[Electrical] High volume machines Pro906-1356 and Pro907-1357 (Katana family) problem

[pppp]

Dear all,
We have epidemic problem with entire Katana high volume machines. No matter is speed. It happens in the 90s and 135s. In the "6" and "7" Katana family.
We have 14 machines in the same location and 4 of them suffer the same problem.
Now I'll try to describe situation.

Every machine prints pdf file by means of postscript driver. Shall we say 5000 pages a job.
In the irregular period only 1 full page in the whole print job is printed out as digital artefacts. Machines works with full speed and job is not stopped or something like that.
Only one, maybe two paged in the entire print job is damaged. Generally, we can say that 4998 on 5000 pages are proper. By "digital artefacts" I mean lines, stripes made of pixels. Sometime there are more white lines and sometimes there are more black lines. In the other words - lottery.

The problem is that we have now 4 machines suffering the same problem. It looks like some power supply hazards but the rest of machines works well.

What we did:
- replaced power supplies, every board, entire controller box, drum unit, transfer unit, fusing unit, laser, mirror motor - EVERYTHING!!!
At the moment we do not have ideas what to replace! Problems are still there.

Does anyone know what is wrong?

[Moza]

Re: High volume machines Pro906-1356 and Pro907-1357 (Katana family) problem

Dear all,
We have epidemic problem with entire Katana high volume machines. No matter is speed. It happens in the 90s and 135s. In the "6" and "7" Katana family.
We have 14 machines in the same location and 4 of them suffer the same problem.
Now I'll try to describe situation.

Every machine prints pdf file by means of postscript driver. Shall we say 5000 pages a job.
In the irregular period only 1 full page in the whole print job is printed out as digital artefacts. Machines works with full speed and job is not stopped or something like that.
Only one, maybe two paged in the entire print job is damaged. Generally, we can say that 4998 on 5000 pages are proper. By "digital artefacts" I mean lines, stripes made of pixels. Sometime there are more white lines and sometimes there are more black lines. In the other words - lottery.

The problem is that we have now 4 machines suffering the same problem. It looks like some power supply hazards but the rest of machines works well.

What we did:
- replaced power supplies, every board, entire controller box, drum unit, transfer unit, fusing unit, laser, mirror motor - EVERYTHING!!!
At the moment we do not have ideas what to replace! Problems are still there.

Does anyone know what is wrong?

Have you tried setting the "Memory Usage" to [Font Priority] had this solve issues printing large PDF's

[User Tools][Printer Features][System][Memory Usage]

[pppp]

Re: High volume machines Pro906-1356 and Pro907-1357 (Katana family) problem

No, I shall try. Every machine has default settings

[slimslob]

Re: High volume machines Pro906-1356 and Pro907-1357 (Katana family) problem

No, I shall try. Every machine has default settings

I don't know if you can move s couple of machines around or not, but if you can swap one of the machines that has a problem with one that does not, this includes swapping network settings. If the problem moves with the machine, the problem is with the machine. If it stays at the location, the problem is either network interference or AC power noise.

[Max]

Re: High volume machines Pro906-1356 and Pro907-1357 (Katana family) problem

Had something similar. Once it was the memory module at the back and the other one was the customer network issue of some kind, but never got to the bottom of it.

[rthonpm]

Re: High volume machines Pro906-1356 and Pro907-1357 (Katana family) problem

How are the PDF's being generated? Is it from Acrobat, or from a third party application?

If from Acrobat:

Check the version being used: Adobe only supports one version back so right now only versions 11 and 10 are being supported. Make sure all patches and updates are installed.
Are they created from the same computer? Have them try a repair install of Acrobat from the Help menu and see if the problem remains.

If from a third party application:

What is being used? Check its version for support or updates as well.
Try a different PDF generator and see if the results are the same.


Other things to look for are memory DIMM's, but with the issue being on multiple machines, it doesn't seem as likely. Check the driver version as well: the Pro 906 PostScript driver is at 6.0.0 and the 907 PS driver is at the same revision number. If they're using a print server, you may want to see if you can get the sysadmin to change the printing port from TCP/IP to an LPR port: it's a little more stable and it's allowing the print data to interact with the embedded OS in a more native format.

It's a tough one you've got here since there are so many variables: good luck!

[pppp]

Re: High volume machines Pro906-1356 and Pro907-1357 (Katana family) problem

Great!
Like we see there are ideas!
We shall try them probably tomorrow. We will be in touch.

@rthonpm

They generate pdf file by means of custom aplication. They combine a few hundreds of print jobs into one huge job to print it more fluently.

