Multiple copiers locking up

[copytechonline]

Re: Multiple copiers locking up

What a coincidence, I have a customer with 4 older machines ranging from the MX2300 to the 4501 and have been running these machines for many years with no problems whatso ever, then 3 weeks ago we started recieving calls about them locking up. First one would go down and then be followed by the others over the next few hours. its got me a little stumped as it will not do it when a tech is there (typical) there are no fault codes logged and the print jobs all show OK. The machine will not print, copy, scan or fax whilst in this state and the touch panel and buttons are unresponsive. I had thought it may be a corrupt print job that someone sent and when it fails to print they send it to the next machine and so on causing a cascade effect, my other thought was some incompatability issue with something new added to the network recently.
I have had their IT dept update all the drivers for the latest (I know they wont be new but they were later than what was installed already) and firmware has been renewed on all machines.
I have spoken to Sharp Tech in the UK and as usual they have never experienced this before lol... They suggested it may be down to an antivirus program scanning the copier causing it to lock up, apart from that im still non the wiser just waiting for it to happen again.

Thaks for the suggestion but that was one of the first things that was done to try and rectify the problem, I may go down the faulty switch route next time it happens.

[CorbinDallas]

I have seen 4501/2300 generation lock up from a syn flood. They only have 10/100 nic and lock up if overloaded with requests.

[bdcrandall13]

Re: Multiple copiers locking up

The most common "lock up" fix for ALL of the series you are talking about is the firmware! Your switches are just FINE! Although the WSD DOES cause issues, they are not "rendering" issues...they are more scanning related.
(30 years working on SHARP equip)... Get the lastest firmware!

I don't have much hard evidence to support this but I have to disagree...
This has been happening with all of the equipment that we service. It's not isolated to Sharp or any other brand from what I have seen. We have updated firmware on all machines, checked voltages and used power monitoring equipment with no noticeable difference.
I have noticed that a few of these jobs that appear to lock up the equipment actually print at some point. As i mentioned in an earlier post we had similar issues with an AR-M257/317. The customer would print a document, in this case it was a Word document, that was almost all text on it with the exception of the customer's logo at the top of the document. The copier was locked up immediately after attempting to print the document and the spooler on the user's PC was also locked up. We attempted to delete the job from the PC but it would not delete. I tried to restart the spooler but it failed to start again. We rebooted the PC and MFP multiple times and finally we got a printed page. The document printed with all of the text but did not print the logo.
After changing the print port to the S2 port everything has worked fine.
It makes me wonder if there was a change or update to windows with a font or something that is causing these issues. I haven't noticed a particular pattern yet but I am pretty certain that it is not something directly related to the MFP, power, or network equipment due to the wide range of equipment that we have noticed the issues on. I would guess that it is something more on the software side of the PC, whether it be operating system or something else.
If someone could figure it out that would be great!

[dasbrun]

Re: Multiple copiers locking up

The most common "lock up" fix for ALL of the series you are talking about is the firmware! Your switches are just FINE! Although the WSD DOES cause issues, they are not "rendering" issues...they are more scanning related.
(30 years working on SHARP equip)... Get the lastest firmware!

All of the machines in question have had the firmware updated. That was the VERY first thing we did.

[dasbrun]

Re: Multiple copiers locking up

So we started this am with a crossover cable to the 5141 in question. Sent it a test page from the print driver.

Locked up the copier immediately.

We are currently running a full test of the hdd. Going to run the sram test after this finishes.

[bdcrandall13]

Re: Multiple copiers locking up

So we started this am with a crossover cable to the 5141 in question. Sent it a test page from the print driver.

Locked up the copier immediately.

We are currently running a full test of the hdd. Going to run the sram test after this finishes.

How did you install the print driver? Did you use one of their PCs or did you bring a laptop? PCL or PS driver? Which port type did you use and what were the specific settings used in the port settings? Just curious...

[dasbrun]

Re: Multiple copiers locking up

How did you install the print driver? Did you use one of their PCs or did you bring a laptop? PCL or PS driver? Which port type did you use and what were the specific settings used in the port settings? Just curious...

Downloaded the most recent print driver this AM to our laptop. Installed the PCL driver, tcp/ip port to print.

[dasbrun]

Re: Multiple copiers locking up

OK so we started with 3 machines with similar problems. We believe we have it narrowed down to 1 machine with it's own issue and 2 machines with their own issues.

MX2610-First machine has a fiber optics line running to it's building, it's across the street from the main building. They recently updated the fiber line. We removed the network line from the ESP. Since removing the network line from the ESP they have not had a single issue.

MX5141/4141-The other 2 machines are located in the same building. We tried printing via crossover to the 5141 and locked it up immediately. Called SHARP and they had us turn off mDNS and WDS. They also had us run a 67-17 which is supposed to clear the memory on the NIC. After doing those things we were able to print to it via cross over without a problem and when we put it back on their network it started printing without an issue as well. If the 5141 continues to have issues we were advised to replace first the HDD and if that doesn't correct the issue to replace the MFP board.

So a little wait and see for a day or 2 and we'll go from there.

Thanks again for all the feedback and input.

Brun

[mojorolla]

Re: Multiple copiers locking up

OK so we started with 3 machines with similar problems. We believe we have it narrowed down to 1 machine with it's own issue and 2 machines with their own issues.

MX2610-First machine has a fiber optics line running to it's building, it's across the street from the main building. They recently updated the fiber line. We removed the network line from the ESP. Since removing the network line from the ESP they have not had a single issue.

MX5141/4141-The other 2 machines are located in the same building. We tried printing via crossover to the 5141 and locked it up immediately. Called SHARP and they had us turn off mDNS and WDS. They also had us run a 67-17 which is supposed to clear the memory on the NIC. After doing those things we were able to print to it via cross over without a problem and when we put it back on their network it started printing without an issue as well. If the 5141 continues to have issues we were advised to replace first the HDD and if that doesn't correct the issue to replace the MFP board.

So a little wait and see for a day or 2 and we'll go from there.

Thanks again for all the feedback and input.

Brun

Good old 67-17. I use that SIM during lockups, as new Sharps do this A LOT.
Did Sharp happen to mention that SIM wipes several network settings....?
Here is what my notes say:
This is a list of items reset to default by 67-17:
-SMTP
-Domain Name
-Port Control - Server Ports (NBT/WINS and IPP-SSL)
- Client Ports (SNTP)
-Print Port Settings (Use Bidirectional)

Thanks for keeping us updated. Many of these posts go unsolved....

[dasbrun]

Re: Multiple copiers locking up

OK so here's hoping this is the last update on this.

The 2610 has not had any further issues since removing the network connection from the ESP. Side note: Never did perform the 67-17 on this machine.

Ran the 67-17 on the 5141 and it has gone 4 days now without any issues, also removed the network cable from the ESP there as well.

Today went and ran 67-17 and removed the network cable from the ESP from the 4141. Advised that end user to contact us with any further issues.

But we have gone ahead and closed all of the work orders we had for all 3 machines.

Thanks again for all the help and feedback.

Brun

[mansart]

Re: Multiple copiers locking up

Protocol Settings>disable Netware, EtherTalk and NetBEUI
Services>SNTP:enable
set IP of nearest server from NIST Internet Time Service
mDNS:disable
Print Port Settings>
RAW tab> select use bidirectional,
WSD tab> uncheck Use Multicast,
Disable WSD Print
Security/Port Control>
RARP:disable
NBT/WINS:enable