Pages: [1] 2   Go Down

Author Topic: What the heck is this!?  (Read 7725 times)

Mike Guilbault

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1040
    • Mike Guilbault Photography
What the heck is this!?
« on: February 16, 2013, 09:48:09 am »

Part way through a print - what happened?
Logged
Mike Guilbault

Paul2660

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4066
    • Photos of Arkansas
Re: What the heck is this!?
« Reply #1 on: February 16, 2013, 10:23:10 am »

Looks like a error in the printer spooler, not sure if you are on mac or win.  As the print continued below the error, I don't think it's a head strike or paper error, looks more like data. 

As you just installed the printer, you might consider reloading the driver. 

What is your setup, network or usb, mac or win, and what were you printing from rip or LR or CS?

Paul Caldwell
Logged
Paul Caldwell
Little Rock, Arkansas U.S.
www.photosofarkansas.com

Mike Guilbault

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1040
    • Mike Guilbault Photography
Re: What the heck is this!?
« Reply #2 on: February 16, 2013, 01:08:09 pm »

This is the 2nd time this has happened, but lots of prints in between with no other problems.  I'm on a MacPro, latest OS and the 9900 is connected via network (ethernet).  Printing from LR, current version.
Logged
Mike Guilbault

hugowolf

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1001
Re: What the heck is this!?
« Reply #3 on: February 16, 2013, 01:26:22 pm »

Looks like a spooling problem to me too. Were you runinng a lot of other apps at the same time?

Brian A
Logged

bill t.

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3011
    • http://www.unit16.net
Re: What the heck is this!?
« Reply #4 on: February 16, 2013, 04:41:32 pm »

Does it happen with just that file?  I recently had a file that somehow had a "cancel print" command embedded in the file, and a few years ago another file that would cause several colors to stop working until the computer was rebooted.  Doesn't happen often, and I agree that looks like a data issue.  Cleared up both of mine by reverting to older edits of the images.

Are you hooked up USB or network?  Could heavy, unrelated network traffic in the background might cause a glitch?  Maybe a cable with an intermittent hardware issue, or a flaky router or switch, or something like that.  Did you get up and move around about the time the glitch occurred, might have been a static zap to the cable.

Have also had the end of the media come off the roll, and then reattach itself to the core adhesive with the print side of the media, which is a very strong bond and causes a smeared effect because the media can't advance.

Wicked lookin' image, whatever else.
Logged

aaronchan

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 617
Re: What the heck is this!?
« Reply #5 on: February 16, 2013, 07:30:35 pm »

try to use a USB instead of network lan cable.
USB is million times more stable than the network connection.

aaron

darlingm

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 361
    • Westland Printworks
Re: What the heck is this!?
« Reply #6 on: February 16, 2013, 08:34:27 pm »

Try running a memory test.  A memory module with a small defect can casue odd data corruption.  Especially if your system exhibits other oddities, strange crashes, etc.  I think memtest86+ (memtest.org) runs on Intel CPU based Macs, not sure if you have one of those... I'm a PC guy.
Logged
Mike • Westland Printworks
Fine Art Printing • Amazing Artwork Reproduction • Photography
http://www.westlandprintworks.com • (734) 255-9761

Mike Guilbault

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1040
    • Mike Guilbault Photography
Re: What the heck is this!?
« Reply #7 on: February 16, 2013, 10:09:24 pm »

the 9900 is the only thing connected via the network.  I do run quite a few apps at the same time and I was probably doing something else while it was spooling out.  I'm the only one in the building so wouldn't be anyone else interfering.  I can't use USB because the printer is further away from the computer and on the opposite side of the room. I printed the file again with no problem so it can't be in the file itself.  I guess I'll monitor what I'm doing the next time it happens.  Just wanted to see if anyone else ran across this and knew a definite cause.
Logged
Mike Guilbault

Garnick

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1229
Re: What the heck is this!?
« Reply #8 on: February 16, 2013, 11:13:30 pm »

Hi Mike,

Just a quick suggestion.  Since I first started running the 9900 three years ago I've been using extended USB cables.  They're not just the usual extension cable.  There's a contraption on the female end that I believe boosts the signal somewhat before passing it along.  I could be wrong about that, but what I do know is that it works.  For the past two years I've been using 3-5 metre cables joined together, plus a 2 metre cable at the printer end, with absolutely no problem.  I've done several tests with one 2 meter cable and there is no difference at all between that and the 3 extension cables.  All of this to say that you can cover a 15 metre plus distance very nicely with these cables, should you want to try that method.  The cables can be purchased at Canada Computers, haven't checked anywhere else.  Hope this helps

Gary 
Logged
Gary N.
"My memory isn't what it used to be. As a matter of fact it never was." (gan)

BrianWJH

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 286
Re: What the heck is this!?
« Reply #9 on: February 17, 2013, 12:24:41 am »

USB is million times more stable than the network connection.

aaron

Not in my experience, good quality cat5/6 cabling is more reliable and faster than piggybacked usb cabling.
Logged

enduser

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 610
Re: What the heck is this!?
« Reply #10 on: February 17, 2013, 06:17:46 am »

The best improvement in speed was when we upgraded to a 4 core processor.  Some of our Qimage files are around the 1Gigabyte size, but we get quick and reliable results using USB with a booster cable.
Logged

Justan

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1928
    • Justan-Elk.com
Re: What the heck is this!?
« Reply #11 on: February 17, 2013, 10:46:43 am »

I don’t think the problem is be due to the network. Ethernet (tcp/ip) does error detection and correction http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Error_detection_and_correction as described on layer 4 of the OSI model http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/OSI_Layers.asp and due to this while it’s possible, it’s unlikely that corrupt packets would not be caught at the destination NIC - unless the destination was the problem. But we have no evidence of that because the error is intermittent.

