Posted by Mel Ladewig on October 23, 2006 at 3:27 PM
My R1800 has developed a strange issue in the last 2 months. I'm losing connectivity between the printer and the PC. I've switched USB cables. I've written Epson service, and followed their instructions for uninstalling the drivers, cleaning the registry and reinstalling to no avail. It simply works sometimes but not others (mostly not).
I'm currently using USB as my PC does not have firewire ports.
I'm thinking about trying the firewire option, but I'd need to buy a card for this (no problem). The printer came with a firewire cable. But before I go down this route, I thought I'd check on two items.
1) Has anyone had service done on an Epson printer in CO (Colorado Springs preferred, but Denver OK too)? If so, who did the work and were you happy with the outcome?
2) Has anyone had a problem of this nature resolved by switching to firewire or vice versa?
TIA
Mel-
Posted by Mitch Erwin on October 23, 2006 at 4:43 PM
This may sound silly, but I was having the same problem for awhile. What I found was that I had kept forgetting to have the picture tray open and ready before I turned my unit on.
Posted by Sean Bolton on October 23, 2006 at 5:02 PM
Are you connected via a hub which is powered from the USB cable, i.e. does not have an external power supply for the hub.
Sometimes the self powered hubs can draw more current than the USB drivers can support which leads to a loss of comms with devices connected to the hub.
Mel:
I would make sure your USB connection is connected directly into the main board on the back of the PC. Front USB ports on PC's are not very reliable and they will work intermittenly. If this happens again go to the control panel and then System, under System open Device Manager and see if you have any warning symbols on the USB ports, If you do then it is some sought of configuration problem in your system.
I would not waste my time with Firewire, it really only works well on the Mac platform and I do not think it is as reliable as a USB2.0 connection. I doubt if there is a problem with the printer.
Posted by Mel Ladewig on October 24, 2006 at 12:09 PM
The USB cable is connected directly to the main board on the PC, not through a hub or front port anything. I am using a single monster cable, I think 10ft. I have switched out to other new cables with no greater amount of luck. I'll check the device manager, but I'm not having any problems with my other USB devices including another printer and a card reader. Thanks to Marty for the heads up about firewire.
The unit has been turned on, with paper loaded and ready to print. I'm not sure that is the problem. I've had this printer well over a year and never had any issue with anything before regarding the order the printer is turned on and paper loaded.
This communication error is happening whether I'm trying to print or not. If I open the status monitor (Status Monitor 3), it has to look for the printer for a while. It finds it eventually and displays the ink levels. Then the ink bars will go gray and it displays "Communication Error" on the header. This will happen if I'm trying to print, or just open the status monitor to view the ink levels.
Anyways, I've gone through a few steps with Epson support and I'll keep talking with them.
Posted by Les Barstow on October 24, 2006 at 2:34 PM
Here's a tidbit to follow on with... Make sure your USB cable isn't crossing over power cables or other high-interference items (fluorescent light ballasts, etc...).
And of course there's the standard question: did you add any devices to your system relatively soon before you started seeing problems? And finally - have you tried switching USB ports on your computer? It sounds like you've done most of the standard troubleshooting already - just thought I'd throw those in there "just in case". You're not using a cheap cable, and although I'm not terribly fond of 10' USB cables, they're still well within spec. Good luck.
I used an Epson repair service in Denver (referred to me by Epson Customer Support) and was extremely pleased with the turnaround and service.
Posted by Mel Ladewig on October 24, 2006 at 3:37 PM
Les,
Do you know who the company in Denver was?
I've tried multiple ports and multiple cables. I have 4 on the back and 2 on the front. All have the intermittent com issue. The cable is not coiled and does not cross over high RF producing elements that I'm aware of. I've not added any hardware recently. I'm fairly certain that the issue is not with the driver, the cable or the USB ports on the PC, though I'll check the PC again when I get home.
Posted by Les Barstow on October 24, 2006 at 5:31 PM
Sounds like you were pretty thorough. I can't remember the name of the shop; it was off of Colorado from the I-25 exit, but I can't remember the company name or exact location. Epson doesn't provide an authorized service shop list on their website to remind me, either...
Mel:
This may sound a little radical, but you may want to try deleting all the USB connections from devise manager and then re-booting. When you do that it will re-install new USB connections As it is booting up. Your actually reconfiguring all your ports. This may require re-installing your printer drivers also.
