Bizarre issue with Ricoh flipping every fourth page 180 degrees

[MMPIndyWest]

I have a Ricoh Pro C7100x. Recently, we had to replace a fan in the Fiery Command Workstation PC tower that controls the Ricoh, and then reinstall the Ricoh to Fiery. Ever since then, it has this incredibly bizarre issue where it flips every fourth page upside-down. This only happens when you're printing from a document with multiple pages, however. If you print multiple copies of a single page document, there are no issues.

It doesn't seem to be related to a specific program, as I've had it happen printing from both InDesign and Acrobat. I've never seen something like this before. We're using the exact same print commands as before, and for the life of me, I can't track down why this might be happening.

Any thoughts?

 

[richsweeney]

Is this a PDF? I could see that happening with word doc. Also, check to make sure you did not disturb anything on near the e board, like ram chips.
What happens if you print it as a image?

 

[SoggyWinter]

This can be a good resource for Fiery issues

Fiery Communities

communities.fiery.com

 

[bill kahny]

Basic .... but check your default settings. maybe someones fat fingers reset them accidentally?

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

Did you alter the connections between the two machines?

 

[TJPrinter]

Instead of printing the job to the Fiery, try importing the job in Command Workstation. At least you’ll know if it’s a Fiery to engine issue or driver to Fiery issue. Curious how the job looks in preview, are pages rotated in preview?

 

[jwheeler]

You probably just forgot to uncheck the "flip every 4th page" option.

 

[MMPIndyWest]

Instead of printing the job to the Fiery, try importing the job in Command Workstation. At least you’ll know if it’s a Fiery to engine issue or driver to Fiery issue. Curious how the job looks in preview, are pages rotated in preview?

I've tried this, with no luck. It's the most unhinged issue I've ever seen. All my settings that I can see are exactly the same as before the tech was here. The weirdest part is that it appears to be an issue with printing documents that have multiple artboards/pages. If I'm printing 20 copies of one page, no issue, but 1 copy of 20 pages, every fourth page is upside-down.

As for the preview, I'm typically printing from InDesign, and Fiery doesn't give me a preview window option. So who knows on that front.

 

[MMPIndyWest]

Did you alter the connections between the two machines?

Our Ricoh suddenly stopped connecting to Fiery altogether, which prompted the call to get the technician out. He found that the Fiery PC tower needed a new fan, and that the printer needed to be reinstalled to the Fiery server. So I guess technically yes, but we've had to do similar reinstallations before with no issues. It's definitely possible that something got screwed up this time though.

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

Perhaps the fan is of a different voltage or there is a short somewhere on the motherboard. Or perhaps the fan not working fried some electronics on the motherboard. If this machine is covered under service then they should be working around the clock to fix it. Call your salesperson and tell them to get it fixed asap or you're escalating it.

 

[bill kahny]

My service tech wouldn't leave before this was fixed or escalated! I just can't wrap my head around a mechanical problem being consistent enough to print every 4th page correctly, just rotating it 180. And the only symptom? Has to be software related. Are you letting it auto rotate/center in the default settings? Are you using overlays? Master pages? what happens when you impose a file with the fiery?

 

[ReproElectroProspero]

You probably just forgot to uncheck the "flip every 4th page" option.

View attachment 292902

You jest, but this reminded me of an odd Fiery setting I've never used that could be contributing:

This is the "Rotate 180" setting in the Finishing tab. I've never used it, but I'm curious if something like this is enabled by default on your Fiery.

I agree with everyone else that this is too specific and sporadic to be hardware. I'd start eliminating software variables to figure it out. This means testing different files. Sending from different computers. Using CWS import instead of file-->print. Bypassing CWS and hitting the print queue directly. Testing if it happens only out of certain trays. If sending from a PDF, is there any difference when printing using "Print As Image"? This should bypass any postscript wonkiness. If it goes away when using that setting, its your file.

 

[MMPIndyWest]

You jest, but this reminded me of an odd Fiery setting I've never used that could be contributing:
View attachment 292909
This is the "Rotate 180" setting in the Finishing tab. I've never used it, but I'm curious if something like this is enabled by default on your Fiery.

I agree with everyone else that this is too specific and sporadic to be hardware. I'd start eliminating software variables to figure it out. This means testing different files. Sending from different computers. Using CWS import instead of file-->print. Bypassing CWS and hitting the print queue directly. Testing if it happens only out of certain trays. If sending from a PDF, is there any difference when printing using "Print As Image"? This should bypass any postscript wonkiness. If it goes away when using that setting, its your file.

It's happened from multiple computers, using multiple different artwork programs. It's not tray dependent, and importing the file directly into CWS doesn't change the result.

The "Rotate 180" command is set to Off by default on all of the computers, so no dice there.

Honestly, I'm like 90% positive that it's some obscure setting on the Ricoh itself, but for the life of me, I can't figure out what it might be.

 

[G5MacMan]

Does the fault still happen if you impose the job (i know some people print without imposing)

 

[pippip]

Have you tried installing CWS on a different computer and testing that?

 

[TJPrinter]

What happens if you run a multi page document from the document scanner instead of going through the Fiery?

It seems odd that replacing a fan in the rip would require a reinstall, this should have been a power down, install fan and boot backup. Something seems to have gone wrong. My thought to the tech would be fix what you broke or bring in a new rip that works.

 

[MMPIndyWest]

What happens if you run a multi page document from the document scanner instead of going through the Fiery?

It seems odd that replacing a fan in the rip would require a reinstall, this should have been a power down, install fan and boot backup. Something seems to have gone wrong. My thought to the tech would be fix what you broke or bring in a new rip that works.

The machine in question doesn't even have a document scanner. It's used for production only. As for the reinstallation issue, we have an odd issue with our power (It's a city power grid thing, we can't do anything about it) that occasionally screws with the Fiery connection, and causes the machines to need to be reinstalled. The fan issue was discovered after we realized a reinstallation needed to happen.

 

[Shawnd]

Have the tech backup the Printer to a usb drive and then do a factory reset and see if it still does it. If it does still do it then reinstall the backup.

 

[TJPrinter]

Power supply fluctuations can cause a whole lot of grief. I'd at least plug the Fiery into a UPS device and make sure you have a backup handy like Shawnd suggested. I don't have any unusual power fluctuations but my Fiery is still plugged into a UPS, they're cheap and a lot better than just a surge protector. Good luck, hope you find the solution soon!

 

[MMPIndyWest]

Even more bizarre: the issue seems to be related to the delivery end. If the destination is set to "Auto Tray Select", then SOMETIMES it flips every fourth page. If the destination is set to "Finisher Shift Tray" then it seems to work fine? I'm absolutely baffled on this one.