Trouble Faxin on Ricoh C4500

[slim]

I have a Ricoh C4500 that tends to work, not work, work, not work, when it comes to successful transmission of faxes. Don't know much at all about the fax communication process. Are there any basic settings you can change to help faxes go through better.

[schooltech]

All of those noises that people joke about-all of the screeching that takes place- is the 'handshake' process that takes place between fax machine. What they are doing is negotiating baud rates, etc and will automatically step-down in speed.

An example would be if the sending machine is communicating via SuperG3 33.6kbps, and the receiving machine can only communicate at 14.4kbps. The sending machine will step-down to the 14.4 kbps rate. But, if there is ANY static or noise on the line, that rate could even be lower and lower and lower until it gives up-if it cannot communicate.

So, given your problem, I usually look at line noise/communication problems/bundles of wires mixed together/pbx systems/someone coming in over the weekend and mess with stuff/phone company doing maintenance/VOIP upgrades.

It could be the copier, and you can go in and even reseat connectors, but I would first isolate all line issues. Do they have a spare fax you could use to troubleshoot the problem?

A couple of questions:

Did this start all of a sudden?

Did the copier always do this?

You have to isolate line problems first before messing with the machine. You need to make sure that there is no 'bad gas' getting into the machine, so-to-speak.

Also, what do the fax logs say? Are they failures/busy signals/no answer?
The fax logs are a great way to troubleshoot issues.

And, yes, you can tweak fax settings. But I generally don't mess with the settings, since the negotiation process is automatic and changing settings will usually cause you to return to adjust those settings once they complain about something else. In my experience, most faxes are just plug-and-play.

[Lagonda]

Fax Probs

First step is to plug an analogue phone in to the line, dial a single digit to get rid if the dial tone and then listen. I expect after a moment or two you will start to hear hisses and crackles if not a earth hum. Then tell your customer to refer the fault to their telecoms supplier.

Next step is to find out if there is anything else sharing the line. Computer modems, burgler alarms and eftpos equipment are the usual suspects. Too check unplug the fax and dail the number from another line and see if anything else answers. If their serious about faxing they will have a dedicated line for the fax.
Cheers.

[cobiray]

If all of that comes up rosy, turn off ECM (error correction mode) for the faxes. I've had a few machines recently that needed to have this function disabled after being in the field for awhile. Hope this helps and good luck.

[Rocket Psyantist]

I dont know about you guys but it seems to me when it comes to fax problems I spend alot of troubleshooting time only to find its really not my problem at all. Its almost always a phone line problem. I have found it helpfull to go into the service mode and set the bit switches so that I can hear the entire fax transmission. Bring the customer over and let them hear for themselves the noise and static on the line or in one case an answering machine from another office in the building on a totally different floor that was mistakenly hooked up to their fax machine by some incompetent phone companys technician. Then the customer has the joy of spending hours on the phone with AT&T trying to explain to them the problem. Well sorry for the rant but,,,,, these things do happen.

[schooltech]

Not a rant, man-you're just speakin' the truth.

As in my previous post, usually they are just plug-and-play and I've also found that it was usually something on their end. Of course, I've had bad fax boards and such, but most of the time it is their problem (which makes it my problem.)

[bryand]

We see this problem all the time on all Ricoh copiers. I would print the Service Monitor Report - Fax SP - Reports. You will see all the errors on the botom half of the page. The manual will tell you what Fax bit switches to change. I change these on every Ricoh at setup or the are very unreliable.

Comm Switch 01

turn ECM off

G3 Switch

Initial TX modem rate - set to 14.4
Initial RX modem rate - set to 14.4
PABX equalizer - set to high (both tx and rx)
PSTN cable equalizer - set to high (both tx and rx)
Reconstruction time - set to 12s

I didnt include the actual SP numbers because it varies.

[cobiray]

Ma Bell and all the other land line providers are notorious for saying the problem isn't in the lines or at a trunk somewhere. You aren't the only one beating your head against that wall.

Sometimes it helps if you can dig up an identical machine to test on. I know that is probably next to impossible (at least for me) but this is about the only way to prove to them it isn't the machine.