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excanonguy
02-11-2010, 11:19 PM
We placed this new machine to upgrade the customer from a magicolor which worked fine as far as sending and receiving faxes, but the new 203 will not receive...I inhereted the call from another tech he tried another fax card that we knew worked, no change turned of ECM & JBig no change then promptly did nothing for 8 weeks and now the customer is justifiably pissed and I dont blame them, I have been there twice this week had Konica tech support on the phone for about 2 hrs, playin with baud rates etc. I also did a logical format on the HDD tried CA & US for destination settings. What it will do is receive the header and maybe a bit of image, the rest of the page is blank...or it doesnt come through at all . I did get it to receive a few the first day I was there after I re-initialized the fax, sent some test faxes to it from another customer site, and they indicated that they were received ok however when I got there they were the same partial pages or "job deleated" I also tried another phone cord, no diff...running out of ideas and have at least for now stumped Konica...of coarse the phone company says the line is fine ( I am not convinced it is though). Any of you guys got any ideas? I am all ears !!

Stirton.M
02-12-2010, 04:56 AM
Fax issues on receive can be a pain in the ass.

You never mentioned it, but the first thing I check for is firmware. Reflash the machine with current firmware. Even if it is current in the machine, reflash it again anyway. Then do a machine initialize (backup user data first of course) as well as fax initialize.

I am assuming you have tried enabling line monitor sound. If not, do so. This may provide some clues.

Is the phone line dedicated? Or is it shared with anything else. Is the line also a DSL line? Generally, the copier can share on DSL lines, but I try to discourage this whenever possible. Also, if DSL is shared, remove any line filter on the fax line itself. These filters can interfere with the fax signal. Is the phone line VOIP? If so, customer is shit out of luck. KM does not officially support VOIP for fax...it works in some cases, not all. In such cases however, there is a TSB related to specific settings to work with VOIP. Also, some digital switch boards have an analog emulator for fax use. There may be a problem with this if one is present.

The phone line is also polarity dependent. I know the signal is AC, but still the line must be in the proper polarity, a phase issue if I recall.

Check to see if you are connected to a 2 conductor or 4 conductor line. Our fax units support only 2 conductor.

If you can, obtain a second fax machine, small one I mean...minoltafax or okifax or something equivalent. Also, obtain a phone line simulator. It allows you to bridge the two fax units together locally to eliminate the local phone line for the purpose of testing JUST the fax machine independent of the local phone.

Also, reseat or replace the memory for the fax kit.

KEVIN900
02-12-2010, 03:40 PM
I've often encountered fax problems that can be troubleshot using your cell phone. Get the customers fax number. Call your cell from their fax, checking your caller ID to verify they have the correct number. Call the fax with your cell, to verify if it rings, and answers. Phone lines are often mixed up by the phone company, or even the customers IT guys. It's a jumping off point.

Mr Spock
02-13-2010, 12:14 AM
Actually the KM support is non existent for anything other than standard analog. DSL and Voip are not supported in any shape or way. They may work but it is the customer to fix/maintain.. Also check as previously posted the polarity and see if they have any thing else sharing the line (fax/credti card machine/postal machine..) as these may be causing the issue.

emujo
02-13-2010, 09:15 PM
Also, ensure you are using the 2 wire phone cord provided with the fax unit, the 4 wire cables can cause issues. Emujo

RRodgers
02-14-2010, 12:18 AM
BE SURE!!!! It's NOT on there DSL line. I've been to MANY A site that they get DSL and sure enough, they can't fax anymore. Put one of the DSL filters on the line will fix this right up.

excanonguy
02-14-2010, 11:51 AM
I've often encountered fax problems that can be troubleshot using your cell phone. Get the customers fax number. Call your cell from their fax, checking your caller ID to verify they have the correct number. Call the fax with your cell, to verify if it rings, and answers. Phone lines are often mixed up by the phone company, or even the customers IT guys. It's a jumping off point.

Unfortunately it seems fine... the Majicolor 2490 works fine on the same line...

excanonguy
02-14-2010, 11:52 AM
Also, ensure you are using the 2 wire phone cord provided with the fax unit, the 4 wire cables can cause issues. Emujo

Ya I have tried 2 different 2 wire cords as well

excanonguy
02-14-2010, 11:56 AM
BE SURE!!!! It's NOT on there DSL line. I've been to MANY A site that they get DSL and sure enough, they can't fax anymore. Put one of the DSL filters on the line will fix this right up.

