AR-M355N reboot, lockup & blue screen?

[DSallee]

Hi all, 1st post and it's a doozie! Sorry in advance for the L-O-N-G post!

I have a Sharp AR-M355N that has been giving me problems for over a month now. It has random reboots, lockups and blue screens!

Here's the scenario:

Got a call it was giving random lockups and blue screens.... upon arrival, it had a blue screen so I shut it down and fired it back up, ran for aprox 10 min and boom, blue screen and locked up tighter than a drum. (when it locked up, there was a fax coming in and the client started a print job from their PC)

SO... I disconnect the network and phone line and rebooted it, everything was fine, scan fine, self prints fine.... plugged in the network and boom, locked up!

Next, I hooked my laptop up to it (thinking it might be the NIC) with a crossover cable and all went well, no issues printing or copying.

Next, hooked their fax line back up, received and sent faxes fine along with printing...

Next, hooked their network up and boom, locked up.

Next, had their IT dept clear their print Q's from their server which is running a Med-Report type program for the doctors office. (non windows, running ASA 400 I believe)

Anyway, after they cleared their print jobs in Q, everything went fine, they could print, fax, copy with no problems....

Problem solved? NOPE!

Next day another call, locked up and blue screen!

This time, my service manager went with me to help diagnose and see what it was doing first hand...

NOW, this time I did the same process as above BUT even with the network and fax line disconnected, it would lockup ONLY if I did a "print List" from the copier ... Prints and copies fine otherwise....

Called Sharp Service and they suggested MCU PWB or hard drive ... We opted to take the copier to our service center for further tests... got it in the shop, hooked up to our network and fax... ran fine for one full week on 24/7 doing random print jobs, faxes and copies.

Service manager did however replace the NIC and hard drive just in case.

Took copier back on a Monday.... Friday we get another call, Yep, locked up, and blue screen again! As before, with network connected, it would lock up so I had their IT clear the print Q again and this time everything went fine. After it was cleared, they could print, fax and copy no problems.... Now, the receptionist decided to print their appointment from her PC for the next week... BOOM, locked up!

Thinking it might be an issue with that one PC, our network specialist went and checked everything out and found a setting in the copier was off... he set it and all went well....

NOW, TODAY, (the following Friday) we get another call.. locked up!!

Got any ideas????


Details:
The job she printed from that PC is printed daily from all PCs
The MCU PWB has been replaced (from the previous tech, not me) same issues!
Has been flashed
Pretty much every PWB has been replaced. (I've kinda adopted this problem from 3 other techs that have not resolved the problem)
Their line voltage is a steady 122 volts and is on a protector

Here is my dilemma:
1. If it was their network, it wouldn't have crashed with their network disconnected.
2. same with fax line
3. If it was the NIC card, it should have crashed with my Laptop and/or OUR network connected.
4. Internal power issue, it would have crashed at our service center.
5. Their backup copier (AR-M350) runs perfect at their location, no issues at all!
6. All other copiers (about 10, mixed Ar-M350's and AR-M355's) run fine on the same network running same program. (it's a hospital)
7. Copier run perfect in OUR shop on our network.


If anyone has a clue what or where to look, PLEASE post you ideas!

BTW, it's got 486693 copy count.

Thanks
Dave

[blackcat4866]

I don't know if this will help, but here's my two cents worth:

I had a similar situation with a AR-M455N in a very busy office. The only time this machine was not printing something was when it was locked up.

To do any service on the machine I had to disconnect the network & fax cables, and wait ~1/2 hour for the jobs to clear. Even then Users lined up behind me waiting for print jobs, checking the trays, even when the machine was apart on the table!

The short version of this is that after numerous calls to the hotline, Sharp told me that the processor could not handle the workload. We sold this customer a AR-M550N that sat next to the AR-M455N. The dragon took the print jobs only. The jupiter took the fax & walk up copies. Problem solved.

Before I got smart & started disconnecting cables before service, I would be doing something in service mode, three print jobs would hit the printer and the service mode would lock up. Wouldn't print, wouldn't exit service mode, even with main switch off. The machine had to remain unplugged for 15 minutes to eventually allow exit from service mode.

[DSallee]

Thanks for the reply... Well, getting them to purchase another copier would probably be out of the question.

As far as it not handling jobs, if that was the case, why would the 350 NOT mess up and the 355 does? This is a pretty busy Doctors office but not busy enough to warrant an overload.

We actually tried to overload it at our shop hitting it with faxes (multiples), Copy jobs (50 copies duplex) AND 5 techs laptops hitting it with large PDF files to print.... ALL AT THE SAME TIME!

In other words, the "job Q" had about 3 pages of jobs in Q to be printed plus we were sending and receiving faxes through all of this.

It never skipped a beat!

While at the doctors office, there was "maybe" 3 jobs TOTAL in Q when it crashes... AND on the other hand, it was crashing with the network and fax disconnected! Only job in Q per say is me hitting the "print list" in the copier menu.

Oh another issue, "when" it does crash, it looses all trouble and jam history? They go to zero!

We also got a call for a U2-11 code Thursday (check sum error). I went and cleared the code and was there 3 hrs "trying" to get it to throw a code again or crash... ran perfect!


