KFS Connectivity, Power Saver Settings/Power Cycling

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  • Xer0615
    Technician
    • Jan 2019
    • 48

    KFS Connectivity, Power Saver Settings/Power Cycling

    Hello folks. I'm here with a question, and I apologize in advance for the wall of text.

    (tl;dr -- is there any way to schedule/guarantee a full power cycle once a week, or month BEYOND just training the customers that this is important? Also, does a scheduled "shut down" actually power off internal components such as the network device? )

    Recently we have been hit with a rash of connectivity issues with KFS. For a week or so I was just driving out to the customer location and troubleshooting, until I had noticed that a large majority of these situations were corrected simply by power cycling the machines.

    So lately I've been calling the customers, requesting their assistance in performing the power cycle. I'm 3 for 3 today in that regard.

    But anyway I began thinking about ways around this issue and it dawned on me that the company I work for as a general rule disables the weekly schedule, and that perhaps configuring the device to power off and power on once/week might correct the issue.

    However I am noticing that the device, when that specified time arrives, doesn't actually fully shut down. It goes into sleep mode and can be reactivated simply by pressing the "sleep/wake" button (the moon symbol that illuminates blue when active)-- I do notice that upon rebooting, several options on the operation panel are greyed out/disabled, so I am wondering if this would be enough to accomplish what it is we are aiming for?

    that being said, I am noticing that while it is in this sleep mode, the command center is still accessible which leads me to believe the network device is not being powered down. So I had the though that perhaps using "energy saver" and "power saving recovery" as opposed to "quick recovery" and "full recovery" that we use almost as a standard, would be the best route?

    But the caveat to that is that I have just spoken with a Kyocera representative and they have informed me that the power saving mode that it enters when the scheduled time arrives simply pulls it's settings from the standard power saver/sleep modes that are scheduled to occur every 1-240 minutes of inactivity.

    So I feel as though I have hit a brick wall, and am wondering what creative solutions others in the community may have come up with to rectify issues like the one I've mentioned? So far all that comes to mind is that we need to start training the customers to power the thing down manually once per month or so.
  • bsm2
    IT Manager

    25,000+ Posts
    • Feb 2008
    • 27440

    #2
    Re: KFS Connectivity, Power Saver Settings/Power Cycling

    all the board are hot all the time. Only way to do a completed power down is to unplug copier for 30 seconds.
    We have that issue all the time in Florida. Calling the customer reduces most of the calls.

    If your company has good dispatchers they can get the customer to it before they open a service call.

    We have surge protectors on every piece of equip so it cuts down on logic problems.
    Last edited by bsm2; 08-14-2019, 08:55 PM.

    Comment

    • JPazy
      Technician
      • Jul 2019
      • 30

      #3
      Re: KFS Connectivity, Power Saver Settings/Power Cycling

      If you have KFS you should be able to restart the machine remotely, if you want it restarted during off peak hours, you may want to schedule a firmware update, maybe Sunday morning at 2:00 am. After the firmware update is complete it will reboot the machine. Up to date firmware may resolve some of the phantom connectivity errors? Might be better than sending a technician or trying to have the customer reboot it so often.

      Comment

      • Xer0615
        Technician
        • Jan 2019
        • 48

        #4
        Re: KFS Connectivity, Power Saver Settings/Power Cycling

        Originally posted by JPazy
        If you have KFS you should be able to restart the machine remotely, if you want it restarted during off peak hours, you may want to schedule a firmware update, maybe Sunday morning at 2:00 am. After the firmware update is complete it will reboot the machine. Up to date firmware may resolve some of the phantom connectivity errors? Might be better than sending a technician or trying to have the customer reboot it so often.
        Thanks for the input. I'm aware of the ability to schedule shutdowns, but here's the catch:

        we have over 2000 machines on KFS. As one of two IT Technicians, In no way do I have time to accomplish a shutdown of each on a regular basis manually. And yes, while the restarts can be SCHEDULED over KFS they cannot be scheduled with regularity.. So while I can opt to shut one down and schedule it to happen at a later time/date, I can't schedule it to... say, happen every week or month.

        And regarding your suggestion of initiating firmware update on the machines experiencing the connectivity issues.. There is no ability to do so if the machine is not connected. Make no mistake, these are not phantom errors-- They have legitimately lost connectivity. The only weird part about it is that the problem is resolved by a restart.

