Roland SP540v stops printing – unknown error

[NeilFox]

Simon,

What version of VersaWorks are you running now?

What printer are you using?

What version of the VersaWorks Software were you running before the update?

I had a similar problem some time back. It was when I upgraded from VersaWorks 2.7 to version 3.0.2. VersaWorks ended up hanging and the machine would come to a stop with ‘now processing’ but never did anything further. I ended up getting a CD with version 3.2 from Roland and did a clean install from the CD. I removed VersaWorks through the Add Remove Programs in Windows. I then deleted the VersaWorks folder in the Program Files folder on the hard disk. I then did the clean install and I have upgraded since and it works fine.

If you have upgraded from very early versions through to date, it could be the way the updates have been applied. Roland could not give me a reason for this situationn but Iknowa guys had a similar a problem.

Neil

[Simon Worrall]

Hi Neil
Now using 4.1.1
Printer sp540v
Dunno which version I was on before. Duh! Dunno how to find out either.
Called Roland this mornin, did a re-initialise. However the techie had not encountered this problem before.
He is sending me a full CD of latest version ( I got mine from Roland website, including patches)
Hoping for the best. Ive saved the banner job, it was double sided 7 meters long…it stopped a total of four times in all during the print, I lined up where it stopped, and removed some of the design in Illustrator, and started again from the stop point. There is only a slight colour change where the mistake happened, I will give a small discount to the customer and It will be okay, the banner will fly quite high up.

[NeilFox]

Glad the customer will get their banner.

When you reinstall, make sure you delete the versaworks folder below program files as any residual stuff can leave you with the same problem.

All the best with it.

Neil

[Kev Cringle]

Hi Simon
Just a thought do you unwind the banner as it prints ?, ive on a couple of occasions have the weight of the material pulling through the printer cause an error and stop the print, just a thought but maybe worth a mention

Kev

[Simon.James]

I have had this 4 or 5 times over the last few years

i usually delete everything to do with roland or versaworks before getting the latest version off the us. site and load a fresh new version which takes a few hours to download and it as cleared the same problem everytime.
I think it maybe to do with partioning on the pc also check the vram i am currently running versaworks on a really old pc. which was painfully slow but as soon as we put a 2gb v ramcard in (about £40) in we dont get any more problems. now and again we have bits fall off pdfs but i find versworks overall bullet proof & really good.

hope this helps

simon – Cardiff

[Simon Worrall]

Yes I unroll the banner when it prints. It just happened again while printing some canvas, and the print was only about 600mm long.

I am deleting the entire versaworks, and reloading a disk I got from roland nz.
This will be version 4. Hope for the best.

I have lots of ram, decent hard drive, I cant think of anything else. It gets expensive when it happens and is a real bummer.

[Simon.James]

hi simon

before you load the new version make sure you do a find on every bit of versworks and delete i am pretty sure it is a bad partioning problem on your pc. like i said i have had it 4 or 5 times and a complete delete as sorted it.

also check you are not using more than 75 percent of your hard drive space as this can also cause versaworks to slow up big time. the other thing to slow it right down is if you are lucky enough to be running loads of jobs regulary you could be clogging up your spooler folder.

if re-loading versaworks sorts it out i then suggest you also refragment your hard drive which will sort out any bad sectors on your disc, which i 99 percent suspect is the real problem.

another thing i would suggest is try not to download files from the net on the same pc. running vesaworks due to all the pc. viruses out there…. do you do regular virus scans – customer supplied files could also cause virus problems…

Luckly i generate all my files on a mac in illustrator so never had a virus problem.

pretty sure all this will sort out this problem.

kind regards

Simon – Wales

[Gary Birch]

I had similar issues a couple of years ago just after moving premises. After trying a multitude of things inc different pcs we ended up buying a new pc and just ran Versaworks for a trial period adding other software and adding it into the network, the only difference now being that we are on the free verison of AVG on that pc and touch wood have had no problems for about 18 months now.

In the end In the old premises the pc that ran Versaworks wasn’t on the internet so had no anti virus. When we moved I had all the pc’s reformatted and networked so put on the paid version of AVG anti virus on each. This is now the only difference between the pc running Versaworks and the 3 pcs we tried to run it through before.

I’m certainly no techie but this may be worth considering.

Cheers

Gary

[Michael Antrum]

I’ve seen this before on the SP540v and have found that this is sometimes a comms issue. You could try…

1) Upgrade the firmware on the Print server (ethernet port). You can download this from http://www.rolanddg.com.

2) Try printing with your firewall and any anti-virus/security software turned off.

2) Have a look at your network. If it is busy and/or stalling you could consider putting in a second network card into your PC and connecting directly to the printer via a cross over cable.

Hope this helps, Mike.

[Simon.James]

Hi Simon

I never thought of the comms.!???

when i have lost the comms…
i usually find a restart on the computer sorts it out, if not i have reloaded versaworks which reloads the correct port/Comms

I have lost the comms quite a few times if you remove the usb about a dozen times and put back in and listen for the ding dong noise on the hard drive. (you should have a built in speaker) if there is no interuption in the ding dong as you remove cable and put back i wouldnt suggest it is not actually a comms issue. try removing it first on the back of the pc and then on the side of the printer, to see if there is any probs.

being a mac man I personally hate pc.s cos remembering back when i had the mimaki jv3 75 running shiraz i often use to loose the comms/ port 1 sometimes as often as once a week. if i turned the pc. off. the way around it was i turned the pc on and off until it came back in the end i left the pc. on constantly for almost 2 years and the comms problem didnt return.

