the manual feed slot. Feed the paper or transparency into the manual feed slot and let the printer take the media out of your hands.

Select Manual Paper or Manual Transparency in the printer driver.

Select the appropriate size media in the printer driver.

Make sure to align the paper against the left edge of the manual feed slot.

Is the paper too thick or the wrong size for manual feed? Refer to Acceptable media sizes, types, and weight.

Image quality problems

Symptom Solution

Light-colored or blank stripes on prints.

Refer to Light stripes on prints: cleaning the printhead.

Ink streaks or oil on front, back, or edges of print.

Do not print on both sides of the media. Ink may be offset onto the internal paper path.

Refer to Cleaning for ink smears and jams: internal paper path.

Transparency print quality poor.

Use Tektronix premium transparency media.

Make sure that you have selected Standard as the print-quality mode; try setting Vivid Color as the color correction.

Use the transparency tray for printing transparencies and specify Transparency in a supported printer driver. Refer to Transparency quality tips.

Print is wrinkled.

You may be using paper that is too thick or thin. Refer to Acceptable media sizes, types, and weight.

Paper edge is rippled.

You may be using paper with the wrong grain. Load long-grained paper.

Printed image is shifted or the wrong color, or the margins are not correct.

You may have to make adjustments in the application or print driver. Refer to Printing and installation problems.

Make sure that the paper is not curled. Also refer to Cleaning for jams and ink smears: paper-feed rollers.

Microsoft PowerPoint users:

Macintosh users: In the Chooser, set Background Printing to Off.

PC users: Through the Print Manager, turn off background printing.

Colors do not print as expected.

Refer to Adjusting the color of your prints for details on how to select TekColor color corrections.

You may have attempted to print on transparencies loaded in a paper tray but did not select Transparency as the tray selection or paper source in the printer driver. Refer to Printing transparencies for more information.

Refer to Printed colors are not what you expected for more tips.

Refer to Printing and using the color sampler charts.

Image prints in black- and-white instead of color.

PC users: Be sure to use a driver that supports color PostScript. If you are running Windows, use the Tektronix-supplied driver that was shipped with the printer's software. Refer to Printing from a PC for information on drivers.

Microsoft Excel users: In the Print dialog box, check the Print using color option.

Macintosh users: Use a supported color PostScript printer driver and the Phaser 360 printer's PPD file. In the Print Options dialog box, select Color/Grayscale. Refer to Printing from a Macintosh for more details on how to print from a Macintosh.

You may need to install application-related files such as a PDF or PPD file for QuarkXPress.

PC users: Refer to PC/Windows software for information.

Macintosh users: Refer to Mac OS software for information.

You may have incorrectly sent the Monochrome color correction utility file to the printer. Send another color correction utility file to the printer, use a front panel selection, or print from a driver.

Printing and installation problems

Symptom Solution

You have problems printing from a specific application.

For additional information and tips on printing from specific applications (such as QuarkXPress and PageMaker), refer to Applications Topics Index.

Fonts print incorrectly in Windows.

Make sure you have installed the correct printer with your driver. Refer to PC/Windows software for instructions on installing drivers.

Text prints in Courier font.

The font you have specified is not available. The Phaser 360 printer has 164 resident fonts. Other fonts must be downloaded or available on a SCSI hard disk. Refer to Downloading fonts.

The image does not finish printing (the printer times out).

PC users: If you are using the parallel port, use the MODE command to set the PC's communication parameters, for example: MODE LPT1:,,P (for parallel port LPT1).

Windows users: Double-click on the Control Panel. Double-click the Printers icon. Choose your Tektronix printer. Click the Connect button. Change the Transmission Retry to 850.

Parallel port printing: If you get a timeout from the Connect dialog box, change the Ports selection from LPTX to LPTX.DOS. (Some Windows installations may say LPTX.OS2; X is 1, 2, or 3.)

The area of paper that the printer prints on is smaller than the media size.

See Margins and image area for more details. To maximize the image area, you may have to adjust the margins in your application software.

Ink Low or Ink Sticks Jammed message appears when ink bins are full.

Apply pressure to each row of ink sticks in the loading bin to make sure they are not jammed.

A Macintosh printed image has shifted or the margins are not correct.

