Epson R200 slow to start printing?

  • Thread starter Thread starter John
  • Start date Start date
J

John

Hi. I just wondered why it often takes over 4 minutes before my Epson
R200 starts printing?

It's not much use having a printer that can do 12 black and white
pages per minute (or however many) if it takes so many minutes for it
to simply start printing.

It is often a simple word document of text that I am printing. It may
only be 60kb in size. What is holding this up from printing? Is it
something to do with my computer or the USB port it uses?

When I am printing in draft mode, I have got to admit this printer
spits out the pages very quickly when it gets going, its just it takes
so long before it actually starts printing it really gets me mad. I
don't know what takes it so long to send a simple instruction down a
cable to the printer?

If you can help or have similar experience please let me know.

John
 
John said:
Hi. I just wondered why it often takes over 4 minutes before my Epson
R200 starts printing?

It's not much use having a printer that can do 12 black and white
pages per minute (or however many) if it takes so many minutes for it
to simply start printing.

It is often a simple word document of text that I am printing. It may
only be 60kb in size. What is holding this up from printing? Is it
something to do with my computer or the USB port it uses?

When I am printing in draft mode, I have got to admit this printer
spits out the pages very quickly when it gets going, its just it takes
so long before it actually starts printing it really gets me mad. I
don't know what takes it so long to send a simple instruction down a
cable to the printer?

If you can help or have similar experience please let me know.

John
Click to expand...

John
Several questions...
Which Operating System are you using?
How much memory does your PC have?
What sort of document, is it faster with a text document than a Photograph?
Do you have any other USB devices and do they work well?
It is very unlikely to be a printer hardware problem, most likely PC capability.
Tony
 
Tony said:
John
Several questions...
Which Operating System are you using?
How much memory does your PC have?
What sort of document, is it faster with a text document than a
Photograph?
Do you have any other USB devices and do they work well?
It is very unlikely to be a printer hardware problem, most likely PC
capability.
Tony
Click to expand...

I would rather like to think that he just experienced a few of the dreaded
automatic cleaning cycles... Sometimes I also have this on my Canon, but on
the previous Epson this occurred much more frequently...

P-P.
 
John, you are right, it's the time it takes to talk through your USB. Once
it starts to print it will be normal. I am not sure if the R200 uses usb2 if
so check your Device Manager to see you have it running on usb2. If usb1
then it will be a littile slower getting the info to the printer.
 
John, you are right, it's the time it takes to talk through your USB. Once
it starts to print it will be normal. I am not sure if the R200 uses usb2 if
so check your Device Manager to see you have it running on usb2. If usb1
then it will be a littile slower getting the info to the printer.
 
John
Several questions...
Which Operating System are you using?
How much memory does your PC have?
What sort of document, is it faster with a text document than a Photograph?
Do you have any other USB devices and do they work well?
It is very unlikely to be a printer hardware problem, most likely PC capability.
Tony
Click to expand...

Tony

I am using Win XP Pro Sp2.
1024MB memory.

It usually takes at least 4 minutes plus no matter what it is
printing.

I have quite a few USB devices. At the moment just the MS wireless
keyboard and mouse, the Bluetooth dongle and the printer are
connected.

I also have a MiniDisc that connects via USB but I hardly ever connect
that to the computer. And just the flash disc drive which is connected
once in a blue moon.

All these devices work very well. It is just the printer that is slow
to start printing.

John
 
I would rather like to think that he just experienced a few of the dreaded
automatic cleaning cycles... Sometimes I also have this on my Canon, but on
the previous Epson this occurred much more frequently...
Click to expand...

What are they? If it is that then they must be happening constantly!

John
 
John, you are right, it's the time it takes to talk through your USB. Once
it starts to print it will be normal. I am not sure if the R200 uses usb2 if
so check your Device Manager to see you have it running on usb2. If usb1
then it will be a littile slower getting the info to the printer.
Click to expand...

