MPC 3003 weird printing problems

[engineers]

Recently we swapped out an MPC 3300 for a new MPC 3003. A few days after it went in customer says its printing duplicates.
On site they are using software called 'Window designer 7' which like most of you I have never heard of. It is only from this software the problem happens on PCs running windows 7 and windows 8.1.
They print a list of 10 invoices, some are a few pages long, the printer starts and maybe prints invoice 1 consisting of 3 pages, then it stop and says 'waiting for print data' on the machines print screen. Then it starts up again and prints invoices 1-6 maybe, so it already printed invoice 1 twice. Then it will stop and start again and print invoices 1-8 and maybe just wont even print invoices 9 and 10. It changes every time but always messes up. I have tried using their original MPC 3300 RPCS driver, a PCL 6 driver for 3003, and the PCL5c driver for 3003. All do the same thing. Auto continue printing is already turned off.
In the printers error log it says 'Command error' 91: error' or 'Receiving data failed 91: error' or 92:error.
The guys that made the software did a reset to clear out any bugs, that made no difference, all the firmware is up to date. Have phoned Ricoh level 2 and they didn't have a clue and apparently just said 'contact microsoft' which clearly isn't going to help at all.
Does anyone have any ideas because the customer phones every day for it and im totally at a loss for ideas

Thanks

[Ottawatech]

Re: MPC 3003 weird printing problems

So it's ONLY with this software that the issue is occurring?

If so, I'd hook up my laptop, load up some complicated PDF/Word/Excel files, print them all and, if all goes well, essentially wash my hands and point to the software, making it clear that I'm willing to work with them to resolve things; testing etc. but that the machine/driver is not at fault and I cannot help further.

Not what you're wanting to hear I guess but...

Tim

[engineers]

Re: MPC 3003 weird printing problems

The problem with that is the fact this software worked perfectly fine with their MPC 3300 just 2 weeks. Which means as soon as I try blaming the software they will use the words engineers love to hear 'but it worked fine on the old machine'. Im going to send print jobs with SD card in so it saves the print spool to SD card by changing service mode settings and send them to Ricoh to see if they can find a fault.
I already know it can print word files and emails etc fine

[slimslob]

Re: MPC 3003 weird printing problems

The problem with that is the fact this software worked perfectly fine with their MPC 3300 just 2 weeks. Which means as soon as I try blaming the software they will use the words engineers love to hear 'but it worked fine on the old machine'. Im going to send print jobs with SD card in so it saves the print spool to SD card by changing service mode settings and send them to Ricoh to see if they can find a fault.
I already know it can print word files and emails etc fine

Have you tried reconnecting the MP C3300? The problem you describe sounds more like a network problem. If you reconnect the MP C3300 and the problem still occurs, most likely there is a problem with the network switch. They also might have something on the network causing network delays, such as a computer with a malicious application (virus, worm, etc) that is searching for other computers to infect and causing heavy network traffic.

[Sashko]

Re: MPC 3003 weird printing problems

New machines has a new controller with many features.
In your case you maybe has a trouble with function "Store and Skip Errored Job"
Set Printer Bit Switch 10-5 to "1".
If an job stopped you will see a message on operational panel.
Next jobs never add to the print queue.

[zed255]

Re: MPC 3003 weird printing problems

First, my apologies for not having any sage advice nor a magic bullet, but here's an experience I had.

I have seen a situation in which a largish client prints from a remote SAP application where items reprint over and over on MPxx03 and MPCxx03 models. Client IT says the server isn't getting a 'timely' response from the printer. This occurred following some firmware updates to correct the now infamous SC899 error caused when users print web content from IE. Timeline looked like this:

Call for SC899 > Apply firmware updates
Call for 'keeps printing' > Unable to duplicate, specific end user not available
Call for 'reprints jobs' > More detail from client and able to reproduce the fault, work with client IT, no immediate solution
Attempt to re-flash firmware and even roll-back firmware, issue remains
Attempt several resets, each more aggressive than the last up to and including SP5-801-01, issue remains
Try to eliminate or prove a hardware fault and try a different unit (MPxx02 series) for giggles and there is no fault > Now thinking hardware fault
Order small cargo vessel of parts including Controller, RAM, HDD and NVRAM (x2 NVRAM because that's how I roll) and install based on price, likelihood and ease. HDD > RAM > Controller and finally NVRAM
Upon changing NVRAM all seems OK, but firmware is out of date due to the controller change.
Update firmware and issue returns. Now I begin to think the firmware update does something to the NVRAM.
I install my second one (full manual re-input of birth certificate after proper initialization) and all was well and still is to this point in time.

I have now had two different models from the MPxx03 / MPCxx03 series do this at the same client, both following a set of firmware updates to solve an SC899 complaint where the NVRAM needed to be replaced the keep their SAP system from reprinting paperwork.

[Ottawatech]

Re: MPC 3003 weird printing problems

Great post Zed, could I ask you what happened when you tried to roll back the firmware?

Have you opened a case with Ricoh?

Tim

[zed255]

Re: MPC 3003 weird printing problems

I give up trying to feed anything back to Ricoh.

As for the roll-back, it was fine to downgrade but did not affect the symptom. Seems once firmware was updated some change / corruption of the NVRAM contents occurred and was not reversible by any means I've tried.

[Choro1dal]

Re: MPC 3003 weird printing problems

Try increasing the diprint timeout setting.

(If the print system's port monitor does not receive does not receive confirmation that the data has been received before the diprint connection terminates it will resend the job.)

This used to defaulted to 300 seconds but is now 15.

The setting can only be made in a telnet session. Once connected and logged the command is:

diprint timeout 300

Followed by

logout

Followed by

yes to save the changes.

[zed255]

Re: MPC 3003 weird printing problems

I will give that a try on my next visit, thanks for the input. I will re-install the original NVRAM and try the diprint timeout change to see what happens. Would be interesting to see if the settings are different between the working NVRAM and the one with the issue.

[zed255]

Re: MPC 3003 weird printing problems

Try increasing the diprint timeout setting.

(If the print system's port monitor does not receive does not receive confirmation that the data has been received before the diprint connection terminates it will resend the job.)

This used to defaulted to 300 seconds but is now 15.

The setting can only be made in a telnet session. Once connected and logged the command is:

diprint timeout 300

Followed by

logout

Followed by

yes to save the changes.

Ding Ding Ding! We have a winner!

Thanks for that little tidbit. It appears that updating the firmware changed the diprint timout value from 300 seconds to 15 seconds, resulting in this reprint issue on the remote server. Looks like the machine was timing out and considering the job a failure, so the server sent it again and again until a success was registered within the timeout.

[engineers]

Re: MPC 3003 weird printing problems

Ricoh got back to us and said the same thing, that the only difference he can think of with the new model of machines is the timeout is now 15 seconds instead of 300.
So sounds like you hit the nail on the head.

Cheers for the input everyone