Major proofing rip problems

[zcto7]

Hello, first time caller, long time listener. I just started working in a small sheetfed offset shop and out of the blue our proofer is no longer working, nothing should have changed, and they have static IP's. I would greatly appriciate if someone could give me some insight to the problem!

Today the proofer (HP Z2100) stopped working. From the Kodak Matchprint Client Admin panel it can't seem to find the controller or the proofer. I'll try and describe the setup the best I can. We drag our pdfs into a hotfolder on our mac. That gets sent to the EVO server, where a Kodak matchprint box will let you see the layout then release it. There seems to be a dell server that operates the proofer, from what I can understand this is the controller. The Evo is no longer used (explained below) so I dont know if the EVO is tied into the proofer or not....not really sure what goes on in that proofer box, it wont work without it though I also hooked up a monitor and keyboard and no one knows the password to get in but the services load to get the proofer going.

The whole workflow in the shop is shoddy and disorganized at best, with little technical training it seems like.

For what its worth, we have a Xitron Navigator 7 rip used with dynastrip going to a topsetter 74, and Kodak Direct Works for the Kodak DI press. Now Prinergy Evo + preps was supposed to replace the older Direct Works rip for the DI, however they said they could never get it to work right and after their 3mo service expired they never used it again.


I'm ready to pull my hair out and I cant get any documentation on this Kodak matchprint stuff, the kodak matchprint is so simplistic that I cant access hardly anything from the client end. I dont know if getting inside that controller box would shed any light. I can ping the proofer and it talks back but when manually searching the IP in matchprint yields an error that it cant find anything. I also checked on the proofer and it is indeed still 192.168.1.12

For a temp fix, I tried to install the colorburst rip 15 day trial to buy some time....that was a waste of time, when the PC (no mac trial version for HP) finally recognized the proofer I sent out a 3 page letter and it froze up the proofer with an error Any good rips I can try out w/o watermarks for the time being?


The boss just dropped $1500 + labor this weekend to replace the PCI card on the Navigator rip so I was trying to save some money (and Time! )by getting it going. I never thought printing to an inkjet was so complex!

Thanks soooo much in advance for anyone who can help!

 

[rbailleu]

have you tried just installing the hp drivers for the proofer and seeing if it prints. if you need to crack a windows password google ophcrack burn an iso and boot.

 

[zcto7]

Thanks rbailleu, I'll have to try out ophcrack sometime this week. I ran the install cd and installed the HP drivers, but was afraid to do a file>Print with it being a roll fed. I suppose I could use whatever print software it has but then I wont get a color correct proof. Which reminds me I need to run a custom profile sometime...They have a Gretag Mcbeth spectrometer but they didn't even know what it was.

 

[wekonnoot]

Thanks rbailleu, I'll have to try out ophcrack to unlock login passwordsome times this week. I ran the install cd and installed the HP drivers, but was afraid to do a file>Print with it being a roll fed. I suppose I could use whatever print software it has but then I wont get a color correct proof. Which reminds me I need to run a custom profile sometime...They have a Gretag Mcbeth spectrometer but they didn't even know what it was.

Ophcrack no longer work on the latest Windows 10.

 

[wonderings]

So it worked before and nothing changed and now it does not work? You did try turning it off and on again right? That is all I have to offer, I just know for situations like that 9 times out of 10 it fixes the problem.