Very odd problem - center egrave stops rastering

[John Noell]

I am awaiting tech support response but this one is making me scratch my head. In the middle of a series, I send a typical file with "center-center" engraving and the laser no longer fires while the head goes back and forth. Vectors are okay. ANY time I set the driver to "center" engrave, the laser will not fire on rasters until it is restarted and a non-center job is sent. I have restarted the laser, restarted the computer, re-installed the driver with no change. Send any job that is not centered and all is well. Simply check the box for "center engrave" and the same job no longer rasters. Immediately scroll back up to the previous job and it no longer rasters. Suggestions?

[Mike Null]

I'm not familiar with your drivers but when something like that happens to me I've usually left out a step or two in the process.

Do you have the table or plate parameters set properly. Is there some other part of the driver that requires a check-off before beginning?

[Frank Corker]

John I know you've probably been down this road before, but you have nothing to lose. Uninstall your printer (laser). Reboot the machine. Check that it is no longer listed as a printer. Re-install the new drivers, reboot the system. Sometimes it flushes out rogue or defunct drivers.

[John Noell]

I was starting the same job a second time when it happened. Put new stock in, hit GO, and the problem started. Frank, as I mentioned, I have restarted both computer and laser (repeatedly), uninstalled driver, restarted computer, re-installed driver, still no go. I think has to be something corrupted in the driver when selecting Center Engrave but...???

[Frank Corker]

Okay John I don't doubt you. Have you downloaded the latest drivers, because they were only posted in the last couple of weeks at the Epilog website. Alternatively if the problem is only recent and since that upgrade there might be a conflict within your computer, but you will be able to download earlier drivers from the same location.

[John Noell]

I just downloaded the 8.2 driver (I was using 8.1) and installed it. Same problem. Start everything up, move head to wherever you want and 'set Home.' Print a small black square ('Job 1' on LCD) and all is okay. Choose 'print' again, check the "Center engrave" box, LCD says Job 2), hit Go, and the head goes back and forth but the laser does not fire. Scroll back up to Job 1, hit Go, and the laser does not fire. Looks like it really is the laser. (Warranty ran out last month.)

[John Noell]

ARGGHHH!!! Was (!!!) FIXED!!! Updated the firmware and reflashing did it!!! Then...

UPDATE: NOT!!! FIXED on 2nd boot it once again no longer rasters when centered. ARGGHHHH!!!!!

[Tim Bateson]

Sounds like it's time to take the side off and re-seat all of the cables.

[Peck Sidara]

John,

I use center/center, left/center, right/center, page/center regularly, no problems here. It works just fine. It is likely a step we're missing here.

Go to our website and download the latest driver and firmware for your Mini. Save these files(in their own folder) somewhere on your desktop/c drive so that you're certain this is the only driver/firmware you'll be using.

Delete your current driver completely. It's a two step process:

1. right mouse click on printer icon, delete.
2. In the same printer/faxes screen, click on file/server properties. From there click on the drivers tab and select any/all Epilog driver files, delete.
3. Reboot

Once this is done, do a fresh install of the latest print driver. Once this is done, reboot and assure it has a build date of 11/25/08.

Load the latest firmware V 1.0.2.5

If that doesn't work, feel free to email me the file along w/ the configuration file and I'll have a closer look.

[John Noell]

Amazingly, the problem seems to have been the Ethernet cable and/or the port in the switch. I had switched to my laptop and got the same problem (using the cable pulled from the main PC) but Brian of Epilog Tech Support said that it sounded like a communication issue. I put a new cable in a different port and it has worked six times in a row - thru restarts! Truly bizarre that simply sending a print job with "Center Engrave" could absolutely reliably cause the laser to not fire when rastering - but not vectoring. Thru multiple restarts of al equipment - over two days, with driver and firmware updates, the two problems were no laser when rastering after sending a centered print job and random stray lines when rastering (but of course it rastered only if no center engrave jobs had been sent). And even jobs that HAD worked, stopped working after a center engrave print file was sent. How can that be??????