2 x JV3+Winows7 issues

[Hasse]

Hi guys, this is my first post so if a little long, bare with me since english isn´t my first language.
I installed a new PC at a client, Windows7 pro 64bit, with two seperate PCI firewire-cards. Read at some googlelinks that I needed to update the OHCI drivers to Legacy-drivers, have done so at it almost works. The printers are 1 JV3-130SP II & 1 JV3-160S. He´s running a new install of Flexi 8.6.2 Pro. First started the 130 and when remote and ready to go, plugged in the firewirecable, got undefined statusport and printerport and after restart of PC both are under printers. Added printer in Flexi and comes up with Mimaki firewireport_0. Then the exact same procedure on the 160 which ends up in Flexi as Mimaki firewireport_1. So far all good, now here comes the problem: When sending a job to the 160 (installed 2.) it starts to print ok. While printing I send a job to to the 130 (installed 1.) and it starts printing ok too. When doing it in reverse order (130 first) the 130 starts printing, but when sending a job to the 160 while the 130 is printing, the 160 doesn´t start, just hangs there and even doesn´t start when the 130 has finished. I have to cancel the job and send it again to the 160 while the 130 is idle, and then it starts fine.
Sorry for the long novel, but wanted to have everything clear from the beginning. Would love to find out that some of you guys out there knows the solution to my problem.

Edit: The PC is Intel P55 MoBo, Q7 Cpu 2.8 Ghz and 8 Gb of RAM so speed and capacity shoul not be a problem

 

[ColesCreations]

Use 2 PC's, one for each printer... Easy to run out of RAM with 2 printers on one PC...

Skål.

 

[signswi]

I don't know anything about Flexi but you could try setting the printer properties to send the jobs directly to the printer (I'm assuming it's a Flexi virtual printer or something?) instead of sending it through the Windows spool.

Print Properties>Advanced>Print Directly to the Printer

If that doesn't work you could try checking or unchecking Enable printer pool. Couple shots in the dark.

 

[heyskull]

I have a friend with a JV3 and his lost communication and couldn't figure what had went wrong!
To cut a long story short (4 days shorter!!!) It was the desktop printer which was also plugged into that pc that was conflicting with it.
We knocked it off and hey presto it was back working.
So the answer is disconnect everything else.
I don't know if this is your problem, but it's worth trying.

SC

 

[Hasse]

I don't know anything about Flexi but you could try setting the printer properties to send the jobs directly to the printer (I'm assuming it's a Flexi virtual printer or something?) instead of sending it through the Windows spool.

Print Properties>Advanced>Print Directly to the Printer

If that doesn't work you could try checking or unchecking Enable printer pool. Couple shots in the dark.

Hi Jesse & Heyskull. Jesse, forgot to mention that "print directly to printer" is already checked, will find out about printer pool and get back with an answer, and no, Flexi is the production software (rip) for the printers
Heyskull, the only thing connected is the two Mimaki´s on each firewire board and a network connection, that´s it and no conflicts there, I also had them randomly loose connection until I updated (downdated) the OHCI drivers to "legacy".

 

[signswi]

Ah, you're creating in Flexi as well. Virtual printer is a way of treating RIP software as a printer so that you can output directly to it from Illustrator, etc. without using the RIP's preflight GUI. Doesn't seem applicable here. Did you resolve your issues?

 

[Hasse]

Not yet, still having issues, been in contact with SAi (Flexi), they gave me two solutions, of which I already tried one and still no luck. Promised the customer that I´d make it work so I guess my next try would be to attach two printservers to the LPT-ports and try to let Flexi access the two printers via network instead. Anyone having experience in this solution???

 

[Hasse]

Just an update for you guys.......
It´s been a long time now, and since the customer is a BIT far away from me, I´ve haven´t been there too many times, but have been searching for solutions all over, but.........., no luck :-(. Never succeeded in making this problem free. Seems somewhere along Windows XP SP2 there were some updates which f****d up the drivers for firewire, and since then....... no luck. Also found out, that since Vista started right before XP SP3 came out, SAi (producer of Flexi software) don´t support XP SP3 because their developement of the software was aimed at Vista / Win7, and therefore they couldn´t rool back to keep supporting XP. So the summary is: I´VE GIVEN UP :-(

 

[Jim Hancock]

I would check the firewire cards and see what chipset is on them. The Mimaki firewire card was designed to work optimally with a pc card using the Texas Instruments chipset. This info comes to me from my contact at Mimaki corporate, and it works. I have a customer who runs a 160SP and a 160S under Onyx. Crashes and lockups a least once a week and often more frequently. Switched them to some Belkin cards with the TI chipset and not a single crash or lockup for 2 months now. Cards are around $70 each and can be found through Amazon.

 

[Riku Salonen]

Are you using a latest Mimaki Firewire 3,0 drivers ?