[Misc] Bizhub C350: Fast B&W printing but slow color/large file

[Jeff]

Hi, this is my first post. I'm working on a Bizhub C350, and overall it works fine. But there are some issues.

a) It's slow to print large/color files. According to my lan port monitor, the machine is slow to communicate. Printing a 15 page color file from Powerpoint might require 5 full minutes of port activity. Seems like the machine is very slow to receive data. Once the chat ends, it almost immediately prints. B&W text prints are almost instant. Collation box is unchecked.

b) Scanning in color is slow. Documents fly through the feeder, but minutes elapse before the files appear on the host PC (using FTP). B&W images scan and appear almost instantly.

This machine reports (via Pagescope) 768 mB of memory, and NO hard drive. Is the hard drive going to cure this problem? Would more RAM solve the issue, and does the machine accept more? It has two 256 mB dimms now.



Jeff

[Stirton.M]

OK....first off, convert your power point files to ANY other format. Power point files were never meant to be printed, they were meant to be shown on a display screen. I recommend converting these to a PDF.

The reason the files take so long is the driver is sending raw image data to the printer and the printer is converting this as it comes in to raster and then prints that file. This would be the same kind of problem when printing large graphics (raw photos from a 12MP digital camera for example), documents scanned from a basic scanner at high resolution, autocad and similar drawing programs. The larger the DPI count, along with a higher instance of colours will increase the file size significantly. The larger a print file is, the longer it will take to transfer this data to the copier. To illustrate, open up your print queue when you try to print your PP file so you can see how large the file explodes to while in the queue.

So, any large graphics, resize (NOT CROP) the images to 600DPI. Any larger will be a waste of time since the print engine is 600DPI.

Any programs that use GDI process, like PP, autocad, publisher....save the file to a PDF. Then print the PDF using the option "Print as Image" in the "advanced" button of the print dialog. Print as image will flatten the contents of the file and process it locally on the computer, the rasterized data sent from there to the machine. The print process takes a little longer on the computer, but the file size on the network is greatly reduced.

Scanning will be slow and slower relative to the method of scanning. If you are scanning at 200DPI and black mode, the file will be considerably smaller than if you scanned the document in at 600DPI full colour. This is purely a bandwidth issue and results will vary depending on the network topography.

The lack of a hard drive in the machine is also a contributor to the lack of performance on both printing and scanning. You will gain more performance if you have a hard drive kit installed. Good luck finding one. These are considered discontinued and almost obsolete machines. Memory is at the maximum.

[Jeff]

Dear Stirton.M,

First, thanks for the information. I did some experimentation, and printing from a PDF print driver is better than Powerpoint. But still slow. I think the bandwidth issue you mentioned is internal to the machine. In the time it takes to receive the document, I could download it 10X over a 10mb/s lan line!

So, I decided to install the HD. I used a Seagate Momentum 100 MB drive. I followed the HD-501 instructions carefully. Those instructions tell you to perform a "logical format" only. The "physical format" function is not used in the HD-501 procedure. So of course, I tried the physical format function, and it caused an error.But when I format again using "logical format", the errors go away. I wasn't sure if the drive was working, so I did the HD R/W test and it passed. The machine reports a 40 mB drive. There are no errors.

My understanding was that a working HD allowed the SCAN functions to make multiple-page scans (multiple image PDF files). But I still get single page files. So, bottom line is that I am not 100% sure the HD is working. I have a Toshiba 40 gB drive I could try... Any ideas for testing?

Again, thanks for you help.

Jeff

[Stirton.M]

If you print out a configuration page, you will see if the hard drive is present or not.

I cannot recall specifics on the number of pages scanned, but it should allow you to do so. Check the settings in email under network. It is best to do this through the pagescope interface.

As for printing the PDF, I mentioned to set the "print as image" through the advanced button when you first open up the print dialog.

[Jeff]

Dear Stirton.M,

Well, IT WORKS. You were right - in Pagescope, you use what appears to be the email settings and check NO for scanned file separation. Works great, so that certifies that the HD is working. Fantastic. I did try "print as image" BTW, and it is faster yet.

Just so you know, the HD-501 kit is still available from ARC Services for about $500. But I am too poor, so I machined my own bracket and used a HD I had around. On eBay, I found a 44 pin female-to-female cable that worked great. So the whole project csot me $10.00. The HD I used was a 7200 RPM too, so maybe that helped.

Your advice has been extremely helpful. I truly appreciate your time. If you ever want to make your own brackets, I'll send you a drawing. Very simple, actually.

Jeff