Ricoh SP c250 dn processing......slow to print

katz

katz

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This one has me stumped...

Setting up a new Ricoh SP c250 dn wireless laser printer in a small home office, Win 8 pro x64 desktop.

Problem is, when we send a job to the printer, it comes out of sleep mode, displays "processing" on the lcd...and then proceeds to "process" the print job for several minutes before actually spitting out the print. Even a simple text, no graphics page takes forever.

Uninstalled/reinstalled driver - latest PCL6 driver Win 8 driver is installed.

There is a Universal Print PCL6 Driver listed that is more recent, haven't tried that one yet. Don't think that is actually a driver update, just gives more flexibility over various printing devices.

Any ideas? I've not worked with Ricoh printers before, but surely they aren't all this slow to respond.
 
In trick that I've used in the past. Not sure if it's available with this printer and driver but most of the time there is a spool setting in the print driver somewhere to tell the computer to sent the job directly to the printer, using it's spooler, rather than the driver/OS one.
 
I did change that setting, unfortunately it did not help. Contacted Ricoh tech (not very helpful) and they suggested lowering the print spooler time, which there isn't an option to change those numbers on here...

Same issue, wireless or usb.
 
Look in the System Specs (3rd page of this file - https://www.ricoh-usa.com/products/docs/pdf/brochures/printers/spc250dn.pdf ) for warm-up time, first print speed, print resolution. If your client is only printing now and then it will take time for the pages to print out. But if the printing takes longer than normal for multi-page documents then I would say that there is some other type of problem.

Can the printer be directly connected to the computer via USB (as a test)? If so, try printing the same document(s) and see if the speeds improve.
 
I agree you should try to turn the resolution down to 300 or 600 if possible. This will greatly reduce the size of the print job, depending on what you're printing
 
Last edited:
While it's spitting out the first copy, what happens if you fire off the same job again? Same delay?

What if you try Postscript instead of PCL6?
 
I'll be contacting Ricoh (again) shortly. They want to remote in to check it out. It is my feeling that the issue lies with the printer, not a driver or related pc setting. When you send a job to the printer, while watching the "active printers" window, the job shows that it has completed and hands it off to the printer.

It is the "data in" light on the printer that flashes for 4 min. before it spits out a page, a simple text page or graphics, no difference. I'll update after I deal with Ricoh.
 
katz said:
I'll be contacting Ricoh (again) shortly. They want to remote in to check it out. It is my feeling that the issue lies with the printer, not a driver or related pc setting. When you send a job to the printer, while watching the "active printers" window, the job shows that it has completed and hands it off to the printer.

It is the "data in" light on the printer that flashes for 4 min. before it spits out a page, a simple text page or graphics, no difference. I'll update after I deal with Ricoh.
Click to expand...

Yep, sounds like a printer issue, if the spooler has passed it off to the printer then it takes 4 minutes.
 
Yeah, 4 minutes is nuts for a text page.

How long does it take for a self test/config page from the front panel?
 
Geez, what a hassle.

Ricoh's website will not complete the registration properly, some glitch on there, I had to phone in. They did a manual registration, we received the confirm email, but the client info. is not coming up on their server side. Long story short, they told us to look for an RMA email or something similar by noon tomorrow.

All total, I've been on this job for over an hour (easy) and on the phone w/ Ricoh for about an hour. All for a $99 printer issue. How to charge the customer for this one...:rolleyes:
 
I'm handling the replacement, since I've been on the phone with them all this time.

She (the client) has already been looking at toner refill kits on ebay/other. She has successfully refilled previous Konica & Brother laser printers so I assume she was hoping to do the same with this one. I noticed that the toner carts on this Ricoh has chips that are heat welded on with those little plastic rivets.

They can be cut off easy enough, but I wonder if the refill kit includes small screws/other to affix the new chips? What a joke. I was thinking that "they" were moving away from chipped carts - guess not, huh? :rolleyes:
 
katz said:
Geez, what a hassle.

Ricoh's website will not complete the registration properly, some glitch on there, I had to phone in. They did a manual registration, we received the confirm email, but the client info. is not coming up on their server side. Long story short, they told us to look for an RMA email or something similar by noon tomorrow.

