Anyone experiencing network issues with the Epson Surecolor series over TCP/IP?

[schenkadere]

I have identical issues with both my P9000's and my T5270. My Stylus Pro 9900 and 7900 on the same network have no issues.
Symptoms are...doesn't sleep, doesn't auto power down, drops off the network sporadically and when that happens it can't be powered down by the power button...have to yank the cord. I have 3 P9000's and 1 T5270. They all have the same problem.

Direct print or using Oris Color tuner...doesn't matter.

No problems using USB. They behave as they should.

I have Epson and my IT guy on it and no one can figure this out. I'm hoping someone can provide some insight.

 

[prepressdork]

I have several thoughts/questions but the fact that you mention this is happening with two completely different models of Epson, it kind of makes my questions useless. I'll mention them anyway:

1. Can the printers be reset to factory settings? Does it help?
2. Faulty firmware? See if there are firmware updates available to install?
3. Network related - if you disconnect the Epson 9900 and 7900 from the network, do the network drop offs continue with the P9000's and T5270?
4. You mentioned no problems with USB. Does this mean that if you print using USB, all the symptoms you mentioned go away?

I have two Epson P9000's and am having none of the symptoms you mentioned.

This is sort of a head scratcher,
pd

 

[bill kahny]

Switch the physical location of a working and problem printer (power cable and network cable) see if the problem follows the printer or if there's a short in the network cables. I don't think its power becouse the usb printing behaves normally. Seems to me to be a network setting or short causing a network loop.

 

[schenkadere]

I have several thoughts/questions but the fact that you mention this is happening with two completely different models of Epson, it kind of makes my questions useless. I'll mention them anyway:

1. Can the printers be reset to factory settings? Does it help?
2. Faulty firmware? See if there are firmware updates available to install?
3. Network related - if you disconnect the Epson 9900 and 7900 from the network, do the network drop offs continue with the P9000's and T5270?
4. You mentioned no problems with USB. Does this mean that if you print using USB, all the symptoms you mentioned go away?

I have two Epson P9000's and am having none of the symptoms you mentioned.

This is sort of a head scratcher,
pd

1. doesn't help
2. updated firmware on all...2 of the 9000's are brand new as of this week and behave the same as the other 2
3. yes, unrelated
4. works fine via USB

 

[schenkadere]

Switch the physical location of a working and problem printer (power cable and network cable) see if the problem follows the printer or if there's a short in the network cables. I don't think its power becouse the usb printing behaves normally. Seems to me to be a network setting or short causing a network loop.

Did it...doesn't help. There's something about this series and our network, which again, is relatively simple. All Surecolors behave the same under this roof...or misbehave I should say.

 

[prepressdork]

This is a total shot in the dark (only because I actually experienced this):

Do you have any (much) older printers/devices on the same network that perhaps broadcast old network protocols like IPX/SPX or NetBEUI? Several years back, we installed a brand new Konica digital press that exhibited the same network issues you describe. Come to find out, the culprit was an old Mutoh inkjet proofer on the same network that had these other old network protocols enabled (although they weren't being used). Once I disabled them in the proofer, the Konica issues went away.

If no, what about some sort of network protocol or setting on the network switch all these devices are plugged into? Spanning tree?

pd

 

[schenkadere]

This is a total shot in the dark (only because I actually experienced this):

Do you have any (much) older printers/devices on the same network that perhaps support old network protocols like IPX/SPX? Several years back, we installed a brand new Konica digital press that exhibited the same network issues you describe. Come to find out, the culprit was an old Mutoh inkjet proofer on the same network that had these other old network protocols enabled (although they weren't being used). Once I disabled them in the proofer, the Konica issues went away.

If no, what about some sort of network protocol or setting on the network switch all these devices are plugged into? Spanning tree?

pd

I sent this to my IT guy. He says somewhere on our network is an old HP print server that may broadcast older protocals. We shall see. I'm at my wits end. Just paid $10,000 for two printers and I want them to function properly and not deal with workarounds.

 

[prepressdork]

Crossing my fingers!

 

[schenkadere]

Crossing my fingers!

Thanks...me too...it's driving me nuts!!!

 

[schenkadere]

I guess I'm forced to go to USB. It just makes no sense. IT and Epson are baffled.

 

[prepressdork]

For testing, can you temporarily put the Epson printers and their DFE on a separate switch that perhaps you might have laying around somewhere (perhaps one that is unmanaged?)? If the problem goes away, then you know it's the switch. It seems like that's all that is left.

pd

 

[prepressdork]

Not sure if your IT guys are familiar with an app called, "Wire Shark"? If I remember correctly, this is what was used to troubleshoot the network issues we had with the Konica press.

pd

 

[MailGuru]

On some networks, depending on your server software, your server will attempt to "dynamically" assign the IP address of the printer. This causes sporadic drops and network issues. You need to have your server IT guy assign a "static" IP address to the printer that never changes. That may correct your problem.

 

[schenkadere]

On some networks, depending on your server software, your server will attempt to "dynamically" assign the IP address of the printer. This causes sporadic drops and network issues. You need to have your server IT guy assign a "static" IP address to the printer that never changes. That may correct your problem.

We have static IP addresses for everything. It's a problem that is exclusive to the Surecolor printers. All 4 printers in our plant from that series have the same issue. Again, IT can't figure it out. Epson can't figure it out. Bizarre.

 

[bill kahny]

I would look for an epson or other print manager running on someones work station that could be seeing/controlling them over the network.

 

[schenkadere]

I would look for an epson or other print manager running on someones work station that could be seeing/controlling them over the network.

Not sure what you mean...can you elaborate? I can see them with the EpsonNet Config app. The 3 P9000's are driven by Oris Color Tuner and the T5270 is direct print from the Mac workstations.

 

[bill kahny]

I was spitballing but I was thinking of something like this: [h=4]Epson Connect Printer Setup Utility v1.41[/h] https://epson.com/Support/Printers/All-In-Ones/XP-Series/Epson-XP-434/s/SPT_C11CE59202

It's mainly for home printers, but if someone has it loaded especially on a laptop also used at home, it could be seeing network printers. Many of epsons drivers, utilities, or monitors see mutiple models and maybe screwing things up.

I would run a test over the weekend, starting one computer at a time and see if the drop co-insides to one being brought on line.

 

[SZmetana]

Does your IT run any network scanning software? We had a problem when we first got in some 6000s and 7000s, where the blue light on the front would continually flash, in some cases with fans running and “Printing….” appearing on the front panel, and the printer front panel unresponsive. We worked together with Epson and eventually came up with the theory that the new Epson printers were confusing the network scanning software and because it wasn't sure what sort of device it was detecting, ended up sending some sort of print command to see if the device (Epson) was a printer. But it ended up sending only an incorrect partial command, which just hung up the printers. Whether this theory was completely correct or not, I'm not sure, but what I do know is that when we excluded the printer IPs from the network scanner, the problem completely went away, never to return.

 

[schenkadere]

I was told the network scanning software runs over SNMP, so we disabled SNMP on the printers and it made no difference.

 

[brettg]

Wow, we're expericing the same exact situation with the P9000s, where they'll drop off the network and the power plug will have to be pulled for it to be restarted. Our P9900s are also unaffected.