Sharp AR-337 with AR-NC3D: High ping

[gsember]

Hey guys.

I have a Sharp AR-337 with networking installed. Recently I was asked to install it as a network printer for a new employee, but it's mostly in use as a copier these days.

That's when I saw that anyone who had it installed was having printing problems if they attempted to print to it - the print job on their computer would display an error in Windows.

I went over to the printer and it displayed on its screen:
"Print Function is Out Of Service. Call for Service Code: F9-00". I cycled the power and tried again, but the message would usually come back after a few minutes.

I Google'd this error message and found a website which said to check the cables connecting the Ethernet box part of the printer to the rest of the printer, so I reseated those connections. Now the error message has not been seen again and people seem to be able to print normally to it, as far as I have been able to see so far.

Now, while I was troubleshooting this, I decided to send the printer "pings" over the network to see if its network connection was working properly. And it's not - it's still not, even after the error message on the screen went away.

IP addresses removed for security purposes.
Results of ping:
C:\Documents and Settings\gsember>ping xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

Pinging xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx: bytes=32 time=1089ms TTL=60
Reply from xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=60
Reply from xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx: bytes=32 time=659ms TTL=60
Reply from xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx: bytes=32 time=1585ms TTL=60

Ping statistics for xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 3ms, Maximum = 1585ms, Average = 834ms"

However, time to return the ping on a internal network like ours should only be < 1 ms. That is what the other Sharp copier/printer 3 feet away at a slightly different IP address returns. I tried plugging in a laptop computer in place of the Sharp AR-337 (into the same network cable) and ran the test again to the same network connection (because of the different MAC address our DHCP server assigned it a different IP) and got a <1 ms ping.

In summary, I have reason to believe that something is wrong with the networking part of the Sharp copier/printer AR-337. There's nothing wrong with the cable or the switch that it connects to, and other computers plugged into the same cable respond quickly. It is only the Sharp AR-337 that horribly fails this test.

The local copier service guys said all they would do is come out to disassemble the network box, reseat the internal NIC, and test again - and that they can't get parts for this obsolete printer any more. I've assembled computers and serviced personal inkjet printers, so I don't think it will be too hard to try this myself. I downloaded the service manual(s) anyhow.

Is it likely I will need a new AR-NC3D? Any other guesses due to the recent F9-00 code?

Thanks!

[blackcat4866]

Your information is accurate. These print cards are obsolete. I may have a used AR-NC3D in my spares, but it probably won't help your problem. If you search the threads on F9-00 here, you'll see that the Cougar print cards were a major pain in the axx. There were firmware fixes for the F9-00 error codes, which did not fix anything. I was forever resetting F9-00s.

Does it make sense to replace the print option on a 10+ year old copier? Have you examined the possibility of a bad network cable, or bad switch port? If you connect your laptop to the MFPs network cable and ping back to your laptop from another workstation, does it still respond slowly?

[wazza]

I had exactly the same issue on a Sharp MX2300N not long ago. Some documents would print OK, some would disappear over the network. Same PING test results..... different speeds etc.
PING tests worked great using my laptop & crossover cable. Traced fault to the clients network cable which had been crushed at one spot by a rolling office chair. New network cable fixed the problem straight away.

Have a good look at the cable or confirm diagnostics with your laptop & crossover cable.

[gsember]

Does it make sense to replace the print option on a 10+ year old copier?

Very true.

Have you examined the possibility of a bad network cable, or bad switch port? If you connect your laptop to the MFPs network cable and ping back to your laptop from another workstation, does it still respond slowly?

Yeah, I removed the printer's network cable from the printer and plugged it into a laptop. When I pinged the laptop, it behaved normally. So I doubt the cable or the switch is bad. I still may double check the cable anyhow. Thanks for the advice so far guys.

[gsember]

... And of course switching out the network cable had no effect. D'oh!

Regardless of whether it would affect things, I am interested in upgraded firmware. I have version 5.67 on the network card, is there newer?

Additionally, it looks like I nearly have all the manuals but still need a copy of the Key Operator's Guide.

[mtech]

Make sure the SCSI cable is in the correct port on the back of the machine. Check sim 26-44 for correct set up. You can change the SCSI port with this sim. From A to B, or B to A. (remember to use the correct values) Try changing it to the other port and test again. You could also try to reset the NIC. I have attached some files that may help.