konica minolta c250 scanning question

[brent]

we have a c250 in the field. it has the std 40 gig hdd and the 512 meg of ram. customer called and said it was taking too long to rip. I asked her how many megs of the file. she did not know. but it is taking 14 minutes per 11 x 17 sheet of full color maps to scan. mine takes that long also. since there is no memory upgrade that I found for that. is that just the reality of scanning lots of megs in color?

should I look more twards their network? I would not dare touch anyones network. but if the network gets clogged up is that is what is giving them heck? I also asked if they were sending them in jpeg or tiff or pdf. what would be the fastest way to send over a huge file to scan?

thanks brent

[Montana Tech]

I'm confused - is the issue with scanning or printing ? (Subject says scanning, but you mentioned Ripping the file, sounds like printing)

Either way though, 11 x 17 full color maps is alot of data and can take awhile.

[copyman]

try the machine set on printer priority in the utility mode. this may help some. i have an account that all they run are 11 x 17 PDF's and it is really slow printing.

[alan.ward]

You will seriously cut down on the time for printing PDFs if you print as image. Lower left advance button and then print as image. Cuts the size in half and you don't have to worry about frames.

[brent]

I have re read my post. and I got confused myself. what I meant to say. is they are printing 11 by 17 files. and it is taking sometimes up to 14 minutes. and they called in and asked if we could add more memory.. not an option as far as I have seen. but they are pretty bi g files. so 10 to 14 minutes are pretty normal?
sorry about the confusion.

brent

[Montana Tech]

Thank brent, that helps !

Not knowing the actual size of the file being printed it's hard to say for sure, but yes it could take that long. I suspect that the files are taking alot of time spooling as they're converted to PCL/Postscript before sending to the machine. Might check the print queue on the computer when they're printing. You might find the file is slowing growing in size as it prepares to send to the machine. I don't think the memory in the machine would have anything to do with it.

I've seen 1 GB files take up to 4 hours to print on Xerox and HP, only to have the same file take 40 minutes on a Konica-Minolta with a Fiery. Mind you, this was a few machine generations ago, so I'd expect faster processing now. Large files are still going to take some time though.

What application are they printing from? As alan.ward said, you can compensate on PDF's by changing the settings of how it's printing (print as image).

[copyman]

actually the older konica/minolta (i.e. di-5510, etc) with the fiery print controllers print the same PDF's almost instantly. You would think K/M own controller would be faster, as you can see it is not. Their own controllers have always been slow. They should of kept having EFI make the Fiery's for them.

[brent]

I went and spent some time at the customers office and had a chance to see. yes it is full color and lots of it. 11 by 17 also. printing is a little slow in other programs also. but the main complaint is the geological (GIS) I watched the computer first off try to print. then it put it in que I thought I would watch how fast the document was ripping. but it was only in que for like 5 seconds. then I noticed the mfp. the data button was blinking for about 10 minutes then it printed out. the customer asked me if another machine that we sold/serviced would be able to rip and print faster? is there one? I wonder how the konica minolta c 353 would work in the exact same environment///

any thoughts?

brent

[copytechman]

I had a similar problem with printing on an older B&W 7145 machine, pdfs in particular took a real long time no matter what. They would print but very very slowly. We upgraded them to a c353 which printed a heck of a lot faster.. They're very happy now.. So yeah, a C353 would have a faster processor, more ram etc etc... it just rips better. It might be worth a try.

Regards!
A.

[brent]

looks like the c250 has 40 gig hd and 512 megs of ram. and the c353 has 60 gig hd and 1024 mb of ram. so in your honest
opinion will this be able to rip and print faster? I hope the problem is not in their network. just looking for some opinions
before I replace the machine. but looks like it can't hurt. thanks

brent

[copyman]

before replacing the machine make sure the C353 doesn't have the same K/M Emperom controller because you will be back in the same boat. The only way that is going to print 11 x 17 full color is if it has a Fiery controller.

[Montana Tech]

I'd expect a C353 to be quicker at printing simply due to a faster/more modern processor on the controller. The additional memory is a plus as well. How much quicker, it's hard to say. But yeah, a GIS document is gonig to have alot of data.

I'd have to agree that it sounds like a good account for a fiery.

[brent]

well I went and entered in the part number to place a mock order of the c353. and sure enough they are gone. so now I will look at the c360
by the looks at it. it has a 2g memory and a 250 gb hdd. my question would be. with the ps psl and xps controller and the additional memory over the c250 would this print faster then the c250? also I noticed that there is no fiery available for the c360? I appreciate your help. sorry to bother anyone if I have..

brent

[brent]

I looked again. and did find a ic 412 efi image controller. is that the same as the fiery? will that provide faster printing?

brent

[copyman]

Brent, yes a EFI is the comapny that makes Fiery controllers. Seems I might have been wrong with what I posted about the Emperon. I called my friend at Konica / Minolta and he said the C250 does NOT have an Emperon controller. He said it is an NEC made machine so it wouldn't have K/M's Emperon controller in it. He said the new K/M's with the Emperon controller should print full color 11 x 17's with no problem. He suggested getting your customers file and try printing on a machine before buying it. Of course you would need to know someone with a K/M machine with Emperon to try it first.