C-250 Fax Problem..... Very Weird!

[mitchl]

OK you color Bizhub guru's, here's a real mutha fo ya! I have a customer that has a c-250 with fax and the fax wont receive properly if you send it 5 pages it will print one and a half or two pages then kicks the rest out blank. We were going to bring it into the shop for tweaking but when we brought a C-250 with fax as a loaner (Known working machine) it does the same thing............... ready for the good part! Sitting right next to it is their old DI-351F and it works on this phone line all day long and has for years? We have made every adjustment that we thought would help but and are now quite sure it must be the phone line and not the machine. Anybody encounter anything like this in your travels or does anyone have an idea of what might be wrong with the line itself? Of course AT&T has tested the line and says there is no problem........... Any ideas? Thanks in advance!

[knightfall]

Hi Mitchl I hate these machines with fax installed with that said.
Have you tried swopping phone lines with the other fax to see if same result also check to see if they have maybe one of those dsl filters on the phone line jack, also did this problem started after a firmware upgrade they had a lot of problems after upgrading to 2.01 had a lot of tx and rx problems check in the service mode that the HDD is still installed. And may also try initialize to factory settings and reinstall fax kit.

[mitchl]

Hi Mitchl I hate these machines with fax installed with that said.
Have you tried swopping phone lines with the other fax to see if same result also check to see if they have maybe one of those dsl filters on the phone line jack, also did this problem started after a firmware upgrade they had a lot of problems after upgrading to 2.01 had a lot of tx and rx problems check in the service mode that the HDD is still installed. And may also try initialize to factory settings and reinstall fax kit.

We have covered all the basics and then some, the machine is currently using the version 3 firmware. The other machine running out of the same phone jack using the same cord works like a champ and there is no DSL on this line and no filters................ I'm relatively sure this is a line problem and not a machine problem. I was thinking about the nominal voltage a phone line has and was wondering if its just to low or non-existent. We even brought in another known working C250 and it did the same thing??????????????

[blackcat4866]

Tester

Build yourself a simple phone line tester. ~ Total Cost $35.00
Attach a D'Arsonval movement VOM to the back of a fax handset. wire the input=female RJ11 red & green wires to a DPDT switch (to reverse the polarity), then to the VOM/handset. This is not terribly high tech, but you can identify a really bad, out of specs phone line.

Plug the phone cord into your new tester. Check these voltages:

On Hook: -48 VDC (-42.5 to -56.5 VDC), 90 VAC
Off Hook: -10 VDC (-8 to -12 VDC), 8 VAC
Ringing: peak 125 VAC (110 to 137 VAC)

The polarity only matters so that your meter will deflect the correct direction. All modern faxes correct their own polarity.

If the line is out of specs, check the same voltages at the demarc (where the phone line comes into the building). If voltages are still out of specs, its the local telephone provider. If its OK at the demarc, you can be sure its the PBx.

It sounds complicated, but with the tester and a little practice you'll be out of there in 10 minutes with proof it's not your machine. That can be hard to come by.

You'll spend $200 or more for a commercial tester with these same features.

[mitchl]

Build yourself a simple phone line tester. ~ Total Cost $35.00
Attach a D'Arsonval movement VOM to the back of a fax handset. wire the input=female RJ11 red & green wires to a DPDT switch (to reverse the polarity), then to the VOM/handset. This is not terribly high tech, but you can identify a really bad, out of specs phone line.

Plug the phone cord into your new tester. Check these voltages:

On Hook: -48 VDC (-42.5 to -56.5 VDC), 90 VAC
Off Hook: -10 VDC (-8 to -12 VDC), 8 VAC
Ringing: peak 125 VAC (110 to 137 VAC)

The polarity only matters so that your meter will deflect the correct direction. All modern faxes correct their own polarity.

If the line is out of specs, check the same voltages at the demarc (where the phone line comes into the building). If voltages are still out of specs, its the local telephone provider. If its OK at the demarc, you can be sure its the PBx.

It sounds complicated, but with the tester and a little practice you'll be out of there in 10 minutes with proof it's not your machine. That can be hard to come by.

You'll spend $200 or more for a commercial tester with these same features.

Dude you RAWK, thanks so much for the info, by PBX you mean their phone system I take it?

[blackcat4866]

You got it! The in-house phone system can create some crazy-wierd problems. Like instead of ringing up from 90 to 125VAC, it can ring down 90 to 50VAC (the fax doesn't identify this as a ring, so it ignores it).

[pepper38_cnd]

Try turning off ECM, and setting the machine to not use JBIG compression, some of the older faxes just don't like this and hang up after one or two pages.

[bowser]

faxing

also keep in mind that some the fax boards aren't compatiable with voice over ip the 250 and 352 are not.