How can I tell in device manager whether it is on USB 1 or 2?
Whereabouts will it say? And will this really make a difference? I
thought that USB 1 was supposed to 12mbits a second? Is so then even
if I had a document that was 1.5mb in size it should still go through
and start printing almost straight away should it not? And the
documents I am waiting 4 minutes before they start printing are only
60kb or so in size.

Cheers for your help

John
 
I have the r200 and it is usb1
John H.
How can I tell in device manager whether it is on USB 1 or 2?
Whereabouts will it say? And will this really make a difference? I
thought that USB 1 was supposed to 12mbits a second? Is so then even
if I had a document that was 1.5mb in size it should still go through
and start printing almost straight away should it not? And the
documents I am waiting 4 minutes before they start printing are only
60kb or so in size.

Cheers for your help

John
Click to expand...
 
I assumed perhaps quite wrongly that you will be using XP Home or Pro, if so
look in Device Manager and at USB Controllers and there should be a USB2
Host Controller if the drivers are installed. Again for XP, I assumed you
would have installed either SP1 or SP2. If you are using Wimdows ME or 98 SE
you will require to install the USB2 driver. Hope it's of help.
 
It still will only have the speed of usb1.1 the r200 and r220 are
usb1.1 epson went to the usb 2 starting with the r300.Go to epson.com
and check the specs on them there.I have the r200 and I have both 1.1
and 2.0 usb on my pc and the printer only runs at the 1.1 speed.
John
 
Sorry John, it seems that the R200 uses only USB1, so the info I given you
is useless for your printer.
 
I thought it was usb2.0 when I bought it. that was what I wanted because
I have both 1.1 and 2.0 usb. but after I hooked it up to my pc I checked
the epson printer basics manual and found out that it has the standard
1.1usb But it works as fast as any of my other printers.So I'm happy
with it.If the person who posted about his printer being slow has the
manual he can look on page 66 and it will tell him what causes the
printer to be slow.
John.H.
 
John said:
Tony

I am using Win XP Pro Sp2.
1024MB memory.

It usually takes at least 4 minutes plus no matter what it is
printing.

I have quite a few USB devices. At the moment just the MS wireless
keyboard and mouse, the Bluetooth dongle and the printer are
connected.

I also have a MiniDisc that connects via USB but I hardly ever connect
that to the computer. And just the flash disc drive which is connected
once in a blue moon.

All these devices work very well. It is just the printer that is slow
to start printing.

John
Click to expand...

John
If you are getting excessive cleaning cycles it will be obvious, the printer
will be moving the head a lot during the "delay" and there will be cleaning
cycle noises coming from the printer.
I see you have several USB devices, are you using a hub, if so is the printer
on the hub or direct connected to the PC USB ports? If it is s hub is it
powered or unpowered.
There are several known issues with various devices (mainly printers and
scanners) through hubs. I believe the powered hubs give less trouble. If the
printer is hub connected try it on a direct PC port.
The other thing you can safely do is remove the usb system drivers in Device
Manager and reboot, the OS will re-install them, this used to fix many problems
with USB devices with Win98, not sure whether XP has the same issues. Finally,
have you tried a different USB cable, obvious I know but a cable with a poor
connector just may be giving lots of recoverable errors, a long shot but easy
to check.
Tony
 
What are they? If it is that then they must be happening constantly!

John
Click to expand...

I have two 200's, both on xp sp2, and both start printing under a minute
after I tell them to print [from Elements 3] -- what I consider a
reasonable amount of time for elements to process the image and start to
fill the buffer.

If you are having "cleaning cycles", you would hear a lot of noise and
see obvious print head motion before any printing starts and before the
paper is fed. If you don't see that, you aren't having "cleaning
cycles". Period. I leave my printers turned on 24/7 [as well as the
connected computers], and I do not recall ever hearing "cleaning
cycles" -- even with infrequent printing [oem ink carts].

Also, despite all the usb1/2 'noise' in the [uninformed] responses so
far, the printer is only usb1, so being connected to a usb1 or usb2 port
is immaterial -- usb1 can more than keep up with the max printing speed.

All I can suggest is that you check the system manager to make sure you
have no usb device issues. What you describe should not be happening.
 
