Desperate help needed

[Colin-T]

Hi Gary,
I think I have spotted your posts about this and remember thinking it was going to be a problem with the power management on the PC, but its clear you have exhausted that. Connect the machine back up to a network where you can connect OK. But I’m afraid you will have to try the machine again until it falls over,……..but this time when it fails and you have the processing notification, from a different PC on the network, use the "ping" command and try to ping the printer directly. Just lets see if it responds then go from there.

[Gary Birch]

Colin
Thanks for your reply. Sorry for sounding dumb but what do you mean "ping command"?

Thanks

Gary

[Mark Elvidge]

cmd promt or dos
type ping 192.168.1.123 where numbers are your ip address

[Colin-T]

No Problem
Go to "Start", then "Run", type in "cmd" then enter.
This brings up a dos window
type exactly how you see this, but remember to replace the bogus ip address with the one for your printer install. don’t use the exclamation marks but notice there is a single space after the word "ping"
"ping 000.000.000.000"

you will have to wait for the printer to fail again, sorry about the loss of ink etc but you need to try this as the machine is hanging

[Gary Birch]

Mark
Thanks mate. Do you have any other ideas what this could be?

As you know I ain’t got much hair left and I’m pulling it out faster by the day.

Cheers

Gary

[David Rowland]

sounds like a case of power management… or screen saves or machine is not set to "always on" settings

[Gary Birch]

Thanks Colin
That isn’t a problem as I left it hanging when I came home tonight so will be able to try this when I get in in the morning or do I need to do i as soon as it does it??

Thanks again

Gary

[Gary Birch]

Dave
Screen saver is set to never.

Cheers

Gary

[Colin-T]

If you test this first, the result will tell. If it comes back saying OK and is communicating all should be well and it may be something on the PC but it sounds unlikely as it sounds like all this has been suggested before, and the engineer you had would surely have spotted that. If it comes back and is not communicating at that point (It should) this means there is something probably wrong with the network board in the printer.

Try this one first and see what throws up, this will be a solid starting point

[Andrew Blackett]

Have you got the pc and versacamm installed on a surge protector? We used to have this with our old 600 until we installed it on a surge protector. Just a thought……

Andy

[Gary Birch]

Colin
Thanks for you help. Will I be ok to do this in the morning or will I need to do it from a freshly stopped job?

Andy
No I haven’t got surge protectors on anything but if this is a possible cause will go and get some in the morning.

As I have said I have tried all sorts and still suffer the same issue so i am willing to try all.

Thanks all for your help.

Gary

[Andrew Blackett]

We’ve got the pc and versacamm on one 6 socket belkin protector. As I say I’d hate to get your hopes up and it not be the case….. I do remember though that before printmax sent an engineer to install our Verscamm that we had to have the pc etc and machine in position all hooked up on a surge protector, so perhaps theres something to it.

Andy

[Gary Birch]

Andy
Is this the kind of thing I need ?? As we have a screwfix just round the corner

http://www.screwfix.com/prods/25276/Ele … OR-_-25276

Cheers

Gary

[Colin-T]

No it doesnt have to be now or fresh, basically you should always get the message back from the printer that it is communicating in all states. So if it comes back and says reply from 000.000.000.000 destination host unreachable, the network board in the printer has failed (this can be replaced)
It should come back and say something like Reply from 000.000.000.000: bytes32 time<1ms TTL=64

It is comes back unreachable, you know whats wrong then,……hope this isnt too "Geeky", but it really easy to do

[Colin-T]

A Surge protector is never a bad idea,……..I think anything that can minimize potential damage is good. I have seen printers damaged that didn’t have one

[Gary Birch]

Thanks Colin
If I hadn’t been on the Vino I’d go see now but will run it in the morning.

Thanks for all your help on this one guys.

Cheers

Gary

[Andrew Blackett]

quote Gary Birch:

Andy
Is this the kind of thing I need ?? As we have a screwfix just round the corner

http://www.screwfix.com/prods/25276/Ele … OR-_-25276

Cheers

Gary

That looks fine to me Gary
Andy

[Gary Birch]

Colin
Doh …. Ive just realised that it is still running off the network with a stand alone printer.

Can i run the same test with this pc?

Cheers

Gary

[Colin-T]

Not really, as if you run from another PC on the network, your eliminating the PC that’s driving it also. There would still be doubt,……..it would be best to try the clinical method. You could try plugging it into the network while its stumbling, and run the test but I would rather there was no doubt before I scare you with suggestions of parts and engineers.

Sorry but this is the safest approach to get a definitive result.

[Mark Elvidge]

Gary, just had a thought……

you can update the firmware on the network board also. i will call you tommorow to talk you through it.

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=7677 … 9ca275cd0c

is the FW

[Gary Birch]

Ok then. At least we have a plan.

I am awaiting a deliveryof banner vinyl which will probably be there for 10 – 10.30 so will go and but some surge protectors before that and reconnect to the network. Hopefully it won’t happen (because of the surge protectors) but if it does I know what to do.

Thanks again for your help.

Gary

[Mark Elvidge]

unzip, run the exe, open internet explorer, type in ip address of printer, should see firmware update,browse to file upload.

worth a try.

[Colin-T]

Well worth a try I think, sometimes the firmware for the boards corrupts and loses communication with the network, reloading the firmware can give it a shake,…..

