Sp-540v Stops Mid Print

[jsalda]

During a long run, the printer will just stop printing and the display on the printer says "Now Processing" and it just stays there. I have to shut off via the sub-power and bring it back up. VersaWorks shows the job go through completion and doesn't provide any errors.

This happened last year and I took the back off that covered the boards and everything ran fine, so it seemed to be a heat issue. The local Roland tech diagnosed it as a bad servo board and replaced it, to which everything ran fine up until now.

So the question is, is it really the servo board going out again? If it is, what is the underlying cause that is making these boards go out?

This just started happening at the end of the day, so I will removed the back cover in the morning and see if we can run uninterrupted. But any further diagnostic recommendations are greatly appreciated.

EDIT: Forgot that I had posted about the original issue last year, here is the thread SP540v Stops printing midway, "processing"

 

[jsalda]

UPDATE:

So, I went back and reread the post from last year when the Servo board went out, and there is one difference this time. Last time, the print head would stop midway across the carriage. This time it returns to the home position. Also, I came in this morning and decided to try and get some small jobs out at least, but when I send the job from VersaWorks, no activity whatsoever from the printer. Doesn't start to print, no beeps, no pre heat, nothing. The job clears out from VersaWorks with no errors on the RIP end. If I go to "Printer Status" in VW, it says Ready to Print, so it seems that there is some communication. I can get a print head test out from the printer itself, but nothing from the RIP. I can ping the printer IP also, so network seems to be good.

 

[GaSouthpaw]

My first thought is a communication issue. Perhaps a bad cable or router switch. I'd try changing them out first.
That said, I've never run this particular printer- but swapping cables or routers has worked for me on other equipment that operated over networks.

 

[jsalda]

My first thought is a communication issue. Perhaps a bad cable or router switch. I'd try changing them out first.
That said, I've never run this particular printer- but swapping cables or routers has worked for me on other equipment that operated over networks.

Well, I made a crossover cable and went direct from the VW RIP computer to the printer, shut the printer off and unplugged while we went to lunch, came back and started a job, it got the print/cut registration dots done and then that was it.

Shut the machine off, pulled the back cover off in case it is a heat issue, brought it back up and now VW says that the printer is disconnected. Can't even ping it. I'm really thinking that we're looking at network card failure.

 

[Roland Product Support]

Hey jsalda,

As one last ditch effort, turn off the printer's main power switch (for a minimum of 30 seconds), power on and see if you're able to communicate with the printer. If so, great, problem solved. However if not, we agree that there's likely an issue with the printer's network adapter. To have that solved, we encourage you to contact your authorized Roland dealer to have the printer repaired.

If you have additional questions or need extra support directly from Roland corporate support, please submit an "official" support request form online here: https://www.rolanddga.com/support/product-support-form

If you do write us, we look forward to helping you and take care,

Roland Technical Support
Roland DGA Corp.
rn

 

[jsalda]

Local tech sent me instructions to reset the network card, plus Bobby at CS Sign Supply had a working pull network card that he overnighted to me. Reset both cards, but then couldn't get settings to take on either card via NetTool. After much labor, swapping cards back and forth, it seems that my crossover cable was not up to snuff, thus compounding the issue. Finally connected the RIP and printer back through the switch with good cables, and it SEEMS that all is good. Running it as we speak with the original card in.

In short, it looks like the settings on the network card became corrupted and a Factory Reset was the fix.

 

[jsalda]

One more update for anyone that may need to reference this in the future. I started printing this morning to our recently acquired VP-540 and had the exact same thing happen, stops mid-print with "Processing" on the display. I started investigating my network and saw that the Cat5 cable from the machine running VersaWorks was only registering as 100MB connection instead of a 1000MB. Took a closer look at the cable and found a spot where it was kinked pretty bad, put a good cable in and got the 1000MB connection on the switch. So, I am assuming that packets were getting dropped and after a while, it completely corrupted the NIC in the SP machine.

 

[Roland Product Support]

Thanks for sharing your experiences and the solutions, it will help everyone.

Take care,
Roland Technical Support
Roland DGA Corp.
rn

 

[Happy Colors]

One more update for anyone that may need to reference this in the future. I started printing this morning to our recently acquired VP-540 and had the exact same thing happen, stops mid-print with "Processing" on the display. I started investigating my network and saw that the Cat5 cable from the machine running VersaWorks was only registering as 100MB connection instead of a 1000MB. Took a closer look at the cable and found a spot where it was kinked pretty bad, put a good cable in and got the 1000MB connection on the switch. So, I am assuming that packets were getting dropped and after a while, it completely corrupted the NIC in the SP machine.

Hi jsalda,
I have a same your printer problem. Would you show me how to check Mb of the connection of the cable? And how to replace the new one on that? Thanks for your help.

 

[sgsellsit]

There are several reasons this can happen: Bad main/mother board, software or hardware conflicts, outdated software/firmware, bad cable, incorrect network settings, router/switch issues, network card issues, power fluctuations, screensaver/sleep settings and the list goes on. However in a lot of instances, the file itself can cause issues. If the source a file came from had issues it could carry over to the file, the art set up could have glitched, the rip could have hiccupped or the file has corrupt information. Before anything drastic, choose another source file, start a new file page, redo the art and set up for printing, save the file under a new name, load and re-rip. 80% of the time or more this is the issue.