Printing problems with HP 2500CM

[Gen Hadlow Mac Impact Dbn]

I hope someone can help.
The computer is a G5/2Ghz with 1.5Gbs Ram. System 10.3.4
The printer is an HP 2500 CM Professional Series Colour Printer with
postscript. It is connected to a network via Ethernet. On the network are a
number of PC's that print to this printer as well.

The problem is:
Printing from the G5 takes ages compared to the PC's.
Using Macromedia FreeHand MX most pages come out with nothing on except for
the following type of message:

POSTSCRIPT ERROR: undefined OFFENDING COMMAND:
VMSTATUS max: 7720064 avail: 6477900 level: 2

The max: and avail: numbers change depending on which file one tries to
print.

There is a workaround by making a PDF and then printing but the prints take
ages to come out - sometimes hours!

If one just prints from Microsoft word - the prints are fine and come out
relatively quickly.

I suspect that the printer needs additional ram but need confirmation of
this before I can persuade the powers that be to purchase extra ram.

Kind regards
Gen