Ricoh Tech Conversation Today...

[kdw75]

One of our 7200s has been having Fiery issues for over a month. Our tech replaced the HD and reloaded the software, but it is still having the Fiery Server software crashing at least every other day and it sometimes has the top display go black and just won't respond to any inputs. I called in again for service today and our regular tech was off until tomorrow, but another tech called in and told us that our regular guy was off and offered some "helpful advice". He asked if we were printing PDFs, which we do and he said that these machines aren't really designed for that and that we should try just running Postscript files instead. He said that would probably fix our issues and we wouldn't need to do anything else.

We have been running PDFs on both machines for almost 5 years without issue, does this statement have any merit?

 

[TJPrinter]

So much for a PDF workflow. Here's what some others on Print Planet had to say about Postscript Postscript workflow

 

[SoggyWinter]

Post in the EFI Communities and/or see if Ricoh has a Fiery helpdesk that can do competent diagnostics.

 

[narseman]

One of our 7200s has been having Fiery issues for over a month. Our tech replaced the HD and reloaded the software, but it is still having the Fiery Server software crashing at least every other day and it sometimes has the top display go black and just won't respond to any inputs. I called in again for service today and our regular tech was off until tomorrow, but another tech called in and told us that our regular guy was off and offered some "helpful advice". He asked if we were printing PDFs, which we do and he said that these machines aren't really designed for that and that we should try just running Postscript files instead. He said that would probably fix our issues and we wouldn't need to do anything else.

We have been running PDFs on both machines for almost 5 years without issue, does this statement have any merit?

I don't know much about Fiery, but if you ask me.. It sounds like it may be a power supply issue to the PC box, or possibly a mother board getting flaky.
Any chance the bios in the box was reset? May need to tweak some settings in the bios. (cmos? same thing) OH.. And I've never tried that on a Fiery server, so not too sure what you'd look at specifically. Other than make sure the CPU isn't dust clogged. Maybe push up the voltage on the CPU JUST A LITTLE.. etc.. An IT tech may help here.

 

[jwheeler]

Another department in the county I'm at prints the paychecks on a MICR Xerox machine through a Fiery. It kept crashing on him and the techs suggested he try PS files, and it finally worked. So yes, it could be possible that you have a bad file that should be sent as PS instead of PDF, but that doesn't mean you can never print PDF's since you clearly have for a long time (as we all have!)

 

[bill kahny]

We just had our ricoh 7200 fiery hard drive go out. Tec put in a solid state and reinstalled. has been good for about a week now. We only deal with pdf's I don't buy the ps file thing. If one bad pdf doesn't print maybe, but not a months worth.

 

[kdw75]

I am hoping he will do more when he gets here tomorrow and replace the motherboard. Not sure if it has a Fiery board. Some of the times it crashes while just sitting idle or we will find it crashed when we come to work in the morning. It will also sometimes get EXTREMELY slow when setting the paper and whatnot in CWS, but a reboot always fixes it. It is cases like this where I am thankful that we have two machines. So I can always show them that something works just fine on the other 7210.

 

[tngcas]

We've been running PDFs exclusively since 2018 so... the ps thing is interesting.

 

[YourCastle]

He asked if we were printing PDFs, which we do and he said that these machines aren't really designed for that and that we should try just running Postscript files instead. He said that would probably fix our issues and we wouldn't need to do anything else.

I'd sure like your tech to provide more info as I haven't used PS in a long time! Not to be too cynical, but it almost sounds like he doesn't know, doesn't want to find out, and is trying to get this problem out of his queue and off-load to you?

That said, my fiery has crash a half dozen times in the last year for my xerox v280. They kept doing stuff and it's running better, but nothing specific they did was The Solution.

 

[namelessentity]

Techs typically have no idea what they're talking about outside of the physical machine. He's probably going by something he heard in 2002 and thinks it's still relevant. That's not a knock on techs, it's just not part of their training.