        I believe that the only recourse is going to do as bsm2 suggested; asking those who make regular contact with customers to suggest a reboot whenever users call for service (or even suggest they do it once a week/month etc)

        Comment

        • Santander
          Senior Tech

          Site Contributor
          500+ Posts
          • May 2009
          • 768

          #5
          Re: KFS Connectivity, Power Saver Settings/Power Cycling

          Originally posted by Xer0615
          Hello folks. I'm here with a question, and I apologize in advance for the wall of text.

          (tl;dr -- is there any way to schedule/guarantee a full power cycle once a week, or month BEYOND just training the customers that this is important? Also, does a scheduled "shut down" actually power off internal components such as the network device? )

          Recently we have been hit with a rash of connectivity issues with KFS. For a week or so I was just driving out to the customer location and troubleshooting, until I had noticed that a large majority of these situations were corrected simply by power cycling the machines.

          So lately I've been calling the customers, requesting their assistance in performing the power cycle. I'm 3 for 3 today in that regard.

          But anyway I began thinking about ways around this issue and it dawned on me that the company I work for as a general rule disables the weekly schedule, and that perhaps configuring the device to power off and power on once/week might correct the issue.

          However I am noticing that the device, when that specified time arrives, doesn't actually fully shut down. It goes into sleep mode and can be reactivated simply by pressing the "sleep/wake" button (the moon symbol that illuminates blue when active)-- I do notice that upon rebooting, several options on the operation panel are greyed out/disabled, so I am wondering if this would be enough to accomplish what it is we are aiming for?

          that being said, I am noticing that while it is in this sleep mode, the command center is still accessible which leads me to believe the network device is not being powered down. So I had the though that perhaps using "energy saver" and "power saving recovery" as opposed to "quick recovery" and "full recovery" that we use almost as a standard, would be the best route?

          But the caveat to that is that I have just spoken with a Kyocera representative and they have informed me that the power saving mode that it enters when the scheduled time arrives simply pulls it's settings from the standard power saver/sleep modes that are scheduled to occur every 1-240 minutes of inactivity.

          So I feel as though I have hit a brick wall, and am wondering what creative solutions others in the community may have come up with to rectify issues like the one I've mentioned? So far all that comes to mind is that we need to start training the customers to power the thing down manually once per month or so.
          Had a similar situation with a 40+ installation of M2540dw's at a customer, random units at random times would not be connected, power cycling restored the connection. What resolved it for us was turning "off" sleep mode for the network and the fax, you need to do both. Apparently when you allow the network interface to go into sleep, when the unit comes out of sleep it fails to get the wake up call. Since turning off the sleep mode we have not had a call since.

          Comment

          • Xer0615
            Technician
            • Jan 2019
            • 48

            #6
            Re: KFS Connectivity, Power Saver Settings/Power Cycling

            Originally posted by Santander
            Had a similar situation with a 40+ installation of M2540dw's at a customer, random units at random times would not be connected, power cycling restored the connection. What resolved it for us was turning "off" sleep mode for the network and the fax, you need to do both. Apparently when you allow the network interface to go into sleep, when the unit comes out of sleep it fails to get the wake up call. Since turning off the sleep mode we have not had a call since.
            I apologize for my ignorance, but can you be more specific? Do you mean perhaps using "low power" sleep mode or something along those lines?

            Comment

            • JPazy
              Technician
              • Jul 2019
              • 30

              #7
              Re: KFS Connectivity, Power Saver Settings/Power Cycling

              ooops, sorry, i misunderstood, thought you only had a problem with only one machine.

              Comment

              • Santander
                Senior Tech

                Site Contributor
                500+ Posts
                • May 2009
                • 768

                #8
                Re: KFS Connectivity, Power Saver Settings/Power Cycling

                Originally posted by Xer0615
                I apologize for my ignorance, but can you be more specific? Do you mean perhaps using "low power" sleep mode or something along those lines?
                No, low power is not what I was referring to. In the machine settings, there is a setting to turn off sleep mode for the network and fax devices. In most cases this would resolve your issue. You could even go into the MM settings U346 and turn off auto sleep entirely.

                Comment

                • Xer0615
                  Technician
                  • Jan 2019
                  • 48

                  #9
                  Re: KFS Connectivity, Power Saver Settings/Power Cycling

                  Originally posted by Santander
                  No, low power is not what I was referring to. In the machine settings, there is a setting to turn off sleep mode for the network and fax devices. In most cases this would resolve your issue. You could even go into the MM settings U346 and turn off auto sleep entirely.
                  Appreciate it

                  Comment

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