close this bookTidBITS#178   19930531
View the documentMailBITS/31-May-93
View the documentPrice Drops
View the documentQMS-PS 410 Upgrade
View the documentAppleCare Premium
View the documentTrilobyte Commands ARA
View the documentMIDI and the Macintosh - Part III
View the documentReviews/31-May-93
View the documentFoot Notes

QMS-PS 410 Upgrade

I've posted a couple of notes on the nets about upgrading my QMS-PS 410 laser printer to a new version of the firmware, and to judge from the email, I've hit a bit of a nerve. Perhaps my experiences can save some of the rest of you the troubleshooting time.

As I remember it, (this was at least a year ago) I had trouble printing downloaded PostScript fonts on the QMS-PS 410 unless I first printed a document with a resident PostScript font. That was strange, but the more common problem for most people is an inability to print TrueType fonts. I didn't have that since I seldom print TrueType fonts.

In any event, after calling QMS tech support, we determined that I had firmware revision 1, whereas at the time the current version was 9.4a (it's probably higher now). I sent my printer to a QMS depot, where they gave it the 9.4a firmware revision, and my problems disappeared (and they didn't even reset the page count). I did have to pay for shipping to QMS, but they paid return shipping and didn't charge for the upgrade. Overall, it was a good experience, although I've heard that QMS support in other countries isn't necessarily as pleasant or useful, so persevere if you have an early firmware revision that needs replacement.

QMS Tech Support -- 205/633-4500 -- 205/633-3716