Horizon® FAQs

Q: What is the Smart Card and what does it do?

A: The Smart Card stores the personality of your imager. All feature keys, network information and most settings are kept on the Smart Card. If you receive a replacement imager, it is critical to remember to take the Smart Card out of your old unit and insert it into the new one. In doing so, the new Horizon will automatically update with all the settings of the previous imager, providing instant uptime. The Smart Card can be found behind the door on the front of the imager, and is inserted in the slot to the left of the zip drive.

Q: What is the correct way to shut down the imager?

A: To properly shut down Horizon, press the power key. The imager will respond with a "shutdown" or "reboot" prompt. To shut the imager down, press the ENTER key and then the display will indicate it has started its shutdown process. It will take about a minute to completely shut down.

Q: Why is my imager printing a calibration test page on every reboot?

A: The imager will print a calibration test page when the printer is powered off improperly - using the rocker switch, for instance -- rather than the control panel shutdown procedure. The calibration test page prints because the imager lost the supply cassette calibration data. To avoid this, always use the control panel shutdown procedure before turning off the rocker switch.

Q: What information do I need to submit to obtain a temporary activation key code (i.e. DICOM, PostScript)?

A: To receive temporary keys, please call tech support and provide your name and contact information, the printer's serial number, and license code number. The serial and Smart Card numbers can be found in the Main Menu, Utilities --> Imager Info. Horizon temporary keys are issued in 90-day increments and may require Codonics Management approval to activate.

Q: I’m not getting enough choices in the Menu!

A: In order to see more menu selections, press the "menu" key to exit out of the menus. Then press and hold the left-arrow button while simultaneously pressing "menu". Let go of both buttons. You are now at the administrative-level menu system which contains the majority of the printer setup options.

Q: The printer’s Alert light is on and it is asking me to load a different type of film or paper.

A: The alert light indicates that the printer is receiving an instruction to print on a specific media type not currently loaded in the printer. Most often, this occurs in DICOM connections, particularly with color paper or grayscale letter-size paper. If you do not have the exact media selection in your DICOM host, for example, A-size color paper, refer to the use the Horizon User’s manual page C-2 under "Called AE Titles".

If you are printing using PostScript, there are two possible causes. First, check the "Advanced driver properties" in the Print menu. Chapter 6 of the Horizon User’s manual is a good reference for additional information. Second, check your application for a Page Setup option. Microsoft® Word, for instance, contains this setting. Make sure the media size and type is selected in this menu in addition to your regular Print menu.

Q: Images are being cropped after installing 1.8.0 software.

A: Image cropping in 1.8.0 software is the result of a change in the implementation of the DICOM option Requested Image Size. 1.8.0 software obeys the Requested Image Size parameter, even if doing so forces Horizon to cut off part of the image. To correct this, upgrade the imager to 1.8.2 software, read the release notes or contact technical support.

Q: How do I get rid of the black border around my films?

A: To get rid of black border on your film, change the Borderfill option to Off. This option can be found using the Control Panel, selecting Advanced Driver Properties, then Default User Settings. Other possible causes include Custom Job Settings as well as in some DICOM applications. Be aware that Custom Job Settings override Application Settings, which override the Default User Settings.

Alternately, turn Borderfill On and change Background to the correct color.

Q: What is the part number for the Horizon cleaning kit?

A: SP-00130

Q: What does Media Contaminated mean?

A: "Media Contaminated" may mean one of two things:
1.The cassette installed does not contain original media. It has media from another cassette loaded into it.
2. The printer has been unable to pull several sheets of media from the cassette. To prevent this problem from recurring, scrub the pick wheels thoroughly using the Platen Wipe located in the orange foil package that shipped with the film or paper. See chapter 10 of the Horizon User’s manual for details. When cleaning the pick wheels, do not be gentle. Apply considerable force. Please contact Codonics if you are having jam-related Media Contaminated messages.

Q: What does Unsupported Media mean?

A: Unsupported media means Horizon believes the media size or type is not compatible. This could be caused by a variety of factors: loading 14"x17" media into a Horizon SF (a small format only model), or a barcode on the media loaded that is unreadable. To enter the barcode manually, use the control panel and press Left Arrow+Menu -> Utilities -> Enter Supply Barcode.