The next day, Friday/yesterday, it is now constantly rebooting ONLY with the network hooked up. Disconnect network, it runs perfect! Hook the network up and it constantly reboots? Even after their IT dept cleared their servers print cache.

We are bringing it back in the shop Monday.

-------------------------------------------------------------

OK, I do have another question... I found a TB (MFP-TB-106) about lockups and blank displays (which is two of the symptoms I was having) on the 355/455 and it recommends replacing a fuse for a SMALLER value? I think the original is a 3.15 amp fuse and it says to take it out and put a 800mA fuse

This is a quote from the TB:

Symptom: If 5V2 on Mother PWB is short-circuited to ground, the DC-DC Converter fails to
operate properly. This will cause blank display and Lock-Up condition when power is turned on.
Solution: In order to prevent DC-DC converter failure, the capacity of Fuse F3 has been
changed from 3.15A to 800mA.

Um, how is this going to help? Logically if you have a 3 amp fuse with lets say 2 amps going through it, putting in a 800mA fuse will only BLOW that 800mA fuse... RIGHT?

And if there is only lets say 700mA going through it, how would a 800mA fuse help?

This one TOTALLY looses me!

I'm actually thinking of trying this.. LOL ... what could it hurt, a blown fuse maybe


Thanks again for the input..... anyone else?
Dave

[blackcat4866]

Follow the 5 volts.

The 800mA fuse business sounds like total bullshtt. But like you say, what can it hurt but maybe a blown fuse? Perhaps this DC-to-DC converter has already suffered some damage from an overload? Still, this damage is apparently only temporary..... It does give me a couple of ideas though:

Logic circuits all run on 5vdc. I'm sure you already thought of replacing the power supply. But take it one step further. A temporary short in the 5vdc could momentarily lower the 5vdc to 3.5vdc or lower changing some of those ones to zeros (i.e. lockup).

I don't know is a standard meter can catch one of these momentary drops. This might require an oscilloscope, or some sort of power fault tracking device. Maybe both together. But the next thing that I'd do is put my meter on the 5vdc to frame ground, then recreate the lockup condition at the customer site.

If you can identify this drop for sure, then next thing to do is to try to pin some single function or board to the drop. For example, if receiving a fax is the trigger, perhaps this temporary short is in the fax circuitry. Of course you know this 5vdc travels throughout the copier, and your short/load could be anywhere. It would be safe to rule out 24vdc circuits, and basic copier functions.

I would definitely try to rule out the power. Set up one of these power fault tracking devices, and let it run for a few days. Just because the other machines are not affected doesn't mean this one is immune. Are you getting any stored but not displayed Zero Cross errors?

From here I'm just fishing:
You probably replaced every board on this machine, but have you replaced any of the Eeproms? They are some of the most likely candidates (running on that 5vdc....).

Let me know what you discover.

[DSallee]

I sure will keep you in the loop on this and let you know what we find.

That is a good thought on the power supply which I brought to my bosses attention the day he went with me last week. Poses the same question though, why would it do it at their location and not our shop? He feels if it was a power supply issue, it would do it wherever we had it hooked up at so he pretty much canned that idea along with the fuse idea....

UNLESS something there in the doctors office is interfering with this machine which is causing a voltage drop internally maybe in the 5v line .... Not in the 120v line, maybe something tossing around some EMF that is messing with the 5V regulator..... hmmmm .....

Kinda like an AR-235 I had about 5 months ago. It was throwing random U2-40 code at least once a week.... which no one could figure out so I ended up with it. So I decided to do some investigating and I found a TB about "noise" interference in the power supply would randomly throw a U2-40 code. So I ordered and soldered the capacitor where the TB said to on the Power Supply PWB and I haven't had another U2-40 code from it sense...

Hmm, makes me think this might be the issue..... wounder where I can get those noise blocking things that fasten to the cables? They are round and clip on the cables (power, fax and network) .... Worth a shot I reckon, shouldn't hurt anything..... should it?

On the EEPROM, I think they changed it along with the PRT Controller and PCU PWB, when the tech before me got their hands dirty on this machine...


Boy, the more I think about the interference thing, the more I think this might just be the culprit!

Dave

[blackcat4866]

I have a bunch of the ferrite cores that you speak of. They come standard with the Fax Option Kits. I agree it's a longshot but it is easy to try. Below are Copystar/Kyocera Mita part #s for Ferrite Cores.

2AV27440 Ferrite Core (large)
7YBEG6G6U001H01 Ferrite Core (small)

[DSallee]

UPDATE:

Just an update on the machine... about three weeks ago I replaced the motherboard.... so far so good!! Knock on wood***

The motherboard also houses the DC-DC converter as mentioned as the possible cause in an earlier post... hmmmm....


Dave

[NotByChoice]

Our Sharp ARM355N had a peculiar problem a few weeks ago too. It would randomly change it's IP and insist on using the IP of the company's fileserver. So everytime someone open a file on the network or tried to save a file the request would go to the copier lol

It took a good 2 hours to track down that problem!

When I checked the network settings the copier had the right IP programmed. I re-setup the copiers network info anyways and that seemed to fix it.

Really weird.

So ya, you might want to try double checking the network settings and making sure DHCP and NetBIOS/NetBEUI are off. Also try changing the network cable. And ask their IT guys to make sure no other device has the same IP as the copier.