Flexi Production Mgr. Stalled Printing!

[Steve C.]

I was printing a 42"x60" jpg file at 740x740 bidirectional and the printing stoped at about 1" from finish. My printer has paused for a few seconds before and then resumes. This time I waited about 20 minutes and finally gave up. the Gear Icon was turning in Production Manager and showed to be at 96% finished. When I tried to cancel or shut down PM it gave me a message that it was busy printing, so I had to Alt/Delete out of it.

Any Ideas or suggestions of what may be going on here? I am real POed to have lost the time and materials on this job. Especially because it was so close to the finish.

Thanks, Steve C.

 

[iSign]

I feel your pain. I had my first encounter with running out of a roll of vinyl during a print... & later that same day... reached the "ink end" warning... both of which understandably stopped my job mid-print. My mistake was just ordering the replacement inks last Friday, thinking I had a lot more left then I actually had.

 

[dennis j]

Steve, how much RAM are you running? Also do you have plenty of free space on your hard drive? What version of Flexi are you running?

 

[Steve C.]

Dennis,
Here are the specs on my PC...AMD AnthlonXP2600+ 2.02 GHz, 520 MB RAM.
The file size was 50425K, but I have printed files twice this size without problems.
Flexi Pro7.5v5 and use a LPT cable and port. I have been meaning to get a RAM upgrade, and I would like to use a network cable but havent found the time to figure out how to do that. I have 2 computers on a network.

 

[dennis j]

Steve, I don't know if it would help but Flexi is up to 7.6v2 now.
A print server for a LPT may help they are easy to setup.
Is your dongle a USB or LPT? Some times a program will check to see if there is a dongle on the LPT while printing this can mess things up also.

 

[Steve C.]

Thanks for the reply Dennis, the dongle is USB and I have 7.6 but have not installed because I hate to go in and change all my settings again. I will try to get around to that soon. Thanks again...Steve

 

[gcljlamb]

Steve,


I never had the printer do what yours has done, but I have had the plotter (Panther 30") do that. A LOT!!! In the middle of the cut, it just stopped, but Flexi was still showing a percentage incomplete. Now, again not having run into the problem with the printer I can't say for sure but what I did on the plotter was hit "send" again on the cut/plot screen and the plotter took right off just from the spot it stopped as though it never stopped in the first place! Go figure!
Anyway, the tech support guys couldn't explain it. (surprise) That was a while back when I worked for someone else who had the same plotter. The plotter I have now has a newer firmware installed and doesn't exhibit the same problem.
I'm just thinking if you're out the material anyway when it stops and you control,alt, delete, why not try to hit send and see if it completes the job? If it takes off from the beginning of the job, it's the same as if you ctrl, alt, del.

Doug,

We periodically weigh our print cartridges using a shipping scale. We compare an empty to a full and then track (sometimes by the job) the usage on a form. It sucks having a print job stuck in the middle waiting for the cyan cartridge to show up. I feel YOUR pain!

George

 

[Steve C.]

Thanks George, don't know why I didn't think to do that. It couldn't hurt to try. Hope I don't have to but if it happens again I'll try it. When things pick up some I may get another computer dedicated just for print and cut. As the print was being sent I was also working on some other projects, Design, etc. I don't know if it could have affected the printing process, but maybe.

Steve C.

 

[gcljlamb]

Now that you mention that, I do seem to recall the Sign Warehouse tech guys telling me I couldn't have a print job running (with a percentage number showing) and be working on another piece of artwork, and they also advised me not to open another program (make it active) while it was printing, either.

What I've learned is to send the plot job first (plotter info is no where near as complex as printer info), wait 'til the percentage number goes away and then send the print job. I've also had no problems closing the cut/plot window once the percentage number goes away, and working on other art while the plotter is still working.

Good luck,

George