Xerox 1000 Install...

S

ShortRunMagazines

Well-known member
Tomorrow is the end of week 3 of our 3 day install of our New Xerox 1000.
Don't know if anyone is interested of the progress, so here is an update...
FreeFlow issues outstanding:
• Cannot boot Free Flow Print Server while connected to network (there is an issue with the FreeFlow Remote Print Server Software installed on computers, so either close all software or unplug network cable until booted).
• Job Status is not accurate. 50/100 reads 25% done. (Basically 50% done is completed...)
• Adobe PDF RIP is not that great. It's big selling point is elimination of layering issues, well... it doesn't.
• 1 UP Auto-Center doesn't center the print. It's about 3/8" low on the page.
• Windows 7 x64 installed driver will throw a postscript error on page 5 on every document you print. (So basically no ability to "File->Print" to the system.)
• Some USB Thumb drives won't work with this model FreeFlow. Xerox's solution, replace them and hope for the best (nevermind they have worked in 4 other FreeFlows in the last year).
• Hot Folder Polling interval is set to 5 seconds. Files can take up to 10 minutes to show in the FreeFlow from completion of data transfer. (Yes, we are on Gigabyte Ethernet, so it's not us.)
• When "Print and Save" is selected. The settings for the "Sample Pages" are not being saved.
• Print-Now/Proof Print is not 100% reliable and may throw code.
PCUI (PC User Interface)
• Some error screens pop under other screens yet you cannot close the top screen until you "ESC" the lower (focused) error.
• While running, shows the job status as "0 of 0" regardless of how many are actually printed.
• You MUST be logged in as Administrator to make any changes to the stock library. HOWEVER, you CANNOT print while logged in. You spend a lot of dead time figuring out why it's not printing only to realize you need to log out.
Print Engine (IOT)
• Currently experience Incessant Jamming on all cover stocks (including 81# Cover).
• Difficulty with some halftones. Shows as a dark band in the non-process direction about 5.5 inches from lead edge.
• Full jam requires removal of up to 8 sheets of 12x18 paper in the path.
• Regardless of how long the door is open, fuser takes 4 minutes to "warm up".
• Side one seems to skew unpredictably anywhere from +0.4mm to -0.5mm from center. This skew will vary is severity by paper stock and will vary from sheet to sheet. Side two does not skew at all.
• Sample Button on High Cap Stacker may cause machine to throw comm code. Per Engineering, the only reliable method to sample print is to pause machine, request sample from FreeFlow, release print. This workaround takes approx 3-4 minutes for 1 sample sheet.
• Alignment profiles will burn 2 color clicks (no way to do grayscale/black only) and are not accurate if your job has high coverage. I am seeing as much as a 1.2mm change between the alignment page vs the true front-to-back on the printed sheets. (In the Lead/Tail direction only, spec is 0.5mm Front/Back.)
• Full Boot of PCUI/IOT/FFPS takes upwards of 15 minutes if you follow engineering's directives.

So far Xerox's Local reps has been great and have done everything they can. They are doing their best, but this unit just won't play nice. They have flown an engineer from Rochester, NY and a specialist from Dallas, TX. Unfortunately, we aren't able to reliably print with this engine so we may be sending it away. (Friday the 19th is the deadline). When it printing correctly, it puts out a pretty impressive piece. I'd say it rivals a 4 color Indigo easily and beats any other digital print I've seen hands down. Delta E is holding at less than 1.2 between pages. Other than the side one skew, registration holds pretty well throughout a run.
I said on day one, the hardware is not the major issue and the software was going to be the death-knell of this box. We've named it "The Olympic" because this feels like a marathon and I thought it would be fitting to name it after a sister ship of the Titanic.
In light of the above, I cannot, at this time, suggest this platform to any print shop. If the majority of the issues above are not resolved by Friday, we will be refusing the machine and keeping our DC 5000's that are far more predictable until the issues get worked out with the X800/X1000 Platform. I do see the potential of the unit, it's just to early for hardcore production (we product 350,000+ clicks on our 2 DC5000's per month).
 
Freeflow sounds so insanley full of bugs I can't believe they released it. Surely it must be totally counter productive to release it in its current state in terms of engineer visits (if they ever leave your premises in the first place!) and ongoing support costs.
 