Before you do that you may want to delete the status monitor and then re-boot. You had mentioned that the status monitor goes blank before it looses communication.
Posted by Todd Caudle on November 3, 2006 at 8:23 PM
Hey Mel, is your printer printing maybe an inch of the paper, and then spitting it out and giving you the communication error message? If so, mine is doing the exact same thing. Sounds like we got the same response from Epson. I've uninstalled and re-installed the printer driver twice, and each time I get a print or two out, and then the same thing happens. I was running off a firewire connection, but switched to a usb port. Since doing so I haven't had a glitch, but I figure, with a huge, multi-print job pending, it's inevitable that the problem will return when I can least afford it to. I'll let you know if I figure anything out, please do the same.
Posted by Mel Ladewig on November 9, 2006 at 12:27 AM
Todd, that is basically what is happening. It sounds like you got the same tech response. I'm thinking about uninstalling and going back to the first drivers. I took the printer to MCT in Colorado Springs and they flashed the EPROM and returned it. They got several good prints out of it in their office. When I brought it home... Blammo. The other option was to replace the main board and reprogram the printer. It would cost ~$300, so I'll go down that route if I can't find any other solutions.
So now, I'm thinking there is some sort of internal issue related to the printing cue that I need to resolve. I'm on USB, and like I said, I thought about going to firewire. All of the USB ports are reporting that they are OK and I'm using devices on a couple of them. I've swapped everything around and it does not appear that there is a bad port.
BTW, I also have an HP printer installed on this desktop, and I've been having lots of problems with its software at shutdown. However, the printer is printing fine.
Posted by Mel Ladewig on November 9, 2006 at 12:48 AM
Some reading indicated that switching the cable used would result in the use of a different driver in these printers. That may explain why everything is playing nice for you at the moment.
Posted by Les Barstow on November 9, 2006 at 7:28 PM
Correct - switching between USB and Firewire will at least nominally change the driver or driver chain.
That could also be an indication of a bad port on the printer...
Posted by Mel Ladewig on November 11, 2006 at 12:17 AM
Les, I'd thought about that, but it appears from some testing that I've had done that the printer is functioning normally. I'm thinking that there is a problem with my PC. I don't think its the USB ports in and of themselves, but I'm now trying to work out whether it is a software or hardware issue.
I've run some jobs to stop, clear and restart the print spoolers. No luck on that front yet.
I've noticed that when I try to print, my system usage is pegging at 100% and that my print problems are no longer limited to the R1800, though the R1800 is facing more sever problems. Anyways, I'm continuing to research and work on the problem.
Posted by Mel Ladewig on November 13, 2006 at 12:52 PM
Solved!
At least I've got the printer working again. I took three actions.
1) stop the print spooler. A coworker helped me find a tool for this [url=http://www.bradkovach.com/2006/printflush/] Brad Kovach Print Flush [url], but you can also use the command net stop spooler in the command line.
2) remove all in one HP printer and all its software. This isn't a permanent solution, but the printer had some automatic update software that was always in error, and simply did not perform all that well. I need to get its most recent drivers and software from HP.
3) defrag the hard drive. The print spooler needs a large continuous block of space on the hard driver for large printer files. Windows defrag consolidated file fragments, but did not clean the drive very well. A coworker recommended O and O deframenter. It did a much better job and consolidated the drive to a much smaller amount of space. My OS hard drive is an 80GB model with approximately 40GB in use. I have an additional hard drive for data and an Network storage system for additional information.
Of these steps, I suspect that 1 and 3 were the most important and critical to my success.
Mel-
Posted by Les Barstow on November 19, 2006 at 3:21 AM
Things you never knew: the print spooler needs contiguous space. Who'da thunk it?
I also highly recommend O&O Defragmenter; it does in 1/4 the time of a single Windows defrag what it takes the Windows defrag tool about 4 complete passes to approach. It also has options on how to arrange the defragged files - very nice.
Congratulations on attaining a once-more-working R1800!
Discussion
15 repliesI'm currently using USB as my PC does not have firewire ports.
I'm thinking about trying the firewire option, but I'd need to buy a card for this (no problem). The printer came with a firewire cable. But before I go down this route, I thought I'd check on two items.
1) Has anyone had service done on an Epson printer in CO (Colorado Springs preferred, but Denver OK too)? If so, who did the work and were you happy with the outcome?
