Ricoh AD1FAX Technical Bulletin prcon

RICOH Technical Bulletin PAGE: 1/1

Model: AD1-E (Printer Controller) Date: 30-Jun-97

No: 33

Subject: AD1-E Printer Controller Launching Prepared by: A.Nakajima
From: QAC 2nd Field Information Dept.
Classification:

Troubleshooting
Mechanical
Paper path
Other (Launching Information)

Part information
Electrical
Transmit/receive

Action required
Service manual revision
Retrofit information

The new Printer Controller is going to be issued as an optional device for the AD1-E
copier.
This RTB clarifies the differences between the printer controller for AD1 and AD1-E.

The new printer controller has been developed as an optional device for AD1-E by
changing the video clock and the firmware of the AD1 controller. In addition to the AD1
printer controller, the AD1-E controller supports paper feeding from the LCT. Supported
paper sizes fed from the LCT in printer mode are 8 1/2” x 11” (L) and A4 (L).
The controllers for AD1 and AD1-E are not interchangeable, though both of them can be
physically installed on either copier. If the AD1 controller is installed in the AD1-E
(or the opposite way round), abnormally enlarged (or reduced) print images may result.
The service procedures; e.g. installation, troubleshooting, are the same as for the AD1
controller.

The other optional devices and software related to the printer controller (Printer Hard Disk,
Network Interface Card, Printer Drivers, and Utilities) can be used in both machines.

Summary of Differences
Item AD1 Controller AD1-E Controller
Model Code A643 A805
Maximum Print Speed 20 ppm 25 ppm
Firmware Unique Unique
Video Clock 62.616 MHz 79.314 MHz
LCT Feeding Not supported (Note 1) Supported

Note 1:
The LCT can be selected with the printer driver, though it cannot be installed on the
machine. This is because the AD1 and AD1-E printer controllers use the same driver. If a
user selects the LCT with the driver, paper will be fed from the default tray.

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MB Correction

Reissue date:
The items in bold italic have been corrected or added.

Model:

AD1-Printer Type 250

30-Nov-97

Date:

23-Jul-97

No:

PAGE: 1/3

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Subject:
From:
Classification:

Firmware and Software History

QAC Field Inform ation Dept.

Troubleshooti ng
Mechanical
Paper path
Other ( )

A. Firmware for Controller Type 250.

1. History and Checksum List.

Ver Check Sum Released on

U23 U24

1.35

1.32

1.26
(1.24)
(1.21)

1.08

1.07

1.06

1.03 1st Mass Prod. (’96.12.5)

3301

8FD5

3EC3
F38F
7A04
59BA

901F

5DAD

Prepared by:

Part information
Electrical
Transmit/receive

1D08

3EFD

64E8
AC48
AC4F
F0C2

6D97

1E45

K.Ugaeri

Action required
Service manual revision
Retrofit information

’97.9.30
’97.8.26

’97.6.10
Temporary (’97.5.28)
Temporary (’97.5.20)
’97.4.2
’97.2.2
’96.12.17

2.Corrected Symptom

When printing a banner page in a staple job, the banner page is printed
incorrectly.
Resource saving on the test page indicate “1219 kbytes allocated of 1219
kbytes available.” It should be “0 Kbytes allocated of ...”

When printing in Raster mode with custom paper size setting, output is
incorrect.

The Line Per Page setting value in the PCL menu was changed after power was
switched off/on.

While data is in the print queue, if you press the Job Reset key, some problems
may occur.

While data is in the print queue, either Memory Overflow or Lock Up occured.

(Acrobat, Page Maker)

After printing 300 dpi data, only half of the 600 dpi data is printed out,.
Image cut off if the previous jo b w as print ed u sing long edge f eed (300 dpi) and

the curren t job is printed with sho r t edge feed (300 dpi).
After printing data for a small paper size, if you print data for a bigger paper
size, only data to fill the previous pape size is printed out.

Ver.

1.35

1.32

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Model:

After printing a job using staple mode, if sending another job which changed
the Page Protection Mode from the previous job’s setting, sometimes it does
not work, and the data stays in the print queue.

When setting User Code, if you send data to print while the LCD shows “Input
user code...”, it does not work without pressing the offline / online key even if
you input the User Code.

Side-to-side motion of the finisher does not work in the energy save and night timer mode.
The demo page cannot be printed. (

Lock Up

sector control failure.

AD1-Printer Type 250

∗This is a problem only for version 1.24)

occurs occasi o n ally while the printing data is being stored on the HDD due to a

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Ver.

1.32

1.26

Lock-up

The finisher is supported.
Print overrun because of access tim e to HDD.

The band buffer is increased from 660KB to 4MB.
∗ ∗ If the controller has a HDD, more than 4MB of SIMM memory must be added.

General Protection Fault during Landscape Printing in Raster mode.

