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Rland VP-540 strange ethernet cable problem

monomo

The Print Shop Sprang-Capelle
I have an old Roland VP-540 here. And everything worked perfectly and I still print on this every day. But from the week when I was busy with maintenance and reconnected everything. Didn't want to engage the VP-540 anymore. Also not in service mode the printer did nothing at all anymore.

All cables removed and reconnected and still nothing. Just left it for a day and the next day plugged in the power cable and it worked again. However, I forgot to connect the ethernet cable. I put the cable in and the VP-540 turned off completely.

And with the ethernet cable in it, the vp-540 no longer works at all.If I plug in the Ethernet cable when it boots up, the printer will just start up, but then I can't connect to the printer.

I have already replaced all cables and I can ping to the printer, but versaworks no longer sees the printer.

Has anyone else had this problem before and is there a solution?
 

monomo

The Print Shop Sprang-Capelle
Thaks for the quick reply

Yes that was the first thing I did, about 4 cables :) Also other switch and even routers. And I just tried cross-over cable direct with pc. And all the times I can ping the printer, no packets loss
 

Jim Hancock

Old School Technician
Check the following IP settings: VP-540 through the panel menu, setting for printer in Versaworks, and the computer network card. You can check the computer IP setting 2 ways - CMD - ipconfig, or in the network properties for the network card through the control panel. If your IP configuration in the network card is set to Automatic, it's possible your system has changed its default IP and no longer matches the printer and Versaworks. CMD - ipconfig will let you know the settings you will need to update in the printer and Versaworks. Hopefully, you just have a mismatch here...
 

Attachments

  • VP-540 network setup.pdf
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netsol

Active Member
good job jim

monomo
your router probably "gave away" your ip address

you can download "advanced ip scanner" and see what the ip's of all the devices on your network are. (40 have over 40 on ours, so we need the program to keep track

you will probably see that something else has your ip, and is returning that ping

when you see the ip of your roland, you will have to change the ip in versaworks to match the current configuration
 

premiercolour

Merchant Member
Roland VP series printers have known issue for Ethernet on the mainboard. Most likely you will be needing a new mainboard which is discontinued. We did put one in a few months back. It has to be special ordered. I am sure other people have talked about this issue.
 

Jim Hancock

Old School Technician
Thanks! That's about the limit of my networking expertise though... I like AngryIP as a sniffer also...

Let's eliminate the obvious before we start replacing hardware...
 

netsol

Active Member
premier colour & jim

i am not certain that a few of these condemned boards have not been misdiagnosed
(it can be difficult to talk an end user through network diagnosis)



i will certainly volunteer an hour of my time with OP to be sure we can't pull this one out.

there are many other things that give this type of issue. do to my mis-spent youth i have over 30 years experience diasnosing this type of issue on many types of equipment

i have learned a lot from signs101 and like to give back where i can

if monomo messages me, i can give him my cell or we can do a teamviewer if he is comfortable with that

i just hate to see a roland die before it's time & will be happy to work with any of our members just to be sure it truly is a bad board

both you know more about these machines than i ever will, but when we wonder into the area where i am comfortable, i like to offer help
 

Jim Hancock

Old School Technician
You're on! I will help where I can. Since we think he was able to ping the printer, I'm assuming from the command prompt, then I'm going to assume the mainboard is ok. So let's see after the IP addresses are confirmed to be correct.
 
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netsol

Active Member
jim,
i am not sure the device he is pinging is the printer
possible something else got that ip

that is one of the things i want to verify

routers can be stupid stubborn devices

we fight thissame battle with zebra label printers all the time

they use the hp manufactured print servers that use the same chip as many of the rolands

i just. like to be sure, before we condemn a machine, it has to be a major expense for anyone, replacing the printer
 

monomo

The Print Shop Sprang-Capelle
Thanks for all the help, sorry for the late reply

I did a IP scan and did look up with ipconfig if something is wrong. But when I disconnect the ethernet cable nothing on that ip adres. When I put back the cable I'm able to ping to the printer. But with the ip scanner it is not showing my Mac address and no host name. If I power up the VP-540 with cable connected I got no power to the printer, when I disconnect the cable and power the machine it starts up. Then I connect the cable and it shows up in the ip scanner.

Is it possible that the ethernet cable gives power back to the printer and shutdown? I did try to connect with crossover cable direct to pc and also that didn't work. But it is strange when I have a connected cable I can't power up the VP-540.
 

Jim Hancock

Old School Technician
What happens if you power up the printer with the network cable plugged into a different computer? The other computer doesn't need to have Versaworks. Just want to eliminate the computer as the cause of the power up issue first.
 

monomo

The Print Shop Sprang-Capelle
if I plugin into other computer or touter or switch with cable connected, the VP-540 won't startup. If I disconnect the cable it starts without any error
 

Jim Hancock

Old School Technician
It's starting to look like you have an issue with the network section of the mainboard. Let's get Netsol to chime in on this also...
 

monomo

The Print Shop Sprang-Capelle
i also think there something wrong with the mainboard. I'm thinking to sell the VP-540 and buy a new secondhand Roland. Board replacement is to expensive
 

Jim Hancock

Old School Technician
Check the contacts on the network connector on the mainboard and make sure they are even and not bent or damaged...
 

netsol

Active Member
monomo,
when you are connected directly with a cable, printer to pc, can you still ping?

i just want to be sure another device isn't returning the ping.

what are the ip, subnet & gateway of the pc?

example

192.168.1.103. ip
255.255.255.0. subnet
192.168.1.1. gateway

also, how many devices are connect to your network? (cell phones, tablets, printers)

just want to be thorough, before you drop a couple grand (it certainly is sounding more like a bad component on the system board)
 
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