Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Epson 4000 Prints SO SLOW With Large Quantity Jobs  (Read 3177 times)

GamutGirl

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 37
Epson 4000 Prints SO SLOW With Large Quantity Jobs
« on: October 26, 2007, 10:34:16 am »

We recently received a refurbished Epson 4000 to replace our broken 4000 a few months ago. Unfortunately, whenever we send multiple jobs to the printer, it slows down significantly after the third or fourth print. The first print will come out super fast, but with each subsequent print, the speed would drop tremendously. After the fourth print, it usually drops down to half speed and by the sixth job, the print head is pausing at each end for half a second! My 8.5x11 prints are taking as long as 15 minutes to come out!


We are printing to the printer through the network and are working in an all-Mac environment. We use ImagePrint as our RIP, but noticed that the slow down issue occurs when using both ImagePrint and printing directly to the printer. I've called Epson service and they insist its either a driver issue or an OS issue. I've duplicated the slow down issue on 3 different computers and have made sure all the drivers/firmware for everything is up to date. I disagree with Epson and believe its a problem with the printer.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to resolve this slow down issue on my Epson 4000?

Thanks!
Logged

Malcolm Payne

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 189
Epson 4000 Prints SO SLOW With Large Quantity Jobs
« Reply #1 on: October 26, 2007, 11:21:16 am »

I'm not familiar with the 4000 specifically, but does it use a plug-in EpsonNet Print Server card to connect to the network? If you're using one supplied with your refurbished printer, try an alternative card if possible; I had major head pausing problems with my original (new) Epson 9000 that, after a couple of years of absolute frustration, were finally diagnosed as a faulty print server. I sent the original server card back to Epson who were able to reproduce the symptoms but could not explain the cause; it was by then long out of guarantee but as a gesture of goodwill they replaced it with a later refurbished card and I had no further problems.

It might be worth investigating further in that direction if you've tried everything else.

Regards,
Logged

GamutGirl

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 37
Epson 4000 Prints SO SLOW With Large Quantity Jobs
« Reply #2 on: October 26, 2007, 02:59:29 pm »

Quote
I'm not familiar with the 4000 specifically, but does it use a plug-in EpsonNet Print Server card to connect to the network? If you're using one supplied with your refurbished printer, try an alternative card if possible; I had major head pausing problems with my original (new) Epson 9000 that, after a couple of years of absolute frustration, were finally diagnosed as a faulty print server. I sent the original server card back to Epson who were able to reproduce the symptoms but could not explain the cause; it was by then long out of guarantee but as a gesture of goodwill they replaced it with a later refurbished card and I had no further problems.

It might be worth investigating further in that direction if you've tried everything else.

Regards,
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=148841\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


Malcolm,

Thanks for the great advice! I'll switch the cards out with a known working printer and test your theory.
Logged

GamutGirl

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 37
Epson 4000 Prints SO SLOW With Large Quantity Jobs
« Reply #3 on: November 14, 2007, 05:04:04 pm »

Quote
Malcolm,

Thanks for the great advice! I'll switch the cards out with a known working printer and test your theory.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=148878\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


So, switching the cards doesn't work. I've tried printing high-speed in the printer settings, which supposedly enables bi-directional printing, but it still prints so slow after the third print.

Does anyone else have any suggestions?


Just to note: the printer recently went out of warranty, so I can't just call Epson anymore.
Logged

Malcolm Payne

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 189
Epson 4000 Prints SO SLOW With Large Quantity Jobs
« Reply #4 on: November 15, 2007, 07:24:42 am »

Quote
So, switching the cards doesn't work. I've tried printing high-speed in the printer settings, which supposedly enables bi-directional printing, but it still prints so slow after the third print.

Does anyone else have any suggestions?
Just to note: the printer recently went out of warranty, so I can't just call Epson anymore.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=152847\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
The only other suggestion I can come up with is a possible spooling problem - I've had intermittent random head pausing occur on my Encad as well as the Epson, but that's on a PC that's currently running the OS, RIP, paging, temp and spool files all from the one physical 7200rpm IDE hard drive, which is definitely less than ideal and is probably confusing the heck out of the drive. The fact that you've duplicated the same behaviour on three separate machines would have ruled that out as a probable cause though, I'd have thought.
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up