MX-4101n Network Issues

[sacoward]

We have had an ongoing problem with our 4101n that our Tech and Sharp have not been able to solve. Any help would be appreciated.

The machine will work fine for some specified period of time, then you will send a print job and it will stick in the queue and no other computers will be able to print to it. It will make copies and scan to desktop/email fine. If you try to turn it off via the top power button, it freezes on the powering down screen and you have to reset it via the internal power switch . . . then it will work fine for a while. At this point I believe the tech has changed out most/all the internal boards, etc. We have also replaced the switch that it was using to connect to the whole network as well as the cables.

Does anyone have any ideas? At this point I think they want to say it is a network issue. If so, what could be causing this? No other computers or devices on the network have issues. The 4101n has a static ip address which is outside of the range that the routers DHCP server designates.

The next step that they want to take is to plug the machine directly to a computer via USB and share it to prove that it is a network problem, but it seems to me this would not prove anything unless the copier continues to have issues since the print jobs would be sent, received, and processed differently. Is that correct?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[ruben]

Re: MX-4101n Network Issues

Sounds like the machine is waiting for data but not recieving it or not registering it, might be fault memory/hdd. First best to rule out the network. What OS are you printing from? And, do you have use access codes?

Does anyone have any ideas? At this point I think they want to say it is a network issue. If so, what could be causing this? No other computers or devices on the network have issues. The 4101n has a static ip address which is outside of the range that the routers DHCP server designates.

Unplug the machine from the network, and ping it's current IP address. This will rule out another device. There may be a wireless device using the same IP, when it is in range it will pick up the network and conflict with the copier. (If you have wireless APs, that is).

[sacoward]

Re: MX-4101n Network Issues

Sounds like the machine is waiting for data but not recieving it or not registering it, might be fault memory/hdd. First best to rule out the network. What OS are you printing from? And, do you have use access codes?



Unplug the machine from the network, and ping it's current IP address. This will rule out another device. There may be a wireless device using the same IP, when it is in range it will pick up the network and conflict with the copier. (If you have wireless APs, that is).

We are printing primarily from Windows (though we do have two Macs but they do not print frequently).

We do use access codes . . . would that affect anything? The documents that get sent do print (assuming they are left in the print queue) when we restart the machine.

One of the things we tried was changing the IP (which was original within the ip addresses assigned by DHCP) to an address outside of the DHCP ip allocation range. So i do not think it is another device trying to claim that address. Also, when this print issue arises you are not able to ping the machine. Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

[mojorolla]

Re: MX-4101n Network Issues

67-17 to flush printer memory, reboot. Disable the codes. You must enable codes and THEN create the users and groups. If you created the users, then turned on codes, much sadness can occur. Printing after a restart is usually a sign of a duplicate IP address. Let DHCP assign a new address and make that one static.

[blackcat4866]

Re: MX-4101n Network Issues

I like mojorolla's suggestion.

Two other things you might consider:

1) You can simulate the network connection with a crossover cable directly to a PC or laptop, and test individual access codes. You might also connect your laptop to the customers network cable and do a continuous ping back to the server.
2) On some newer Konica Minolta MFP's with gigabit transfer speeds we've had issues with machines locking up when networked on 100MBs networks. When set to Auto, the network card can print one page then lock up with the memory light blinking, and not print again until powered off/on. The solution is specifying 100MBs transfer speed. Maybe this is applicable here.

=^..^=

[Dave]

Re: MX-4101n Network Issues

go to the webpage and delete the memory log(the one that can be saved as a spreadsheet). It's been a while since I've worked on copiers but I remember having the same problem on MX-M550N and Sharp tech support had a hard time with it. When the hotline lost OJ they lost one of the best. RIP John. DW

[sacoward]

Re: MX-4101n Network Issues

Ok . . . to add even more confusion . . . this morning I was going into the webpage config to try some of the suggestions and I could not access the webpage.

There is a whole other set of symptoms this morning (this particular set has happened two times before). Here are the symptoms

• the config webpage was unavailable
• I was able to ping the machine with no issues
• I sent a print job, that did not print, but disappeared from my print queue . . . it did not print when the machine restarted
• when I went to the 4101n to see if it was able to copy or scan, the touch screen was unresponsive as where all of the hard buttons (including the the power button on the top of the machine).
• The machine did respond to opening drawers, putting paper in the auto feeder etc. The screen would also display "open door", etc.

Any other ideas?

Thanks!

[Akitu]

Re: MX-4101n Network Issues

Ok . . . to add even more confusion . . . this morning I was going into the webpage config to try some of the suggestions and I could not access the webpage.

There is a whole other set of symptoms this morning (this particular set has happened two times before). Here are the symptoms

• the config webpage was unavailable
• I was able to ping the machine with no issues
• I sent a print job, that did not print, but disappeared from my print queue . . . it did not print when the machine restarted
• when I went to the 4101n to see if it was able to copy or scan, the touch screen was unresponsive as where all of the hard buttons (including the the power button on the top of the machine).
• The machine did respond to opening drawers, putting paper in the auto feeder etc. The screen would also display "open door", etc.

