It sounds like a Versaworks limitation, or else he literally has no space left on his drive. It doesn't matter how big the INPUT file is-- the ripped file is going to be at whatever resolution he's using to print (since it actually has to set a 1 or a 0 for every pixel of the printer resolution per channel), so if that were, say, 720x720, it's going to make a 720dpi output file with however many channels he has in his machine. So if it's creating 1-bit per channel, assuming CMYK, that would be ~4.6GB. This accounts for 4 bitmaps created at whatever halftoning method the rip is using, which are the data fed directly into the printer.
If he's got Lc, and Lm, you can add another 2.34gb on to that. Then 1.17gb per channel for any other channels he might have set up (R,G,B,O, etc.). If it's a variable-dot setup (2bit-per-channel) then those sizes will be doubled. So i think it's safe to say his EQ is choking on this file. If you NEED to talk to him more, tell him to reduce the print mode resolution to it's lowest and see if it'll go then (usually that would be somewhere around 360x360dpi).