Chances are either you have a very large file to spool (perhaps it has a
lot of layers or other reason) or your spooling space is inadequate,
even with a smaller file. Make sure you have adequate contiguous
(defragmented) space on the hard drive the print spooler is on.

Art
 
What are they? If it is that then they must be happening constantly!

John
Click to expand...

I have two 200's, both on xp sp2, and both start printing under a minute
after I tell them to print [from Elements 3] -- what I consider a
reasonable amount of time for elements to process the image and start to
fill the buffer.

If you are having "cleaning cycles", you would hear a lot of noise and
see obvious print head motion before any printing starts and before the
paper is fed. If you don't see that, you aren't having "cleaning
cycles". Period. I leave my printers turned on 24/7 [as well as the
connected computers], and I do not recall ever hearing "cleaning
cycles" -- even with infrequent printing [oem ink carts].
Click to expand...

No I am not hearing any of this before something starts printing. I
just have a long silence for 4+ minutes before it starts.

John
 
What are they? If it is that then they must be happening constantly!

John
Click to expand...

I have two 200's, both on xp sp2, and both start printing under a minute
after I tell them to print [from Elements 3] -- what I consider a
reasonable amount of time for elements to process the image and start to
fill the buffer.

If you are having "cleaning cycles", you would hear a lot of noise and
see obvious print head motion before any printing starts and before the
paper is fed. If you don't see that, you aren't having "cleaning
cycles". Period. I leave my printers turned on 24/7 [as well as the
connected computers], and I do not recall ever hearing "cleaning
cycles" -- even with infrequent printing [oem ink carts].
Click to expand...

No I am not hearing any of this before something starts printing. I
just have a long silence for 4+ minutes before it starts.

John
Click to expand...

Beyond checking to see if you have any usb issues, the suggestion to make
sure you have sufficent defraged space for your spool file is where I'd
look next. But some info might still be useful: Are you trying to print
photos or text? From what application? Does the Epson print monitor pop
up near the start of the 4 minutes, or near the end? What does your task
manager say about the CPU usage during this four minutes?
 
John
If you are getting excessive cleaning cycles it will be obvious, the printer
will be moving the head a lot during the "delay" and there will be cleaning
cycle noises coming from the printer.
Click to expand...

I didn't have any problems with excessive cleaning cycles. No noise
between sending a job and waiting for printing to commence.
I see you have several USB devices, are you using a hub, if so is the printer
on the hub or direct connected to the PC USB ports? If it is s hub is it
powered or unpowered.
Click to expand...

I believe you have helped solve the problem! I have been using a
powered D-Link 8 port USB2 hub and had the printers usb cable
connected through it.

I have now tested the printer with the cable connected directly to one
of the USB ports on the computer, and the 2 text and 2 draft prints I
have done printed instantaneously!
There are several known issues with various devices (mainly printers and
scanners) through hubs. I believe the powered hubs give less trouble. If the
printer is hub connected try it on a direct PC port.
Click to expand...

Hum. My hub is powered and it appears this hub was causing the
problem. I wonder if there are any hubs that wont cause a problem?
Perhaps using a different hub to the D-Link one I have? One from a
different company?

Connecting directly to the computer does solve the problem. It does
also create another problem for me though.

My keyboard and mouse are wireless and the receiver has to be
connected to the other USB port on my computer which means there are
now no spare USB ports. So I can only have the printer connected to
it directly, or have the hub and attached device connected instead.

I thought that USB was supposed to be a system that you were able to
daisy-chain together lots of different devices? I can't understand why
there is a problem connecting a printer to the hub?

Do you think that if I connect an additional USB card within the
computer I would able to connect my device to that without problems?
Or perhaps there is another make of USB hub I can buy that wont have
issues with printer?

What about the USB socket that is on the front of the printer? Is
there a way I can connect my hub to that and run additional devices
through the hub via the printer? Or is the USB port on the front of
the printer just for sending images to the printer from digital
cameras etc? I have never really known what the purpose of that socket
is?

Thanks for all the help

John
 
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