On the subject of onsite support. We have averaged 4 Xerox employees per day onsite during business hours for the last 3 weeks. They also have been given a key and can come in early/on weekends as well... So yes, nobody is making money on this install.
 
ShortRunMagazines said:
Tomorrow is the end of week 3 of our 3 day install of our New Xerox 1000.
Don't know if anyone is interested of the progress, so here is an update...
FreeFlow issues outstanding:
• Cannot boot Free Flow Print Server while connected to network (there is an issue with the FreeFlow Remote Print Server Software installed on computers, so either close all software or unplug network cable until booted).
• Job Status is not accurate. 50/100 reads 25% done. (Basically 50% done is completed...)
• Adobe PDF RIP is not that great. It's big selling point is elimination of layering issues, well... it doesn't.
• 1 UP Auto-Center doesn't center the print. It's about 3/8" low on the page.
• Windows 7 x64 installed driver will throw a postscript error on page 5 on every document you print. (So basically no ability to "File->Print" to the system.)
• Some USB Thumb drives won't work with this model FreeFlow. Xerox's solution, replace them and hope for the best (nevermind they have worked in 4 other FreeFlows in the last year).
• Hot Folder Polling interval is set to 5 seconds. Files can take up to 10 minutes to show in the FreeFlow from completion of data transfer. (Yes, we are on Gigabyte Ethernet, so it's not us.)
• When "Print and Save" is selected. The settings for the "Sample Pages" are not being saved.
• Print-Now/Proof Print is not 100% reliable and may throw code.
PCUI (PC User Interface)
• Some error screens pop under other screens yet you cannot close the top screen until you "ESC" the lower (focused) error.
• While running, shows the job status as "0 of 0" regardless of how many are actually printed.
• You MUST be logged in as Administrator to make any changes to the stock library. HOWEVER, you CANNOT print while logged in. You spend a lot of dead time figuring out why it's not printing only to realize you need to log out.
Print Engine (IOT)
• Currently experience Incessant Jamming on all cover stocks (including 81# Cover).
• Difficulty with some halftones. Shows as a dark band in the non-process direction about 5.5 inches from lead edge.
• Full jam requires removal of up to 8 sheets of 12x18 paper in the path.
• Regardless of how long the door is open, fuser takes 4 minutes to "warm up".
• Side one seems to skew unpredictably anywhere from +0.4mm to -0.5mm from center. This skew will vary is severity by paper stock and will vary from sheet to sheet. Side two does not skew at all.
• Sample Button on High Cap Stacker may cause machine to throw comm code. Per Engineering, the only reliable method to sample print is to pause machine, request sample from FreeFlow, release print. This workaround takes approx 3-4 minutes for 1 sample sheet.
• Alignment profiles will burn 2 color clicks (no way to do grayscale/black only) and are not accurate if your job has high coverage. I am seeing as much as a 1.2mm change between the alignment page vs the true front-to-back on the printed sheets. (In the Lead/Tail direction only, spec is 0.5mm Front/Back.)
• Full Boot of PCUI/IOT/FFPS takes upwards of 15 minutes if you follow engineering's directives.

So far Xerox's Local reps has been great and have done everything they can. They are doing their best, but this unit just won't play nice. They have flown an engineer from Rochester, NY and a specialist from Dallas, TX. Unfortunately, we aren't able to reliably print with this engine so we may be sending it away. (Friday the 19th is the deadline). When it printing correctly, it puts out a pretty impressive piece. I'd say it rivals a 4 color Indigo easily and beats any other digital print I've seen hands down. Delta E is holding at less than 1.2 between pages. Other than the side one skew, registration holds pretty well throughout a run.
I said on day one, the hardware is not the major issue and the software was going to be the death-knell of this box. We've named it "The Olympic" because this feels like a marathon and I thought it would be fitting to name it after a sister ship of the Titanic.
In light of the above, I cannot, at this time, suggest this platform to any print shop. If the majority of the issues above are not resolved by Friday, we will be refusing the machine and keeping our DC 5000's that are far more predictable until the issues get worked out with the X800/X1000 Platform. I do see the potential of the unit, it's just to early for hardcore production (we product 350,000+ clicks on our 2 DC5000's per month).
Click to expand...

Are you using Xerox paper?
 
