Faxing problem Aficio 1027

[cobiray]

I've got a 1027 that when faxing will sometimes not transmit all the data on the page. Sometimes only a small amount is missing(less that a quarter of an inch) and sometimes up to three quarters of the ENTIRE page. All TX reports have the image printed on them perfectly clear. All the faxes sent back to the shop come through fine (naturally). Happens to multiple numbers through out the day. Any thoughts?

[Fearless V K]

Make sure the line is not noisy. You should hear a smooth dial tone with no static. I would also try turning off the ECM, some older or inexpensive faxes are not compatible with it and may not communicate properly.

[blackcat4866]

I agree with Fearless. The fax is probably detecting a large number of errors, and finally cuts off communication after a certain # of errors.

I'll usually put a handset on the line, and call it from my cell. You won't necessarily hear the noise/static, but often you can. From there, it's in the hands of the phone company.

=^..^=

[cobiray]

Make sure the line is not noisy. You should hear a smooth dial tone with no static. I would also try turning off the ECM, some older or inexpensive faxes are not compatible with it and may not communicate properly.

I forgot to mention, I had turned off ECM on a previous call. The phone line was not noisy, the last time I checked, with a seperate hand set. I can understand if it errors out and prints out NG on the report, but they are all going through as OK.

[Fearless V K]

Does your customer or any they try to fax use VOIP?

[cobiray]

They don't have VOIP at the account. I would have to say no to the places they are faxing to, only because they have been faxing to them for several years at the same number, and the issue is not isolated to just one number.

The thing that baffles me is that it prints out a TX report that says good. I'm leaning towards the phone line, but they had to call last month for another issue and I'm sure they won't be happy to hear it.

[Guest]

Hi

Is your machine connected on a PABX ?

If yes, have you tested, line current ( range is 30 to 70 mA) during
communication ?On a Ricoh machine if the line current is out of range,
NCU card will disconnect .Line voltage must be important to.

[Jomama46]

All TX reports have the image printed on them perfectly clear.

This simply means that the scan was good and the transmission of the data was the problem.
The problem is probably with the CO at the remote location. If they can send to some local places ok then their CO is OK,
The OK on the transmit report will not NG unless the error percentage is (as I remember) exceeding 15%. ECM is still the best bet as the sending fax will just keep resending the data until it gets an OK from the remote fax.
It is hard to convince the customer that it isnt your machine fault, I know.
Get the numbers of the failing faxes and send to them from your office, several times over a few days.
If it turns out to be a special communication problems then you can always set up a Dedicated Transmission Parameter for those numbers. I have had to do that on a couple of occasions (remarkably both were sending to a Panasonic fax).

[blackcat4866]

One thing we haven't discussed is transmission times.

With the 14.4 bps modem your transmissions should take 15 to 20 seconds per page. As the line gets worst the fax steps down to slower & slower modems for slower & slower transmission times.

I remember finding ECM transmission times of 10 minutes on a single page. ECM just keeps trying to send the errored lines. Anything over 25 seconds per page tells you that the line quality is bad enough for the modem to step down to a lower speed.

[cobiray]

Is your machine connected on a PABX ?

Nope, not on a PABX.

This simply means that the scan was good and the transmission of the data was the problem.
The problem is probably with the CO at the remote location. If they can send to some local places ok then their CO is OK,
The OK on the transmit report will not NG unless the error percentage is (as I remember) exceeding 15%. ECM is still the best bet as the sending fax will just keep resending the data until it gets an OK from the remote fax.
It is hard to convince the customer that it isnt your machine fault, I know.
Get the numbers of the failing faxes and send to them from your office, several times over a few days.
If it turns out to be a special communication problems then you can always set up a Dedicated Transmission Parameter for those numbers. I have had to do that on a couple of occasions (remarkably both were sending to a Panasonic fax).

Ok, but some of the pages were 3/4ths or more missing at the sender and it still gave an "ok" on the TX report.

One thing we haven't discussed is transmission times.

With the 14.4 bps modem your transmissions should take 15 to 20 seconds per page. As the line gets worst the fax steps down to slower & slower modems for slower & slower transmission times.

I remember finding ECM transmission times of 10 minutes on a single page. ECM just keeps trying to send the errored lines. Anything over 25 seconds per page tells you that the line quality is bad enough for the modem to step down to a lower speed.

All the times were of a normal amount. Under 60 seconds for 3 or 4 pages.

What I did the last time I was there was clear the fax NCS. So far they haven't called back. But if they do, I'm blaming you guys for bringing it up again.

[Jomama46]

I'm blaming you guys for bringing it up again.

Thats OK, its easy to take the heat if you're not in the oven.

[cobiray]

You're just lucky I have off today and won't have to take the call.

[leo34staffs]

I have had several fax problems on theses machines, going a bit deeper, is it possible to print off a protocol dump list and examine that? Also if you print off a service report that will give you error codes such as 00-80 etc, these can be looked up in the fax service manual with guidances on which settings to make i.e. line attenuation, error threshold and so on.

One thing you could try is turning off the v34 protocol, this starts the fax tramission at 33.3k and can confuse some machines(mainly older ones)

Let us know your findings

Cheers