Digital BW, The Print

I am new to the list and have been benefiting tremendously, although 
much is still over my head. I know that many of you have lots of 
experience with Epson 2200 printers and I have not found an answer to 
my problem on Epson's troubleshooting site. I am using Nanochrome bulk 
feed on an Epson 2200. Recently when I try to print an 8X10 at 2880 
dpi printing begins at normal speed. Then about a third of the way 
through the print the speed slows gradually until printing almost 
stops. I have lots of RAM and no other significant programs running. 
The problem began after a marathon of fiddling with the carts because 
of repeated clogging of the black cart. Then nozzle checks are finally 
okay, but now the printer chokes up as I described above. Any ideas?

Les

Check and make sure you have plenty of hard drive space, and also 
check to see if the hard drive needs to be defragmented.

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Greg" 
<dfaprinting@...> wrote:
>
> Check and make sure you have plenty of hard drive space, and also 
> check to see if the hard drive needs to be defragmented.
>

Have 2 GB free on hard drive and just defragged a couple days ago. But 
thanks for your suggestions.

Les,

If your print file sizes are anywhere near 100Meg, 2 Gig (contiguous?) 
free disk space may simply not be enough and, if you are printing from 
Photoshop, your computer may be using your primary drive for Photoshop's 
"Scratch Disk" which, ideally, should be a dedicated partition on a 
separate drive and as big as you can spare, but at least 5+ times your 
largest file (including all layers etc.). Photoshop is a real memory 
hog, there should be nothing competing with it, that you can avoid. 
Printing will compete with Photoshop and, if you are trying to work with 
Photoshop while printing, you may pull HDD and memory resources from the 
printer - I don't know if there is a way to fix this, but you may be 
able to make printing top priority at the expense of whatever else is 
going on.

Photoshop and your OS (Windows?) both need simultaneous access to a hard 
disk for normal functions and they should not be the same HDD, even if 
they use separate partitions. I think the ideal system setup is: OS on 
one HD drive, Photoshop on another, scratch disk on another and OS 
"virtual memory" (WindowsXP nomenclature) on a fourth HDD. Such a setup 
minimizes conflicting HDD accesses between OS and Photoshop (at least in 
Windows - don't know about Macs).

Frank

Frank,

The last file was very small, 2Meg. I'm using Photoshop Elements 3. 
I do have my OS and PE3 on the same hard drive and that could be a 
contributing factor. I did a disk cleanup after the defrag. That 
should have cleaned out the .tmp files. I will try freeing up more 
space on the HD. Thanks.

Les

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Frank Kolwicz 
<kolwicz@...> wrote:
>
> Les,
> 
> If your print file sizes are anywhere near 100Meg, 2 Gig 
(contiguous?) 
> free disk space may simply not be enough and, if you are printing 
from 
> Photoshop, your computer may be using your primary drive for 
Photoshop's 
> "Scratch Disk" which, ideally, should be a dedicated partition on 
a 
> separate drive and as big as you can spare, but at least 5+ times 
your 
> largest file (including all layers etc.). Photoshop is a real 
memory 
> hog, there should be nothing competing with it, that you can 
avoid. 
> Printing will compete with Photoshop and, if you are trying to 
work with 
> Photoshop while printing, you may pull HDD and memory resources 
from the 
> printer - I don't know if there is a way to fix this, but you may 
be 
> able to make printing top priority at the expense of whatever else 
is 
> going on.
> 
> Photoshop and your OS (Windows?) both need simultaneous access to 
a hard 
> disk for normal functions and they should not be the same HDD, 
even if 
> they use separate partitions. I think the ideal system setup is: 
OS on 
> one HD drive, Photoshop on another, scratch disk on another and OS 
> "virtual memory" (WindowsXP nomenclature) on a fourth HDD. Such a 
setup 
> minimizes conflicting HDD accesses between OS and Photoshop (at 
least in 

> Windows - don't know about Macs).
> 
> Frank
>

Frank and others,

I tried printing from my laptop and the result was the same as with 
my desktop. The 2200 printer seems to get tired half way throught 
the 8X10 print and finally almost stops. So it seems that the 
problem is in the printer rather than the computer. Any ideas short 
of sending it to be serviced? Any secrets on cleaning that may help?

Les

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Frank Kolwicz 
<kolwicz@...> wrote:
>
> Les,
> 
> If your print file sizes are anywhere near 100Meg, 2 Gig 
(contiguous?) 
> free disk space may simply not be enough and, if you are printing 
from 
> Photoshop, your computer may be using your primary drive for 
Photoshop's 
> "Scratch Disk" which, ideally, should be a dedicated partition on 
a 
> separate drive and as big as you can spare, but at least 5+ times 
your 
> largest file (including all layers etc.). Photoshop is a real 
memory 
> hog, there should be nothing competing with it, that you can 
avoid. 
> Printing will compete with Photoshop and, if you are trying to 
work with 
> Photoshop while printing, you may pull HDD and memory resources 
from the 
> printer - I don't know if there is a way to fix this, but you may 
be 
> able to make printing top priority at the expense of whatever else 
is 
> going on.
> 
> Photoshop and your OS (Windows?) both need simultaneous access to 
a hard 
> disk for normal functions and they should not be the same HDD, 
even if 
> they use separate partitions. I think the ideal system setup is: 
OS on 
> one HD drive, Photoshop on another, scratch disk on another and OS 
> "virtual memory" (WindowsXP nomenclature) on a fourth HDD. Such a 
setup 
> minimizes conflicting HDD accesses between OS and Photoshop (at 
least in 

> Windows - don't know about Macs).
> 
> Frank
>

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "lestihor"
<tihor@...> wrote:
>
> Frank and others,
> 
> I tried printing from my laptop and the result was the same as with 
> my desktop. The 2200 printer seems to get tired half way throught 
> the 8X10 print and finally almost stops. So it seems that the 
> problem is in the printer rather than the computer. Any ideas short 
> of sending it to be serviced? Any secrets on cleaning that may help?
> 
> Les
> 

Another performance tuning tip for Windows XP - turn off the 'Indexing
Service' on each of your hard drives. In Windows Explorer, right click
on the drive and select Properties. Then un-check the box that says
'Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching'. I
think after that you may be asked by Windows whether to do this for
all folders & files underneath the root folder, in this case say
'yes'. This may take some time to process, but it's worth it.

If left on, which AFAIK is the default for Win XP, this indexing
service can kick in at odd times & start consuming CPU and accessing
your hard drives, slowing the machine down. In principle I think it
can do silly things like trying to index printer temporary spool files
while they're being used ...

HTH

Alan

Les,

I have had this happen with a previous XP based system, but it was a few years ago and I don't remember the fix. Did you post your system specs here? I may have missed the post, so please post again (CPU brand/speed; memory; printer connection; other peripheral hardware; #/size of HDDs). 

One thing you might try right away is a different type of port connection (USB, 1394, LPT). 

The other thing is to do a thorough system clean-up: http://aumha.org/win5/articles.htm is a website with lots of info on keep XP running fast and smoothly, there are many others that might be suggested by list participants.

Take note of Bob Frost's remarks about the printer spooler especially.

Frank

Subject: Re: Epson 2200 slows to stop

Frank and others,

I tried printing from my laptop and the result was the same as with 
my desktop. The 2200 printer seems to get tired half way throught 
the 8X10 print and finally almost stops. So it seems that the 
problem is in the printer rather than the computer. Any ideas short 
of sending it to be serviced? Any secrets on cleaning that may help?

Les