 

[Magnus59]

We send PDFs (impose PDFs from Prinergy) to the Fiery on our Ricoh 9200 all day long. The only issues we have had are, the Fiery doesn't always honour overprints correctly, meaning we have to strip out Prinergy's trapping and re-trap on the Fiery (Indigo has no problem with Prinergy trapping) and we had to change a setting to "prefer PDF Print Engine" or something similar.
The fact that the Fiery uses an Adobe Rip which includes PPE and CPSI has now been deprecated on most Rips suggests that PDFs are the preferred input file.
Using Postscript is a massive step backwards, no transparency support, no geometry ie trim, bleed. art boxes etc, limited colour management and a whole lot of other drawbacks.

 

[pippip]

We had rip issues last year with blue screen of death, mainly happening with larger file sizes.
First thing the tech did was replace the ram, didn't work so hard drive after. Maybe dodgy ram?

 

[scotts]

We have Fiery on both of our Ricohs. We do not use the Fiery's Adobe PDF Print Engine to print, unless there is an issue with it printing our PDFs. Maybe with your new install, the tech turned that on by default. And maybe that is what Ricoh support is talking about when they mean print using PS. I would check how your Fiery is setup.

You could always drag a file into the Fiery and turn that option on/off to see which prints. Or which prints better.

 

[kslight]

I have always been sending PDFs, to my Ricoh currently and every machine I’ve had previously. My experience has been the techs don’t know much about the Fiery or files. The fierys IMHO have a failure rate for an extremely expensive glorified PC, I have seen literally every component fail on them even when nearly new. If you’re having regular issues, and reloading the fiery doesn’t fix it, very likely there’s a hardware issue. Surprisingly, the fiery on my Ricoh installed in March 2022 has been pretty solid so far.

 

[EZPower]

Some of you already commented on the Techs not knowing how Fiery works. With our Ricohs we have the same Issue. Our Techs are the best when it comes to the Ricoh machines, Fiery makes their eyes water. And icing on the cake, Fiery Tech Support will not talk to you, ever. It can only be the service provider.

 

[Shawnd]

You just reminded me I need to do a backup on my 7200 fiery.

We print .pdf's exclusively, we have had some lockup the fiery but figured out the issue with artwork and keep on printing.

 

[TJPrinter]

And icing on the cake, Fiery Tech Support will not talk to you, ever. It can only be the service provider.

This is so very true! The vendor (Ricoh) can get Fiery on a conference call with the customer, and Canon did this for me one time. It didn’t solve the issue and the Fiery specialist couldn’t wait to hang up the phone but it’s worth a try to let Ricoh know they need to get Fiery involved.

I was sending pdf’s to a Harlequin rip attached to a Agfa Imagesetter 20 years ago, so we shouldn’t be expected to be going backwards by sending Postscript files to a modern digital press.

 

[tngcas]

Some of you already commented on the Techs not knowing how Fiery works.

We have the same problem with the fieries and techs. One of our techs blames every issue on the fiery. Literally, every issue, even when it's clearly not a fiery issue. (paper jams, lines on the prints etc.)

That's not how any of this works.
It's making me crazy.

 

[kslight]

We have the same problem with the fieries and techs. One of our techs blames every issue on the fiery. Literally, every issue, even when it's clearly not a fiery issue. (paper jams, lines on the prints etc.)

That's not how any of this works.
It's making me crazy.

I had someone like that with Xerox. I think really she just loved sitting for half the day reloading the software, instead of troubleshooting the printer.

 

[rcreveli]

One of our 7200s has been having Fiery issues for over a month. Our tech replaced the HD and reloaded the software, but it is still having the Fiery Server software crashing at least every other day and it sometimes has the top display go black and just won't respond to any inputs. I called in again for service today and our regular tech was off until tomorrow, but another tech called in and told us that our regular guy was off and offered some "helpful advice". He asked if we were printing PDFs, which we do and he said that these machines aren't really designed for that and that we should try just running Postscript files instead. He said that would probably fix our issues and we wouldn't need to do anything else.

We have been running PDFs on both machines for almost 5 years without issue, does this statement have any merit?

So ... the EFI Fiery that you can have outfitted with Acrobat Pro / Pitstop(A PDF Plugin) is not designed to run PDF's?
I've been using Fiery's in PDF exclusive environments since at least 2004 and this is a new one on me.