[Gary Birch]

Thanks Mark

Will speak to you tomorrow then.

Gary

[Mark Elvidge]

Gary the last post was purely the FW for the network board.

below is the latest 6.9 FW for the printer. it has a self installer and is very easy to do.

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=7677 … 9ca275cd0c

[Gary Birch]

Ok Mark
Will install both these before I set it printing.

Cheers

Gary

[Gary Birch]

I have now got a surge protection on both the printer and the PC and have downloaded the files Mark gave links to and typed in the ip address of the printer which has brought up a Roland page. The thing is I don’t see a Firmware update.

Under the Actions section I have either restart or Default settings.

Can anyone help what I do next?

Thanks in advance

Gary

[Colin-T]

Hi there, unzip the files that Mark gave you into some location on your computer. Then from the firmware update widow, navigate to the file and select it. Or as I remember he was ringing you today, you could speak to him on it.

[Gary Birch]

Colin
I have the files on my desktop ready to go and have the ip address in Internet Explorer. I have left a message on his phone but still waiting for his call back. There is no Firmware update option I can see.

Just under the Action section Restart or Default Settings. Is it either of these??

Thanks

Gary

[Colin-T]

If its able to update, there will be an entry saying update, if its not there you will need to go to my advice and see if its responding to ping

[Gary Birch]

Colin
At the minute the printer is printing, I thought I’d try and see if the Surge controller was the cause. As yet we have printed approx 5m without a problem but going on past history that doesn’t mean anything.

If there is no update option does that mean I have the latest firmware??

Sorry if I sound a tad dim lol

Cheers

Gary

[Colin-T]

No problem, no if there isnt an "Update" heading it means the firmware cant be up dated.
But wait and see if it falls over, I hope its been fixed so cheaply that would be great.
But if it falls over, try my method from another PC on the network and post up the results, if it cant be updated and doesnt respond to ping in its "hanging" state, it needs a new network board fitted.

[Gary Birch]

Thanks Colin.
I too hope that it is this but only time will tell I guess.

All I know is that I need to get it sorted as it is really holding us up at the moment, and costing us a fortune in wasted ink and media.

Cheers

Gary

[Andrew Blackett]

Did that banner finish printing then Gary?, my fingers are crossed on your behalf 😉

Andy

[Ian Jenkin]

I do feel for you mate, I’ve been there before, wasting so much time and money on a "brainfart" by your trusty printer.

Hopefully, as Andy said, you got sorted in the end?

[Mark Elvidge]

hi gary, been training in sheffield today so not been able to get to phone.

i am pretty sure i read somewhere that updating the printer fw also does the network board but cant be sure.

[Gary Birch]

Hi all
Very Very Cautious about this but I think the power surge may have been the problem. The 10m banner finished and we have also printed approx 5m of vinyl too. I am trying not to be too excited as we have tried all sorts in the past which looked like they had worked but we haven’t had an run this long without fault.

Mark
It didnt give the option of firmware update as per you screenshot so as Colin said I can only assume all is ok.

I will keep you informed as we have a fair bit of print to do before the end of the week including 3 x 6m banners so it will be a fair test.

I can only reiterate my appreciation for all the help on this one guys I owe you all a pint if and when I see you.

Thanks again

Gary

[Gary Birch]

Me and my big mouth. 2 metres into first banner and it stopped. I pinged it from a different pc on the network as suggested and then spoke to Mark who says this was ok. I have now updated the firmware from version 6.5 to 6.9 and set it going again so fingers crossed.

Just thought I’d update.

Gary

[Andrew Blackett]

Sounds like you’re finding a solution eventually Gary, nice one ;O)

Andy

[Ryan]

We have 3 rolands and have this problem on all of them at some stage. My thought is the PC is in some way being interrupted by all the rubbish updates these programs try to run e.g. virus protectors/spam/even windows update. Solution in all cases was to run the PCs in safe mode with networking enabled this solved the problem all the time and we now use the PCs in safe mode like this all the time. Its a PC for running the printer after all, why bother with the other bits full windows offers. VW works fine in SM.

[Gary Birch]

Ryan
Thanks for the input. I have been delaying responding here to find till I can be sure it is solved.

After approx 3 months of the problem re- occuring and having tried almost everything that to solve it, network cable, network, different pc, almost every conceivable part on the printer including all the circuit boards.

I finally decided to buy a brand new pc and have just Versaworks running on it, for now it is a stand alone pc and isn’t networked. For almost 2 weeks it has run problem free. So in this instance I think it was a pc issue, either conflicting software or as you said updates that run in the background which caused it to stop the printer.

In any case I am very cautiously and very very quietly saying(in case Rolands have ears :lol1: ) that the problem seems to be sorted.

If it is sorted I’d like to say a thanks to all who helped or tried to.

Cheers

Gary

[Unknown Member]

We had a similar problem with ours and its turned out our network card was damaged and also the updates needed doing.

Although its working fine i’ve been thinking about putting this on a fresh system with just VV like yourself to avoid any damage or stopping in jobs in the future.

Where did you purchase your computer from?

[Gary Birch]

Had tried the network card on the pc, tried the network board on the printer. The only thing we didn’t change were the castors it stands on.

Ended up buying one of these

http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.a … id=bun2022

Cheers

Gary

[Unknown Member]

Gary,

Thanks for that buddy, will investigate the machines further…..