Any other ideas?

Thanks!

I'm thinking you have a duplicated IP address. Did you ping the address you used prior to assigning it to the copier? Everything you described fits perfectly with a duplicated address aside from the third part about disappearing from the print queue, which sounds like printing by unauthenticated user is disabled. The data lockup on the 4th also does not fit that description. Has your firmware been updated to the latest issue?

You may also be having some packet loss from your router to the copier, run a trace route and see if it's being dropped.

[sacoward]

Re: MX-4101n Network Issues

I'm thinking you have a duplicated IP address. Did you ping the address you used prior to assigning it to the copier? Everything you described fits perfectly with a duplicated address aside from the third part about disappearing from the print queue, which sounds like printing by unauthenticated user is disabled. The data lockup on the 4th also does not fit that description. Has your firmware been updated to the latest issue?

You may also be having some packet loss from your router to the copier, run a trace route and see if it's being dropped.

Thanks for the help. We did check the ip prior to assigning it, but we had the exact same issue on a previous ip addres. I will try changing it again . . . it certainly couldn't hurt.

Update: I forgot to mention that our machine has been updated with the latest firmware.

Here's the traceroute & ping:
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.


C:\Users\Steve>tracert 192.168.1.90


Tracing route to 192.168.1.90 over a maximum of 30 hops


1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.90


Trace complete.


C:\Users\Steve>ping 192.168.1.90


Pinging 192.168.1.90 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.1.90: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=255
Reply from 192.168.1.90: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=255
Reply from 192.168.1.90: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=255
Reply from 192.168.1.90: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=255


Ping statistics for 192.168.1.90:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms


C:\Users\Steve>

[Akitu]

Re: MX-4101n Network Issues

Well if the address is duplicated, the ping will return a response no matter what. The trace route seems to be okay.

Your problem could be related to the ROMs, DIMMs 1/2 are used by the copier/scanning and DIMMs 3/4 are used by the print engine in previous models, it would be a reasonable assumption that has not changed. If you have a spare 4101 I would try taking the memory from the MFP board and swapping it out.

Your print jobs going to queue and being removed is due to blocking unauthorized prints, the user codes have to be entered into the print driver under "Printer Preferences -> Job Handling".

[sacoward]

Re: MX-4101n Network Issues

Well if the address is duplicated, the ping will return a response no matter what. The trace route seems to be okay.

Your problem could be related to the ROMs, DIMMs 1/2 are used by the copier/scanning and DIMMs 3/4 are used by the print engine in previous models, it would be a reasonable assumption that has not changed. If you have a spare 4101 I would try taking the memory from the MFP board and swapping it out.

Your print jobs going to queue and being removed is due to blocking unauthorized prints, the user codes have to be entered into the print driver under "Printer Preferences -> Job Handling".

For now, as opposed to changing the ip (and thus changing the settings on each computer) I have assigned the printers mac address to the ip address in the router, so it should not allow any other device to claim that ip.

It is my understanding that most/all of the boards have been replaced as you suggested from a 4101 that the dealer had at their office.

As to the final point regarding user codes, these print jobs come from computers that have had the user codes in place for some time and functioning fine.

[Akitu]

Re: MX-4101n Network Issues

For now, as opposed to changing the ip (and thus changing the settings on each computer) I have assigned the printers mac address to the ip address in the router, so it should not allow any other device to claim that ip.

It is my understanding that most/all of the boards have been replaced as you suggested from a 4101 that the dealer had at their office.

As to the final point regarding user codes, these print jobs come from computers that have had the user codes in place for some time and functioning fine.

Identical effect, MAC address reservations are the next best thing to assigning a static IP address.

Were those boards changed prior to these hangup issues on an unrelated issue or afterwards in response? I wouldn't rule out the memory, I've had a single spec of dirt smaller than a pin head on a ROM chip give me headaches for weeks on end.

[sacoward]

Re: MX-4101n Network Issues

Identical effect, MAC address reservations are the next best thing to assigning a static IP address.

Were those boards changed prior to these hangup issues on an unrelated issue or afterwards in response? I wouldn't rule out the memory, I've had a single spec of dirt smaller than a pin head on a ROM chip give me headaches for weeks on end.

All of that (including the ip Address) has been changed since the problems began.

[Akitu]

Re: MX-4101n Network Issues

All of that (including the ip Address) has been changed since the problems began.

I would check issues posted by users before myself then. You definitely have a weird issue going on here... Was HDD replaced?

[sacoward]

Re: MX-4101n Network Issues

I would check issues posted by users before myself then. You definitely have a weird issue going on here... Was HDD replaced?

If I recall that is the only thing that has not been replaced . . . memory and boards have been replaced.