I had a case where a defective video adapter was squirting more or less random data to the wrong ports and that created a variety of print related problems. Not saying this is due to video but only that something is probably writing to the data stream while the print output is being created. It could be, for example a faulty drive or device driver.

Can you print from a different machine or can you create a print file and print through qimage or similar? If the problem becomes easy to duplicate then tracking it down is pretty quick.

BTW what some others are referring to by way of a USB extension is known as an active USB extension. USB does error correction in about the same way that tcp/ip does and USB 2 is about half the speed of gigabit Ethernet. Don’t know if USB 3 is faster than gigabit Ethernet, but it could be.

Bob Smith

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 83
    • http://www.accurateimage.org
Re: What the heck is this!?
« Reply #12 on: February 17, 2013, 08:14:46 pm »

I'm seen exactly that on a 9890 and 9900... more on the 9900... but that's probably because its older and self cleans more.  It happens when a print job (usually the first after a long idle period) is interrupted by a longer than normal self check/clean process before the actual print starts.  The print will complete normally but there will be a stripe of misplaced data near the leading edge of the print.  I really think (what I'm seeing at least) is a firmware glitch.  Network problems or bad cables could probably cause something similar as well... but I've seen this often enough on different printers/computers in the situation described above to think that its just a software bug.

Bob Smith
Logged

Mike Guilbault

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1040
    • Mike Guilbault Photography
Re: What the heck is this!?
« Reply #13 on: February 17, 2013, 10:35:37 pm »

the print was made after the printer was idle for a few days and I do believe there was a cleaning cycle happening just before the print started.  I suppose some corrupt data could've been sent along the pipeline from other work I was doing on the computer waiting for the cleaning cycle to finish.  I made half a dozen prints this afternoon with none of those problems, although a few other problems evolved.

The printer stopped about 1/3 of the way into a print. No error messages or anything - just dead stop.  I turned it off and on again, and then it said that the paper wasn't loaded even though it was.  I think when it was trying to load, it 'saw' the partially printed image and for some reason didn't read that there was paper.  I tried reloading quite a few times, then tried a different roll.  After shutting down/restarting a few times, it finally took.  When I tried the original roll again, it wouldn't load... not until I manually cut the partial image off the roll, restarted the printer and tried again. It took almost an hour to get it working again, but when it started, it worked fine for those half dozen prints.

At one of the restarts, I got the out of ink warning (not just the low ink) on ALL the colours - something like what John had in another thread.  A restart cleared that error though. 

When it works.. it works great.  And not one clog during this whole process!  Just frustrating that I had to jump through hoops and waste an hour getting it to work.  I hope it's not like this all the time and once my volume picks up (always slow at this time of year) that it just works.
Logged
Mike Guilbault

Justan

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1928
    • Justan-Elk.com
Re: What the heck is this!?
« Reply #14 on: February 18, 2013, 12:56:15 am »

Forgive this, but is this model, per chance, the same model printer Bill refers to as Mistress Betty?

Seriously, if these problems persist at all get in touch with Epson support.

Mike Guilbault

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1040
    • Mike Guilbault Photography
Re: What the heck is this!?
« Reply #15 on: February 18, 2013, 09:07:38 am »

I want to see what happens when the starter cartridges are replaced... but if I still have problems then I may just do that.  And yes, I do believe this is a Mistress Betty!
Logged
Mike Guilbault

John Caldwell

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 704
Re: What the heck is this!?
« Reply #16 on: February 18, 2013, 09:19:58 am »

When it works.. it works great.  And not one clog during this whole process!  Just frustrating that I had to jump through hoops and waste an hour getting it to work.  I hope it's not like this all the time and once my volume picks up (always slow at this time of year) that it just works.

Readily I'll have to admit that between the two of us, I am a little unnerved, Mike. We'll have to see as we move forward I guess.

John-
Logged

jferrari

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 484
Re: What the heck is this!?
« Reply #17 on: February 18, 2013, 11:18:52 am »

Hi Mike! <comedy> What you've got there is the result of Epson's new PEE feature. (Printer Embellished Enhancement) Available only on the X900 series printers, any time the printer thinks your image maybe a bit dull, bland, lifeless or boring it will use this proprietary feature to instantly turn your work into a true masterpiece! </comedy>

<toilet humor> So now you can say "This image looks like PEE!" </toilet humor>    - Jim
Logged
Nothing changes until something changes.

Mike Guilbault

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1040
    • Mike Guilbault Photography
Re: What the heck is this!?
« Reply #18 on: February 18, 2013, 11:28:38 pm »

I'll have to look that feature up in the manual Jim. ;)

Went into the studio this afternoon to try some more printing - two beautiful prints with no hiccups and no clogs.  One was in the Epson's Advance B&W mode with a very neutral B&W. Quite impressed as I hadn't tried this before.

Keep thinking positive John!
Logged
Mike Guilbault

Kanvas Keepsakes

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 341
Re: What the heck is this!?
« Reply #19 on: February 21, 2013, 12:50:41 am »

Same thing was happening to me on my ipf8300 using CAT5 to my router.  One day just started messing up in between prints similar to this.  I went USB and has been working like a charm
Logged
Pages: [1] 2   Go Up