You should install a supported printer driver and the Phaser 360 printer PPD onto your Macintosh to select the correct page sizes from the driver. Refer to Using the Mac OS installer for information.

Turn off Background Printing through the Chooser.

Refer to Printing from a Macintosh for details on how to print from a Macintosh.

The Ready message or the printer's name is displayed, but the file does not print.

Make sure that the Phaser 360 printer is the selected printer. Try printing the same file to another PostScript printer. If the file prints, then the problem could be with the interface cable. Refer to Interface cables and adapters for information on ordering Tektronix interface cables.

Turn the printer's power off, wait at least 15 seconds, and then turn the power on again.

Refer to Using a PostScript error handler for details on using the Tektronix Error Handler to determine the cause of the problem.

The printer takes too long to warm up (more than 30 minutes).

Make sure that the vent on the right side of the printer is not blocked. Allow at least 5 cm (2 in.) clearance on each side of the printer.

A file does not print and a virtual memory (VM) error appears.

You may need to expand printer memory. Refer to Memory upgrade for more information.

A file does not print, or it prints unexpected data.

Make sure that the printer is set up to receive the appropriate language (PostScript, HP-GL, or PCL5) for that file. Refer to Checking the printer's language mode for more information.

The printout is delayed.

See Printer standby modes.

The printer outputs two prints after a jam is cleared.

The printer is cleaning the print drum and reprinting the image. Refer to Media jams and misfeeds.

Files sent during power-up do not print.

Before printing a file, wait until the printer's front panel displays Ready or the printer's name.

The printer receives a file on the parallel port but does not print.

Do not set the wait timeout to 0.

Print files should not have extra characters after the End-of-Job character (Ctrl-D).
Refer to Using the Printer's Parallel Port for information on setting timeouts and the Ctrl-D character.

The printer receives a file on the parallel port. The front panel displays Processing Data indefinitely. Another file sent to a different port causes your computer or network interface to lock up.

Do not set the wait timeout to 0.

Print files should not have extra characters after the End-of-Job character (Ctrl-D).
Refer to Using the Printer's Parallel Port for information on setting timeouts and the Ctrl-D character.

The printer receives a file on the parallel port and the job prints successfully. After printing, the printer displays Processing Data, goes into Standby mode, but doesn't come out of Standby mode for the next print job.

To recover, press the Wakeup or Cancel button or turn the printer's power off, wait at least 15 seconds, and turn the power on again. (If you reset the printer, you must send the print job again.) To prevent this condition, do not set the wait timeout to 0.

Print files should not have extra characters after the End-of-File character (Ctrl-D).
Refer to Using the Printer's Parallel Port for information on setting timeouts and the Ctrl-D character.

The Startup Page prints although you disabled it.

If the printer detects a nonfatal error at power-up, the Startup Page prints, even if you have disabled it. A red box on the Startup Page identifies the type of error. The printer's power-up self-test can detect problems that do not necessarily make the printer completely inoperable. Examples of these nonfatal errors include faulty printer ports and some memory failures. The printer may require service.

The maintenance tray is locked inside printer.

The printer locks the maintenance tray until it has cooled down. Try the following:

Close the front cover, wait for a few minutes, and try removing the tray again.

Turn the printer off, wait for about 1 minute, and then turn the printer back on. Wait for about 2 minutes, then try removing the maintenance tray again.

The front panel displays Busy Melting Ink and will not return to Ready.

You may need to install a new maintenance tray. Refer to Replacing the maintenance tray.

Make sure that the ink stick bins are fully loaded. Fill the bins if necessary. Turn the printer off, wait 60 seconds, then turn the printer back on. Wait until the front panel displays Ready (about 15 minutes).

Network problems (Macintosh)

Symptom Solution

The printer doesn't appear in the Chooser on a Macintosh.

Make sure the printer is connected to your network. If it is not, turn the printer off before reconnecting it.

Check the termination; refer to the documentation for your network adapter or connector for information on termination.

Check the Configuration Page to get the zone name and printer name. Refer to Printing a Configuration Page. Make sure that the correct zone and printer name have been selected in the Chooser.

Make sure that the correct network is selected in the Network Control Panel.

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