Ricoh MPc6501 Printing Very Slowly

**Llama God** · 09-29-2013

Hi,

I've got a problem with an MPc6501 printing very slowly.

The test document was a 45mb (yes, really, 45mb) Publisher document which was spooling to almost 200mb when printed and grinding the printer to a halt. This was printing from Windows 7 x64, using Publisher 2013 and the PCL6 for Universal Print driver, however when I printed it from my Windows 7 x86 laptop using Publisher 2007 and the same driver (but for 32 bit, obviously) direct to IP it spooled to roughly 10mb and printed straight away.

I then tried printing direct to the copier from the x64 PC but got the same huge file as before. I also tried the PCL5 driver and that did the same thing.

Oddly, the print whistles through to their MPc4503 which is using the same PCL6 for Universal Print driver.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Thanks in advance,

Chris

**Iowatech** · 09-29-2013

Just a guess, but do they have Publisher set up to print in some extremely high resolution or quality setting? That would account for the large amount of spooled data and also be independent of whatever driver or connection you tried.

**techsass** · 10-02-2013

I've used Sp5801 -Printer & -NCS in the past to resolve similar issues. I think the NCS is the real culprit as I've used 5801-11 to resolve scan issues that create ridiculously large files.

I also always set the I/O buffer to 256 (User Tools/ Printer/ Host tab)

**slimslob** · 10-02-2013

I remember many years ago I had a church with a Gestetner DSc 224. They were printing their bulletins for Sunday using publisher. It was taking about 435 minutes to spool an 11x17 page. What I finally found was changing the Graphics mode. I cannot remember if it was from vector to raster of the other way around. After changing, it took about one minute for the page to spool. The setting for the 6501 PCL6 driver is in Printing Preferences-Detailed Settings-Print Quality.

**jonezy999** · 10-02-2013

I had a bulletin come through last week regarding MPC6502 with punch unit installed but no stapler causing very slow printing speeds. Engine firmware bug apparently.

I doubt this is whats causing your issue but couldn't hurt to put it out there anyway.

**Llama God** · 10-02-2013

Originally Posted by slimslob

I remember many years ago I had a church with a Gestetner DSc 224. They were printing their bulletins for Sunday using publisher. It was taking about 435 minutes to spool an 11x17 page. What I finally found was changing the Graphics mode. I cannot remember if it was from vector to raster of the other way around. After changing, it took about one minute for the page to spool. The setting for the 6501 PCL6 driver is in Printing Preferences-Detailed Settings-Print Quality.

I had a similar problem many years ago with an AP3800 printing PDFs and did the same thing, printing it as a bitmap image I think.

I've passed this to our IT department for now, mostly as I'm snowed under with other problems like 2 x MPc305s dropping off a wireless network. No rest for the wicked, eh?!!

**qbert69** · 10-02-2013

Look a the specs for the printer and see what the max resolution is. Then look at the program output of the Micro$oft program to see what the output resolution is.

Try to match as closely as possible the program output with what the printer can do, otherwise you will do the seesaw of up-sizing and down sizing the resolution, which involves computer and printer cpu processing, wasting time in the process.

Also check your graphic file types that are inserted into the document. If there are any graphics that are for FPO (for placement only) to act as graphic placeholders for higher res graphics, sometimes that can take longer to process since they are lower res and have to up-size for output.

If possible, try to output the document to a consistent resolution PDF document--sometimes this resolves graphic and font issues. YMMV.

Cheers.

**Llama God** · 10-15-2013

It turns out that it may be a setting on the NIC.

The 4503 upstairs is set to Auto select (gigabit disable) whereas the MPc6501 with the problem is set to 100mbps full duplex. I changed the 4503 to 100mbps full duplex and it did the same thing. The 6501, of course does not have a gigabit card.

All of their switches are gigabit so I'm going to have a further mess about with it tomorrow.

**techsass** · 10-16-2013

Sounds like your IT dept. is in the same union as mine. I wonder if they'll get the credit once you figure it out?

**slimslob** · 10-16-2013

Originally Posted by Llama God

It turns out that it may be a setting on the NIC.

The 4503 upstairs is set to Auto select (gigabit disable) whereas the MPc6501 with the problem is set to 100mbps full duplex. I changed the 4503 to 100mbps full duplex and it did the same thing. The 6501, of course does not have a gigabit card.

All of their switches are gigabit so I'm going to have a further mess about with it tomorrow.

Have you tried setting the MPC 6501 to Auto select? You know, just to see what happens.