I dont think it is...the phone jack on the wall has the fax number written on it...that being said they are a pretty clueless bunch at this place and would not have a clue if I asked them lol! I will see if I can scrounge up a filter for the hell of it and try it anyways, thanks!

excanonguy
02-14-2010, 12:08 PM
Your tellin me lol! I went through the Voip thing last week as well with a BH500...could not make it work, customers IT guy arguing with me that the fax card was no good, ended up moving the copier so I could use the line for the postal meter to prove that it worked fine. I thought about the firmware after I left, it is the latest version but I am definately gonna re-flash it 1st thing on Monday. I know the fax card is ok, the other tech (who created this mess by doing nothing for 2 months grrrrr) took the card out of the machine we use at the office and swapped them they both worked fine there. I found another new MK711 at the shop so I am gonna swap that out if the flash doesnt do anything...any idea how to try and check the polarity of the line?The room the machine is in is tiny and there is a huge desk infront of the phone jack, so I am not sure if I can get any access to it...if I can I guess I could just try swapping the poarity on the leads?...Thanks for your ideas I will do a follow-up Monday night , hopefully with some good news.


Fax issues on receive can be a pain in the ass.

You never mentioned it, but the first thing I check for is firmware. Reflash the machine with current firmware. Even if it is current in the machine, reflash it again anyway. Then do a machine initialize (backup user data first of course) as well as fax initialize.

I am assuming you have tried enabling line monitor sound. If not, do so. This may provide some clues.

Is the phone line dedicated? Or is it shared with anything else. Is the line also a DSL line? Generally, the copier can share on DSL lines, but I try to discourage this whenever possible. Also, if DSL is shared, remove any line filter on the fax line itself. These filters can interfere with the fax signal. Is the phone line VOIP? If so, customer is shit out of luck. KM does not officially support VOIP for fax...it works in some cases, not all. In such cases however, there is a TSB related to specific settings to work with VOIP. Also, some digital switch boards have an analog emulator for fax use. There may be a problem with this if one is present.

The phone line is also polarity dependent. I know the signal is AC, but still the line must be in the proper polarity, a phase issue if I recall.

Check to see if you are connected to a 2 conductor or 4 conductor line. Our fax units support only 2 conductor.

If you can, obtain a second fax machine, small one I mean...minoltafax or okifax or something equivalent. Also, obtain a phone line simulator. It allows you to bridge the two fax units together locally to eliminate the local phone line for the purpose of testing JUST the fax machine independent of the local phone.

Also, reseat or replace the memory for the fax kit.

Mr Spock
02-14-2010, 12:47 PM
A lot of fax machines do not care about polarity but the mfp and computers do. I use a $7.00(usd) dual line tester when ever there is a fax issue an leave when the polarity is reversed. We do not do wiring because of liability issues.
Here is a link to thr=e one I just replaced.
Ace Telephone Line Tester Eliminates Costly, 3038205 (http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=phone+line+tester&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=18296764923401557132&ei=WPB3S4evH4aWtgfIk6GZCg&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCIQ8wIwAA#ps-sellers)

Stirton.M
02-14-2010, 06:04 PM
A lot of fax machines do not care about polarity but the mfp and computers do. I use a $7.00(usd) dual line tester when ever there is a fax issue an leave when the polarity is reversed. We do not do wiring because of liability issues.
Here is a link to thr=e one I just replaced.
Ace Telephone Line Tester Eliminates Costly, 3038205 (http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=phone+line+tester&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=18296764923401557132&ei=WPB3S4evH4aWtgfIk6GZCg&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCIQ8wIwAA#ps-sellers)

D'OH!!!

You beat me to it....heh...

Very similar to the one we use at the shop...dime a dozen it appears...

Also, there is some decent reading here to help with even the basics to diagnose line issues....

Testing and Repairing Phone Line Problems (http://www.sandman.com/loop.html)

And of course, I am trying to get my company to foot the bill for an SNR tester, as there are times when this is the obvious issue (from extensive technical experience) but I cannot prove it without raw proof from a more involved diagnosis...times when taking a sillyscope just isn't practical....

KenB
02-14-2010, 07:43 PM
When the problem occurs, is it always the same machine on the other end of the line? I know it's not common anymore, but there may be compatibility issues with certain models. I know that Canon and Panasonic never saw eye-to-eye, especially when it came to ECM. (Error Creation Mode, as we used to call it...)

I know that this was mentioned before, but did you try connecting a small desktop fax using a line simulator connecting to your troublesome MFP? If all is OK, that means the problem is line related - maybe something that the previous machine had no issue with.

A long time ago (early '90s) I had a small Canon fax at a customer who had about the same issue that you're having. Every so often, the communication would just stop, sometimes even on transmissions. The problem was that their phone system had "camp on", where if an incoming call hit the line, it would beep, VERY quietly, and then would ring immediately with the incoming call when the fax was done. The old machines they had (don't remember the brand), ignored the beep, but the Canons had problems with it. It took about 3 months to figure that one out. Call Waiting will have the same effect. (That one's always an issue, especially in home and Mom-and-Pop locations, or "SOHO", in computerese... :rolleyes:)

If your dealership and the customer approve it, maybe coming in at night or on a weekend and performing the same test would be an indicator, because it would be a lot less likely that any other activity (VoIP, camp on, DSL, whatever...)would be active and causing issues.

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