The paper factor

The paper factor

Xerox paper resolves 100% of all the problems particularly software bugs :):)

On the contrary I have seen the 1000 running with the Creo DFE with excellent results from the first minute.
Maybe you should test drive the Creo.
 
Last edited:
ShortRunMagazines said:
Let me quote just the issues that don not seem to be related to FF:

• Currently experience Incessant Jamming on all cover stocks (including 81# Cover).
• Difficulty with some halftones. Shows as a dark band in the non-process direction about 5.5 inches from lead edge.
• Full jam requires removal of up to 8 sheets of 12x18 paper in the path.
• Regardless of how long the door is open, fuser takes 4 minutes to "warm up".
• Side one seems to skew unpredictably anywhere from +0.4mm to -0.5mm from center. This skew will vary is severity by paper stock and will vary from sheet to sheet. Side two does not skew at all.
• Sample Button on High Cap Stacker may cause machine to throw comm code. Per Engineering, the only reliable method to sample print is to pause machine, request sample from FreeFlow, release print. This workaround takes approx 3-4 minutes for 1 sample sheet.
• Alignment profiles will burn 2 color clicks (no way to do grayscale/black only) and are not accurate if your job has high coverage. I am seeing as much as a 1.2mm change between the alignment page vs the true front-to-back on the printed sheets. (In the Lead/Tail direction only, spec is 0.5mm Front/Back.)
• Full Boot of PCUI/IOT/FFPS takes upwards of 15 minutes if you follow engineering's directives.

So far Xerox's Local reps has been great and have done everything they can. They are doing their best, but this unit just won't play nice. They have flown an engineer from Rochester, NY and a specialist from Dallas, TX. Unfortunately, we aren't able to reliably print with this engine so we may be sending it away. (Friday the 19th is the deadline). When it printing correctly, it puts out a pretty impressive piece. I'd say it rivals a 4 color Indigo easily and beats any other digital print I've seen hands down. Delta E is holding at less than 1.2 between pages. Other than the side one skew, registration holds pretty well throughout a run.
I said on day one, the hardware is not the major issue and the software was going to be the death-knell of this box. We've named it "The Olympic" because this feels like a marathon and I thought it would be fitting to name it after a sister ship of the Titanic.
In light of the above, I cannot, at this time, suggest this platform to any print shop. If the majority of the issues above are not resolved by Friday, we will be refusing the machine and keeping our DC 5000's that are far more predictable until the issues get worked out with the X800/X1000 Platform. I do see the potential of the unit, it's just to early for hardcore production (we product 350,000+ clicks on our 2 DC5000's per month).
Click to expand...

dear "Short Run Magazines",
Excuse me,
On the one hand you say that "hardware" is not the major issue but the underlined ones are definitely "hardware" issues.
Where did you see the press printing OK. At a demo? At GraphExpo?

It is risky to be pioneering when it's new unproven technology, isn't it?

Good luck,

Andres,
Madrid, Spain.
 
We have installed Xerox Color 1000 with EFI Fiery controller for 3 months and I have to say it works great. Printout quality is awesome and lot of people can not see the difference with offset.

So, as I can see it's the problem with Xerox FFPS controller and we have to understand that this is new product and there will be some problems...

Ask for Fiery controller and you will be happy - but you have to pay little bit more for this ;-)


Cheers,
jolde
 
We've been running our X800 with Fiery server for about 3 weeks and 300K clicks later I have to say the machine is awesome, yes it has bugs but that is expected in a new piece of hardware. We have Freeflow server on our X700 and I think Xerox needs to stick to making engines and let someone else handle the front end as we have a lot of bugs on our server as well. Hope they fix the issues.
 
Hey, I'm thinking about buying the FreeFlow solution with the Color 1000 Press, which of these problems do you think are the worst? Like your top 5?