I have found the comms can get confused especially if you have recently loaded some new software like a desktop printer or a scanner etc. i believe to run a Roland it is best to have a dedicated P.C. that runs nothing else except Versaworks.

have a quick look at your printer prefs to see if there to many ports on the go

i would try all the easy things first before you go down the comms route. if you suspect a signal fault it could be something causing it loads of things like a voltage drop on either your computer or on the printers circuit board. both of which are unlikely. i still think the complete versaworks reload and a disc fragment will sort it out.

Simon – Cardiff

.

[Stephen Morriss]

When it happens try pinging the IP address of the printer.

In the run box on the start menu type: ping 192.168.1.150
The numbers I used need to be replaced by your printer address, this can be found in the printer status window as port.

You should get a box saying: reply from address blah blah blah

If you can ping the printer then it’s not a communication problem on the network, if you can’t then it may be a problem with your DHCP server (usually a router)

Steve

[Simon Worrall]

Okay it happened again. This after a complete re installation and upgrade of software. And doing everything people have suggested on this thread.
Called Roland again, Roland techie now says to do a disk cleanup.
I did this, and then my computer, after many hours of looking like it was doing something, finally stopped and says it cant do this any more and I cant remember what the reason was.
Might be time to call in the geeks. Its probably my system. Im getting a few other things turning up, i.e. Illustrator cant save a file for some reason, but when I save as in another format, it seems to have no problem doing this.
I guess I have a lot of stuff in there. Still have 35 Gb of space left though.

[Simon Worrall]

Okay it happened again. This after a complete re installation and upgrade of software. And doing everything people have suggested on this thread.
Called Roland again, Roland techie now says to do a disk cleanup.
I did this, and then my computer, after many hours of looking like it was doing something, finally stopped and says it cant do this any more and I cant remember what the reason was.
Might be time to call in the geeks. Its probably my system. Im getting a few other things turning up, i.e. Illustrator cant save a file for some reason, but when I save as in another format, it seems to have no problem doing this.
I guess I have a lot of stuff in there. Still have 35 Gb of space left though.

[NeilFox]

Sorry the suggestions have not sorted the issue.

Just as a matter of interest, disks should have more that 30% free to be able to drfrag etc.

It does sound like it is Geek time. Sorry.

[Gert du Preez]

I dunno if this problem is from Versaworks, or some other conflict on the PC.

At least I know it is not the printer’s fault. ( Or the operator. He’s flawless :D)

I run both a VersaArt 640 and SP540 from one pc. I occasionally get this problem, maybe 3 or 4 times this year. It happens with either printer.

It is such an infrequent occurrence I just curse, junk the print, and try again.

[Simon Worrall]

I am going to get a pc upgrade, the geek says it runs best if you put in 3 internal hard drives, and they share the load. This way you get redundancy if one fails, but the speed of operation is apparently quite markedly different.
MEANWHILE i have a large picture of mountains to wrap all over the back of a half million dollar house bus, printed on silver vinyl.
I am going to print this using the macbook, running windows, because I cant afford this to fail half way through the print. It has to be perfect. I set it up with versaworks this morning, I have done a trial print and its fine, so off we go…

[Simon Worrall]

Macbook performed FLAWLESSLY!
AND that was over a wireless connection.
I guess I might use the mac until I get the PC geeked.

[Simon Worrall]

NOOOOO!

It is now happening on the mac as well. I have tried connecting the mac to the printer using a cable of less than 1 metre. Still, it quite often simply stops printing at a random point in the job. The printer appears to be waiting for more info from the computer, but the computer thinks it is all over – the turning cogs graphic has stopped. Again, check the jpb log, Unknown error. Thats it.

It seems so random, I cannot trace anything repeatable.

The techies have nothing. They stopped knowing anything at "update your software".
I would estimate that one in four jobs does this.

If anyone has anything to add to this, I would be eternally grateful….

Simon

[NeilFox]

Simon,

Did you ever get to the bottom the issue?

Neil

[Simon Worrall]

Neil
Thank you for asking.
Funny thing, it has simply not done this for years.
Apparently at random. ❓
I did not find any reason for it, my techie couldn’t find anything wrong with the machine, or the connections, or the software.
just "one of those things".
It is well beyond my abilities to guess at the reason.
Simon.

[NeilFox]

Simon,

Thanks for the response. I was actually inquiring for the guy that purchased my SP4540V back in 2010. Its been running almost 7 years with him without issue. Only recently it started on the odd occasion to display the same symptoms you described. In checking things out, many people have had similar issues but no definitive resolution, with the exception of one, which was a replacement main board.

A tech has a spare main board that he is willing to swap in to see if that resolves it. If it does, I will post it on here.

Thanks again for the help.

Neil

[Will Doherty]

quote NeilFox:

Simon,

Thanks for the response. I was actually inquiring for the guy that purchased my SP4540V back in 2010. Its been running almost 7 years with him without issue. Only recently it started on the odd occasion to display the same symptoms you described. In checking things out, many people have had similar issues but no definitive resolution, with the exception of one, which was a replacement main board.

A tech has a spare main board that he is willing to swap in to see if that resolves it. If it does, I will post it on here.

Thanks again for the help.

Neil

Almost certainly the main board – ours started showing the same fault a few months ago, coincidentally to the op’s just after relocating it, though I moved it myself so I know it wasn’t mistreated at all.

On ours it’s temperature related, I make sure that it’s over about 21°C and the problem doesn’t occur.

It otherwise occurred on a PC and a windows laptop, whist using a router and on a direct ethernet connection (doesn’t require a crossover cable, it sorts itself out) which rules out pretty much everything else…