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Printer Running SLOW! JV-33

Vinylman

New Member
I have a situation that has just started to show up out of no where.

Started up my JV-33, running Standard Rasterlink PRO III rip & print.

Opened a file I have printed in the past, and printing is taking FOREVER.

The way I do this is as follows. Open file: Set print peramiters: Go to "Print Immediate: Printer takes at least 5 times longer than in the past to rip and start printing. THEN while printing, it stops after 5-6 passes, waits on the docking station, then goes through this print 5-6 passes & wait cycle over and ove.

Last week I printed this exact file in less than 2.5 minutes. Today it has taken over 15 minutes.

Does anyone have any idea what may be causing this? And how can I clear this up so I can get back to printing at speed?

Thanks for any tips or advice.
 

Case

New Member
what happens if you hit rip and print instead of print immediate? seems like the computer isn't able to supply the data fast enough... so you get head pausing and such? is there other applications open on the said computer?

anytime i have used rasterlink, i never hit print immediate... depending on file size, it is better to rip it first, then print........rather to send it over and try to keep it up with the machine......

i hope i'm explaining that correctly...


case
 

Vinylman

New Member
Case;
Your explanation is fine.
I run my printer from a dedicated computer. Running XP pro.
Only other program running is Illustrator, to make changes or corrections to jobs. USUALLY I never run Ill. while printing, so that should not be an issue.BTW: The files are not huge. some in the 2-3 meg size. an occasional 35 meg file.
 

Case

New Member
i would think that you would get no pausing if you always hit rip and print........if it did not do it before, perhaps a computer reboot? maybe you have already tried that...

I personally have seen the pausing with immediate print and that is why i never do it....

case
 

Vinylman

New Member
Case;
I tried your rip then print. It seems to be a temporary fix, but since I have been using Rasterlink, I have always used the immediate print and it has not "seemed" to have had any negative effect on the print time.
I am printing a photo image right now, and the ONLY CHANGE I have made is on this print I am running unidirectional. Also have set to "FAST" print, but that is what I normally do anyway.


Any other ideas??
 
Make sure you didn't accidentally change to a different user type on the printer itself. Depending on how the parameters are set on the printer the user type can override the rip settings (I think).

best of luck,
Chris
 

Rooster

New Member
Sounds to me like a networking issue, or perhaps a hard drive going off. Something is slowing down the data feed between the rip and printer.

Of course since it's a windows box you should check it out for a virus and malware as well.
 

Case

New Member
it has nothing to do with user type on the printer, don't worry about that..............rooster is correct, if it use to work and now it doesn't hitting immediate print in rasterlink, there is something causing a slowdown with the rip data to the printer...............

just gotta figure out what that is....


case
 

Fuzzbuster

New Member
one of our printers is a 33

2-3 mg files are not big at all

were running files 2-3 GIG...

sounds like a different setting happened somewhere or your processor/memory combo is tapped out

Besta luck
 

petesign

New Member
I have also encountered that issue.. I unplugged the USB cables, and plugged them back in, and it hasn't happened since. I don't know why that could have caused that problem, but itseemed like it would rip a little, sit and wait, then rip some more, and sit and wait.

I had another file that a client supplied me, and it would immediate print to a certain point, and just STOP. It did this about 3 times saved as a diferent format each time, before I finally gave up and ripped the file, and then printed it later. I think it had something to do with the gradient fills in their vector file.

Try taking those files - opening them in photoshop, saving them as a .tif and immediate print them again, if it works without any problems, you will know it is something in the file that rasterlink doesnt like.

Good luck!
 

iceman64

New Member
First look at the settings in Rasterlink, if there has been a change.

Maybe you harddisk needs defragmentation, as your data may be all over the disk, empty the jobqueue by DELETE ALL DATA!!! if you dont DELETE ALL DATA the rip leaves stuff you dont see. You can also manually delete everything by removing all the job in the JOB directory.

'User type' is a setting on your printer were your can set some parameters for you media.(there a 4 usertypes)
By pressing USERTYPE on the printer you can switch between the 4.

What is the distance between the printer and the computer?
If it is more than 5 meters (15 feet) you shouls amplify your USB connection to the printer.
If that doesn'work, try uninstalling the Mimaki USB driver, restart your computer , then reinstall the USB driver, reconnect the printer.

Good luck, hope to be of assistance....:thumb:
 

Dice

New Member
Did you install any other software since you first printed it?

Do you have a virus scanner running? Have you checked for spyware lately? Have you updated Windows XP lately?
 

Dice

New Member
You also might try these things:

- Plug the JV33 USB cable into another port (Avoid front usb ports, they are usb 1.1 vs usb 2)
- Update Windows
- Update your Bios
- Update RasterLink III to the latest release
- Update your MotherBoard Drivers
- Update the JV33 to latest firmware.
 

iceman64

New Member
First look at the settings in Rasterlink, if there has been a change.

'User type' is a setting on your printer were your can set some parameters for you media.(there a 4 usertypes)
By pressing USERTYPE on the printer you can switch between the 4.

second, what is the distance between the printer and the computer?
If it is more than 5 meters (15 feet) you shouls amplify your USB connection to the printer. If that doesn'work, try uninstalling the Mimaki USB driver, restart your computer , then reinstall the USB driver, reconnect the printer.

Good luck, hope to be of assistance....:thumb:
 

Vinylman

New Member
WOW!

Thanks for all the feed back.

I called my Mimaki tech guy and he said it could be "file" related. The file that started this situation was a PDF file provided by one of my customers. It had a LOT of LAYERS, and was saved as a PDF.
Brian suggested that {as someone above pointed out as well} that Raserlink doesn't play well with layered PDFs. And I should open the file in Photoshop if I can, and re-save it as a JPG.
The other option is to have the customer save and send as a JPG.

I will try that tomorrow, then follow up with some of your suggestions.

As a side note, I printed several jobs today with NO slow downs what so ever.
 

petesign

New Member
I would steer clear of Jpeg's - save it as a tif instead. Even at highest settings, there seems to be more pixelation to me there.


I avoided the 15 foot usb rule by purchasing a USB hub and running one 15 foot cable to the hub, and another one after. Getting the right hub can be tricky, as they usually dont have the A to B cable connection most 15 foot USB cables have for an input. You won't find a hub like that in a box store.

Happy to hear things worked out.
 
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