Disagreement with Ricoh engineer. Advice needed.

[edutech4schools]

Setup:

Server = 2003

Client = Win7

Software = publisher 2003

Printer = Ricoh copier/printer

Driver = PCL5

 

One of the office staff created a very basic booklet in Publisher 2003 using the pre-built wizard and just added some text and pics. When she printed it to the Ricoh printer some of the pages were part missing background colour, some text and some of the pics just were not printers. I printed the same document to other printers around the school and it printed fine. (all printers are pcl5). I then installed the Ricoh drivers on to a test machine but got the same errors. Odd thing is that it has the same missing elements in the same spots when printing this doc from any machine to the Ricoh. I then assumed it was a hardware fault and called an engineer out.

 

I was not on site when he visited the school but he called me lots of times and did not have a clue about networks or software. He was on site for 4 hours and his first assessment was that it must be the pc. I explained we could print to other printers. He then said it must be the driver, he informed me that PCL5 was not supported on Ricoh machines, I pointed out that a) it has worked fine for the last few years, b)Sims works better with PCL5 and as most schools use Sims, then most schools will also be using PCL5. He then said it was the way Publisher creates multi page documents (booklets), I reminded him that I could print the same doc to any other printer.

 

He has arranged to come back to the school later this week when I am on site.

 

Any recommendations how I could work out what's going on. Does this look like a PLC, driver, pc, Ricoh or document issue.

[pete]

If you create a simple Publisher document with layers, do you get the same issue?

If you use the PCL6 driver, do you get the same issue for either document?

If you use the Postscript driver, do you get the same issue?

 

I suspect it's that particular driver on that printer doing that particular type of Publisher document. Simple stuff usually works fine on older drivers, it's when fiddly bits are involved that the limitations leak out.

[Soulfish]

Almost certainly a driver issue. I've had this issue before with Ricoh (and other manufacturers) where the printer isn't able to interpret the information being sent by the driver. Typically changing to another driver (PCL6, Postscript etc) sorts the issue. Its an annoying issue for sure.

[localzuk]

It's not the driver as such, its Publisher combined with that driver (I've had the same problem with *all* ricoh drivers for the copiers I had at my last school).

 

The way we got around it was to install CutePDF, print to PDF from Publisher, and then print the PDF as desired.

[Michael]

I've had an issue when you printed pictures taken from a digital camera (using a Ricoh photocopier), it would do a few, then the rest would come out blank. The engineer in question also told me an Estate Agent had the same problem, as of course they print pictures of properties to give out to customers.

 

This was in a 2008 R2 with 7 clients domain, and up-to-date PCL5 drivers. In the end they updated the firmware on the photocopier and this resolved the problem.

[speckytecky]

I'd second Michael's Firmware update suggestion. That's what happened here - turned out a module was missing, that in our case enabled PostScript and the memory they had installed was iffy.

[themightymrp]

The way we got around it was to install CutePDF, print to PDF from Publisher, and then print the PDF as desired.

 

We've had to do this same method when printing certain Publisher documents to a Tally Genicom 9035 printer - it's a workaround but it does the job

[DrPerceptron]

We're using an RCPS driver which fixed the problem as we were getting the problem in all sorts of programs.

[sted]

We've had to do this same method when printing certain Publisher documents to a Tally Genicom 9035 printer - it's a workaround but it does the job

 

it does have to be said publisher does seem to be funny with printers causes more printing wierness than any other program i know

[edutech4schools]

Thanks for all the info. Engineer did not turn up, lol, so I installed both pcl5 and pcl6 drivers on the main office machine. Pcl6 did not work with Sims and the publisher doc did work with pcl6.

[Nadz]

Bit late with this but worth a note for anyone that looks at this thread.

 

I have been working on a similar issue where certain element of a document are not printing and just managed to resolve it.

 

If you have access to the printers web console try changing the 'Memory Usage' setting (Configuration/Basic Settings). Changing it from 'Frame Priority' to 'Font Priority' seems to have resolved the issue.

[mac_shinobi]

Message sent of a couple of things to do to

 

1. Check the MFD supports PCL 5 / has it installed which afaik all Ricoh Devices ( excluding a few desktop printers ) have PCL 5.

2. Adjust a few settings in printing prefs and printing defaults in regards to truetype setting from truetype to bitmap

[mac_shinobi]

Bit late with this but worth a note for anyone that looks at this thread.

 

I have been working on a similar issue where certain element of a document are not printing and just managed to resolve it.

 

If you have access to the printers web console try changing the 'Memory Usage' setting (Configuration/Basic Settings). Changing it from 'Frame Priority' to 'Font Priority' seems to have resolved the issue.

 

This is the other setting I was thinking of, you can also change this on the MFD itself , I think its user tools --> Printer Features --> it is under one of the tabs ( system or maintenance or something like that )