All total, I've been on this job for over an hour (easy) and on the phone w/ Ricoh for about an hour. All for a $99 printer issue. How to charge the customer for this one...:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

What was this? An onsite service call or new equipment installation? Personally I only do flatrate when I have a site survey on hand so I know what I am getting into. And those situations are usually limited to wiring or new system installs. And anything with hardware always has a caveat covering DOA equipment.
 
Markverhyden said:
What was this? An onsite service call or new equipment installation? Personally I only do flatrate when I have a site survey on hand so I know what I am getting into. And those situations are usually limited to wiring or new system installs. And anything with hardware always has a caveat covering DOA equipment.
Click to expand...

She attempted to install it herself, a regular client of mine. When she ran into this print issue, she called me, I went onsite to see things in person. It is a flat rate charge. Since I was in her area & didn't need to make a special trip, it is a $79 rate. The $99 I referred to in previous post was the cost of the printer.

Looks like my charge will be increasing though, as they are supposed to issue a FedEx label for RMA, but it must be dropped off at the local facility. This thing weighs something like 65 lb. in the huge shipping box it came in, so she can't really lift it herself that easily - so she wants me to drop it off at the facility for her.


Edit - I just received a text from her. We left it set up for her to fool with some more when I left, and she has been printing flyers out with it.

The speed has increased from 1 page every four minutes to something like 3 pages a minute for "simple text/graphic" flyers that she hands out. Just out of the blue, it started printing "faster" on its' own.

Nowhere near the advertised print speed, or as fast as her 2 year old brother, but ..."we're getting there", lol.o_O
 
It's back to the 4min/per page print again. That was a short lived victory, lol.

In contact w/ Ricoh, their protocol (after very minimal phone troubleshoot) is to schedule a local tech that they are contracted with to come out & service it. So now, we are waiting on a phone call from the local service center. It would be funny if they send the geek squad, lol. We've waited since 10 am this morning...no call yet.

I suggested to them if we could just RMA this one back & exchange for a new one, they told us "no", they don't work that way.

The serviceman has to make a trip out, determine what is wrong, then submit that info. to Ricoh & then they will decide what to do with it from there. My client is fit to be tied over this, I had to cover my Christian ears while listening to her reply.

I've never had a company deal with it like this before. In the past, I've sent back Epson, Brother, and even HP for a refurb/exchange. With the HP, they even sent the refurb out first, free of charge & then we put the old printer in that box, they provided a paid UPS label for us to send it back.

After this, it is my conclusion that Ricoh's customer service setup is horrible, I will not recommend them to anyone for future purchases. In fact, at this point I'm almost done recommending any particular brands when a customers asks me about it. :rolleyes:
 
LOL!!! No, won't be Sheep Squad, that's for sure. They sell through managed print services companies which have their own techs. But I'd venture a guess Ricoh's warranty reimbursement is really low so getting a response on a device not under MPS contract could be tough.
 
Follow up:

Genuine Ricoh tech showed up today. He confirmed the issue, wiped all traces of the drivers on the pc, reset the printer via. usb using a handy code scanner gadget, similar to one used in auto repair shops. Installed new driver....and same issue, lol. He places several calls to another tech, tries other drivers, resets printer again, still same issue.

I must say he stumbled around through the printer settings on the pc...I was wondering why he didn't seem to know the settings any better. Anyway, after a few uninstall/reinstall of the driver, it magically starts working, almost as good as her previous Brother printer. There is still some hesitation between sheets, but no more 4 minute wait times.

Not sure what the long term on this will be. If we would need to wipe the pc & reinstall the driver - who knows what will happen then. I do have the driver that he used to finally get it working if I need to reinstall.

She's not totally happy with this one, but at least she's back in business & can print invoices/flyers/etc. When I left she was on ebay looking up refill kits for her old Brother printer, lol. I get the feeling she's going to use up the toner in this one & then dump it.

The refill kits including reset chips run $40 + for this Ricoh, compared to the Brother/ same specs - a refill kit for a little over $20, no chips needed.

Expensive lesson learned... :(

Printer - $100
My Service call - $100
 
LOL!!! You should see what those techs look like installing one of those machines in OS X - like a deer caught in the headlights.

Deer-in-headlights-1024x1024.jpg
 
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