What would you do?

[Hansoon]

What would you do?

Got a call from the IT folks of one of my customers today. They have two identical Minolta Di-450 both with a Pi-5501 embedded controller working well for 8 months until today.

The problem they described: Both of the machines doesn't print. They can ping the machine and are able also to open the web interface, PageScope Light, when they enter the IP address in a browser. They even can print a Windows testpage from the driver. However any prints out of Word and "other applications" as they call it, are not being printed.

I cannot believe that two identical machines develop the same hardware problem in the very same moment so likely something else must be wrong. Both machines have fixed IP addresses in a DHCP network. All protocols except TCP/IP are turned off.

Any ideas where to look when I go there tomorrow?

Hans

[Jimbo1]

Obviously something got changed.

I would look at the driver settings. Also I know they may have prited a Windos test page but I wonder if somebody installed a firewall or some thing on the network?

[TheOwl]

I have seen this issue with a bad driver install. Get them to remove the driver from the server properties in the print manager and then try reinstalling.

Something has obviously changed, but IT people seem to think that everything they will never have an effect on a printer / copier.

[Hansoon]

Well, went there today and found the situation different as described by phone.

One machine is printing without any issues, asked the operators and they said that there where no problems in the past weeks with this machine.....
This really bugs me that "Professional IT People" cannot describe a situation EXACTLY as it is. The fact that one machine was working all the time makes it necessary to rethink the whole situation from the beginning ofcourse.

Went to the other one and the girl working with the machine most of the time said that indeed the day before she couldn't print but today everything is fine. Not feeling comfortable about it I hooked up my laptop to a switch near the machine (their network is segmented cause its in a historic building where they could only draw one line from the switch in the server room which serves 5 workstations + 2 networked MFP's over a separate switch.). The girl was printing all the time and when she stopped I tried out of curiosity a windows testprint from the driver in my laptop. Didn't work however so I opened the web interface which came up immediately. Tried the testpage again, no print. Than the girl started from her a print out of Firefox, it worked. Me again, no print, she again, a print came out. One of the other workstations also was able to print. I rebooted my laptop and tried another testprint from the driver, no printing. It stays in the queue just like that...... WTF??

To be sure I exchanged the whole controller including NIC. Now even I could print with my laptop.

Put their controller later in my machine in our office and it responded completely normal :scratch :scratch :scratch

I have to think about it but for the moment I'm baffled. Could it be that the NIC "choked" something which got released after power off??

Hans

[Jimbo1]

Could be a different level of firmware in the NICs. I have seen that before.

By the way, as far as all the IT folk I have ever dealt with...Your machine will always be where the issue is.

[schooltech]

Could be a different level of firmware in the NICs. I have seen that before.

By the way, as far as all the IT folk I have ever dealt with...Your machine will always be where the issue is.

I will guarantee you that you are not the only one who has dealt with that. Of course the machine is always where the issue is; it's never a bored tech with too much time on their hands tinkering with settings.

Quick example: I had an IT guy call me one Monday saying that the copier no longer scans or lan faxes. I said, "Do you know of anything that changed over the weekend?" He actually said, "Yeah, I upgraded their computers and now it doesn't work." Freakin' tech calling to try to question the equipment. Thanks for keeping the settings BEFORE you dicked with the system.

[KopyKat]

schooltech

Off topic here...but just had to say I like your new avatar. Can I borrow a couple of those for a deserving sales rep?

[schooltech]

Hell, I'll even let you borrow a couple of my "Idaho" weapons. They're ready to go. Although, the Peoples Republic of Kalifornia will not legally allow them and I lived there for most of my life so I can say that.

[Guest]

Is it possible that they may have IP conflicts on their network? I've seen this type of issue before when something else on the network had the same IP as the printer.

[Hansoon]

Is it possible that they may have IP conflicts on their network? I've seen this type of issue before when something else on the network had the same IP as the printer.

Not likely, I used AngryIP scanner and there where no other nodes replying this IP-Address.

Hans