Output

Page ordering is wrong.
(∗ ∗ For duplex printing, interleave on, and interrupt copying)

The printer hangs up when printing word data with lines shaded with colors as HP/GL.
(∗ Duplex printing, HP/GL mode and colored lines)

Paper jam in Duplex mode when an A4 size page is printed on A3 paper.

when the job reset button is pressed during data storage. (1.24)

of a Genoa FTS file is different from that of HP ( ∗ ∗Genoa FTS file).

(1.21)

1.08

1.07

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B. Driver Software for Win 3.1/Win 95

1. History List

Ver Released o n

2.00

1.30

1.21

1.10

1.00

‘97.7.9

’97.5.19
’97.4.2
’97.2.2
1st Mass Prod.(’96.12.5)

2. Corrected Symptom

Ver.

1) Even if setting True Type Mode to “ Down Load as True Type “, it is output as a bit image.

2) When printing Hound.doc with Win 3.1, a part of the Univers Font was printed incorrectly.

3) When setting B5 Env.in the Bypass Tray, WinPanel shows “Add F4 paper into Bypass Tray.”

4) When installing Win95 driver by Add Printer, the help File was not installed.
The finisher is supported. 1.30
In Raster mode, a part of the graphic data cannot be printed correctly. 1.21
Power Point for Windows 95 cannot print raster Images.

2.00

1.10

C. Host Panel for DOS

1.History List

Ver Released o n

1.02

1.01

1.00

’97.5.25
’97.4.2
1st Mass Prod. (’96.12.5)

2. Corrected Symptom

Ver.

Profile which has the Host Panel setting information in Duplex mode cannot be opened
correctly.

TBA ( To Be Announced ) 1.01

1.02

RICOH Technical Bulletin PAGE: 1/3

Model: AD1-Printer Controller Type 250 Date: 23-Jul-97

No: 37

Subject: Print Overrun Memory Overflow Problem Prepared by: K.Ugaeri
From: QAC 2nd Field Information Dept.
Classification:

Troubleshooting
Mechanical
Paper path
Other ( )

Part information
Electrical
Transmit/receive

Action required
Service manual revision
Retrofit information

This RTB reports the mechanism & countermeasure for the Print Overrun problem and the
Memory Overflow problem in the printer controller type 250.

1. Data flow in the controller unit
a. No d. e.
PC I/O Buffer Page Buffer Image buffer Engine

-660 kB (without HDD)

b.

-4 MB (with HDD)

PJL,PCL
Parser

Sorter
= ON

Yes

c.

Download
resources
(Fonts, Macros)

f.

HDD
Image Data
or Compressed
image data

Controller

a. I/O Buffer for receiving and sending data.
b. Stores the operation language software (such as PCL and PJL).
c. Manages downloaded resources (such as Fonts and Macros).
d. Holds and processes data from incoming print jobs.
e. Image video buffer for sending video data to the engine to print.
f. *When the HDD is installed, it is used only for the sorting function.
If the sorting function is selected, the data is stored in the HDD.
*With HDD, the SIMM memory must be more than 4MB from Ver.1.21 firmware.

RICOH Technical Bulletin PAGE: 2/3

Model: AD1-Printer Controller Type 250 Date: 23-Jul-97

2. Memory Overflow Mechanism
This means that there was not enough printer memory for the language requested for the

print job.
If the user sends a print job which will use lots of memory, it might cause a memory

overflow. Memory overflow might happen at points b, c, and d above. When memory
overflow happens and the user presses the continue key, the printer prints only part of the
page. This problem can be solved by adding SIMM memory (8 MB or more).

3. Print Overrun Mechanism
This means that the data sent to the printer was too complex. It will happen only while

printing the data (preparing image data and sending image data to the engine at the same
time). If the print job is so complex that the printer cannot complete the image for the
engine, then print overrun will happen.

- Case 1: HDD Access Time ­This happens if the data takes too long to move because of the limit on HDD access time.

This problem with the HDD can be solved by updating the firmware to version 1.21 or later
and adding SIMM memory (more than 4 MB). The printer will allocate 4 MB for the image
buffer (point e in the diagram) if the HDD is installed with firmware version 1.21 or later.
After all the pages of one job are stored on the hard disk, the printer will move the image
data from the hard disk to the image buffer until the image buffer is used up, and then it
will tell the engine to start. Paper sizes smaller than A4 or LT should not have this
problem.

No: 37

- Case 2: HDD Reading Error ­This happens if there is an error when reading from the HDD. Vibrations from the duplex

unit may cause this problem. To alleviate the problem, the HDD bracket has been modified
with four rubber cushions. When the HDD is installed on the controller, use new brackets
to protect the HDD from reading errors caused by vibration. ROJ will provide new brackets
for all HDDs which were shipped with old brackets.

RICOH Technical Bulletin PAGE: 3/3

Model: AD1-Printer Controller Type 250 Date: 23-Jul-97

- Case 3: HDD sector control failure ­The sector information is controlled by the firmware. But this information is occasionally

damaged by a firmware bug and this problem or a hang-up problem happens. This
problem has been solved by the firmware version 1.26.

->If the finisher and the HDD are installed on the printer, use the following:
* Firmware version 1.26
* Driver version 1.30
* New HDD bracket

No: 37