2) Has anyone had a problem of this nature resolved by switching to firewire or vice versa?
TIA
Mel-
Sometimes the self powered hubs can draw more current than the USB drivers can support which leads to a loss of comms with devices connected to the hub.
Just a thought, not had a problem with my R1800.
cheers
Sean
I would make sure your USB connection is connected directly into the main board on the back of the PC. Front USB ports on PC's are not very reliable and they will work intermittenly. If this happens again go to the control panel and then System, under System open Device Manager and see if you have any warning symbols on the USB ports, If you do then it is some sought of configuration problem in your system.
I would not waste my time with Firewire, it really only works well on the Mac platform and I do not think it is as reliable as a USB2.0 connection. I doubt if there is a problem with the printer.
The unit has been turned on, with paper loaded and ready to print. I'm not sure that is the problem. I've had this printer well over a year and never had any issue with anything before regarding the order the printer is turned on and paper loaded.
This communication error is happening whether I'm trying to print or not. If I open the status monitor (Status Monitor 3), it has to look for the printer for a while. It finds it eventually and displays the ink levels. Then the ink bars will go gray and it displays "Communication Error" on the header. This will happen if I'm trying to print, or just open the status monitor to view the ink levels.
Anyways, I've gone through a few steps with Epson support and I'll keep talking with them.
And of course there's the standard question: did you add any devices to your system relatively soon before you started seeing problems? And finally - have you tried switching USB ports on your computer? It sounds like you've done most of the standard troubleshooting already - just thought I'd throw those in there "just in case". You're not using a cheap cable, and although I'm not terribly fond of 10' USB cables, they're still well within spec. Good luck.
I used an Epson repair service in Denver (referred to me by Epson Customer Support) and was extremely pleased with the turnaround and service.
Do you know who the company in Denver was?
I've tried multiple ports and multiple cables. I have 4 on the back and 2 on the front. All have the intermittent com issue. The cable is not coiled and does not cross over high RF producing elements that I'm aware of. I've not added any hardware recently. I'm fairly certain that the issue is not with the driver, the cable or the USB ports on the PC, though I'll check the PC again when I get home.
This may sound a little radical, but you may want to try deleting all the USB connections from devise manager and then re-booting. When you do that it will re-install new USB connections As it is booting up. Your actually reconfiguring all your ports. This may require re-installing your printer drivers also.
Before you do that you may want to delete the status monitor and then re-boot. You had mentioned that the status monitor goes blank before it looses communication.
So now, I'm thinking there is some sort of internal issue related to the printing cue that I need to resolve. I'm on USB, and like I said, I thought about going to firewire. All of the USB ports are reporting that they are OK and I'm using devices on a couple of them. I've swapped everything around and it does not appear that there is a bad port.
BTW, I also have an HP printer installed on this desktop, and I've been having lots of problems with its software at shutdown. However, the printer is printing fine.
That could also be an indication of a bad port on the printer...
I've run some jobs to stop, clear and restart the print spoolers. No luck on that front yet.
I've noticed that when I try to print, my system usage is pegging at 100% and that my print problems are no longer limited to the R1800, though the R1800 is facing more sever problems. Anyways, I'm continuing to research and work on the problem.
At least I've got the printer working again. I took three actions.
1) stop the print spooler. A coworker helped me find a tool for this [url=http://www.bradkovach.com/2006/printflush/] Brad Kovach Print Flush [url], but you can also use the command net stop spooler in the command line.
2) remove all in one HP printer and all its software. This isn't a permanent solution, but the printer had some automatic update software that was always in error, and simply did not perform all that well. I need to get its most recent drivers and software from HP.
3) defrag the hard drive. The print spooler needs a large continuous block of space on the hard driver for large printer files. Windows defrag consolidated file fragments, but did not clean the drive very well. A coworker recommended O and O deframenter. It did a much better job and consolidated the drive to a much smaller amount of space. My OS hard drive is an 80GB model with approximately 40GB in use. I have an additional hard drive for data and an Network storage system for additional information.
Of these steps, I suspect that 1 and 3 were the most important and critical to my success.
Mel-
I also highly recommend O&O Defragmenter; it does in 1/4 the time of a single Windows defrag what it takes the Windows defrag tool about 4 complete passes to approach. It also has options on how to arrange the defragged files - very nice.
Congratulations on attaining a once-more-working R1800!