ShortRunMagazines said:
• Cannot boot Free Flow Print Server while connected to network (there is an issue with the FreeFlow Remote Print Server Software installed on computers, so either close all software or unplug network cable until booted).
• Job Status is not accurate. 50/100 reads 25% done. (Basically 50% done is completed...)
• Adobe PDF RIP is not that great. It's big selling point is elimination of layering issues, well... it doesn't.
• 1 UP Auto-Center doesn't center the print. It's about 3/8" low on the page.
• Windows 7 x64 installed driver will throw a postscript error on page 5 on every document you print. (So basically no ability to "File->Print" to the system.)
• Some USB Thumb drives won't work with this model FreeFlow. Xerox's solution, replace them and hope for the best (nevermind they have worked in 4 other FreeFlows in the last year).
• Hot Folder Polling interval is set to 5 seconds. Files can take up to 10 minutes to show in the FreeFlow from completion of data transfer. (Yes, we are on Gigabyte Ethernet, so it's not us.)
• When "Print and Save" is selected. The settings for the "Sample Pages" are not being saved.
• Print-Now/Proof Print is not 100% reliable and may throw code.
PCUI (PC User Interface)
• Some error screens pop under other screens yet you cannot close the top screen until you "ESC" the lower (focused) error.
Click to expand...
 
Hello, I'm looking for similar configuration. Model 800 with Freeflow. Are you saying that your Freeflow doesn't work well with 1000. SOmeone suggested Fiery. What version is your Freeflow? Thanks for your reply.
 
There is also a Creo workflow for the 800/1000 series.

Thanks to the OP for posting - good to know the kind of trials and tribulations to expect when installing something this new.
 
Well, a bit of an update. We are at about 175,000 clicks (most 12x18) and have more issues. Software still sucks and is unstable, patch coming tomorrow that *should* improve the communication stability between the FFPS, IOT, and PCUI.

As for the hardware...
We are on our third IBT belt and need a fourth. Two were damaged trying to install them (I think one may have been damaged prior to install, but bad is bad...). Parts are on the next flight from Rochester, NY and should be here by 2PM tomorrow. We have had 2 full days of 0 production since last Monday and we were closed on Thursday of last week for Thanksgiving. We had a color shift that I measured with the EyeOne at a Delta E of 6.1 (spec is no more than 3). We don't expect to be online till the parts arrive and are installed in the afternoon tomorrow, so the losses continue to mount.

On the plus side, the drums appear to be vast improvements from the lesser DocuColor models that lasted only about 15k each. We are still on the factory drums and have no complaints in that department.

We currently have the color stability, banding, communication between components, and many FreeFlow bugs outstanding. They forced us into Xerox brand paper as that was causing the jamming. That solved the jamming; however, that paper jams, ironically, in the DocuColor 5000 where the Spicers paper works well. Today's color issues and banding are all printed on Xerox Select Gloss 100# Cover.

As things stand, unless the comm update works wonders and the banding/color issues (which in Xerox's defense are fairly new) are addressed this week, we will likely remove the unit and go back to the DC5000 platform (adding one and reinstalling the one that was removed to bring us to 3).

I still see good potential for the hardware, but it seems that the software is not ready for prime time. Perhaps in a year or two. If you are seriously looking at this platform, I'd think twice and if your still thinking about it, try thinking a third time too!

I do not think the issues are caused by our service group as they have been as good as any we have ever dealt with. I believe the main issues reside in the software and the fact that this platform is so new.

Just my $0.02 which has cost well over $10,000 to formulate at this point.
 
Xerox 1000

Xerox 1000

Like I said before my colleague printed last month 200k clicks with no problem at all!
He uses the Creo Rip and is extremely happy with it.
Ronen
 
I've seen flawless installs with Fiery and CREO; haven't had one with FreeFlow yet.

Why did you choose the FreeFlow?
 
ShortRunMagazines said:
All I will say as an update is that we are no longer owner of a Xerox 1000 Color Press...
Click to expand...

I'm getting mine installed next week. I hope I'll have more luck then you. I'm sorry to hear that it didn't work for you. I hope you can share with us what were the main problems, colour quality or software issues
 
Jolde said:
We have installed Xerox Color 1000 with EFI Fiery controller for 3 months and I have to say it works great. Printout quality is awesome and lot of people can not see the difference with offset.

So, as I can see it's the problem with Xerox FFPS controller and we have to understand that this is new product and there will be some problems...

Ask for Fiery controller and you will be happy - but you have to pay little bit more for this ;-)


Cheers,
jolde
Click to expand...

Happy New Year in advance. What is your monthly average output. How much volume is above 300gsm. Whether it is 5 color or 4 color.
 
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