[NeoMatrix]

Re: High volume machines Pro906-1356 and Pro907-1357 (Katana family) problem

Is there a central print server driving all MFD's?
Sounds like printer spooler memory page fault,but it would happen to all MFD's randomly.
The conversion from PDF to PS is generating memory faults/artifacts, but how.... ?
Is the PDF sent from a web browser ? Adobe has had hacker problems in older versions, try updating adobe.

How are the PDF files being combined into one large file ?

You may like to attach the config pages of some good and bad machines to the forum.

[pppp]

Re: High volume machines Pro906-1356 and Pro907-1357 (Katana family) problem

First tests made...

It seems that problem does not come from network and IT infrastructure. W did simple test:

Two machines, one fault and one good. We have changed IPs each other. The problem still occurs in first machine. So it means that problem does not come with data stream.
We changed power supply lines also, so it means that problem does not come from power line hazards.

At the moment we shall try to change Memory Usage like @Moza said.

Next tests soon

[pppp]

Re: High volume machines Pro906-1356 and Pro907-1357 (Katana family) problem

Test suggested by @Moza with "Memory Usage" nothing changes. Still problem occurs.

---------------------
Imortant news!
Problem persists in the copier mode also but damaged page is completly blank. Whilst printing page has "digita" stripes but in the copier mode page is blank.

At the moment we are trying to check how drum ground is made.
----------------------

We exclude problems in the image process (drum, ground, coronas, etc). This is completly white page in the copier mode so it is not possible to get that effect in the image process fault. Time to replace boards, supplies and parts of laser unit again.

Any idea?

[NeoMatrix]

Re: High volume machines Pro906-1356 and Pro907-1357 (Katana family) problem

Could it be something simple like "insert cover page" when using finisher modes?
Has someone set this as the copier default?

[MFPTech]

Re: High volume machines Pro906-1356 and Pro907-1357 (Katana family) problem

This is a software issue so i would never start replacing any hardware on the machine.
Try:
- printing the same pdf file directly from your laptop
- driver settings
- re-installing the print driver
- a different driver
- Firmware update
- machine settings related to printing
- escalate to the professional services group - if you are in the states there is a top notch engineer named Uhli - he has all the answers for printing issues, trust me on this!
Good luck!

[pppp]

Re: High volume machines Pro906-1356 and Pro907-1357 (Katana family) problem

"escalate to the professional services group"

@MFPtech

Great joke. In Poland my company as Nashuatec general channel 5-6 years ago was under Ricoh International Netherland. Belive me.... it was drama!
We have found 5-6 years ago source of problems with address book in the MP171 machines. We had epidemic problem with 50 machines at once in the same custromer. Huge contract with goverment organisation and every machine faulty. We told them what is the reason and... nothing. Of course problem was with writing addres book in the internal flash instead of external SD card and lack of recovery procedure in case of book structure fault. After 1 year time escalation of problem, hundreds emails, phone calls they send to as own technician from Amsterdam to Poznan to see on own eyes problem and... nothing. They gave us near 50 new controller boards as a warranty claim without common sense. Problem was returning as boomerang. After next 1 year time Ricoh Japan released new firmware and special SD card to recover controller board to rebuild addres book structure on controller board and probably to remove one into SD card.

I have the right to tell that was DRAMA!!!
So, I do not think even to ask them at the moment.

This time we have exactly the same situation. At the moment my company is under Ricoh Poland and they works as "firewall" before Ricoh Europe. No words to say...

So, I trust to get solution from other technicians from the world instead of official support channel.
That is the reality.

[Moza]

Re: High volume machines Pro906-1356 and Pro907-1357 (Katana family) problem

I agree with MFPTech this definitely doesn't sound like a hardware issue, is it the same page that errors every time ?

If you are printing from Adobe you could also try setting it to " Print as image" in the advanced print options. Failing that maybe try setting the device to spool print jobs and see if that helps

[pppp]

Re: High volume machines Pro906-1356 and Pro907-1357 (Katana family) problem

No! Problem persists always in accidental places. One time there is on 300th page and, another time on 2000th page. Problem occurs in the copier mode also but as a completly blank page. In the printer mode it looks like page with white/black lines but made of pixels. It is visible from close distance. Lines are like tooth of saw made of pixels. Sometimes there is more whote an sometimes there is more black areas. So We are sure that problem there is in the machines. This is only one and fully damaged page. I have never seen two damaged pages one by one.
Like I said we changed IPs, machine places, power lines, etc.