guzwid

Hello guys, this is my first post.

I've been using canon i6500 for more then a year, my os is windows XP and 40gb hard disk space for system. I always using original canon ink. Lately, in the middle of printing process (in not so big file & I'm not doing other application) the printer stop (idle) for several second and then continuing printing, idle again then continue....until finish. This affect my printing result which is become stripes, not smooth. Do someone know what is going on with my printer? I've try to contact the Canon rep office but they never give me any feedback.

Regards,
Guzwid - Bali

jflan

Welcome to TSF

How many pages is your typical print job (average) ?

Sounds like a spooling issue, we can start with this...
I will include a screenshot of a similar Canon printer that is working normally.
Please let me know if your settings match these.

For Canon support worldwide, this is a good jumping-off point:
http://www.canon.com/gateway/region/asia.html

Attached Images

pixma4000.bmp (1.37 MB, 6 views)

guzwid

Hi Jflan,

Sometimes it happened when I print just one file, like a photo image or a color chart, but it's not happen when printing text or small images. Yes, my setting is same like yours, it's a default printer setting I presume.

jflan

Do your Print Spooler settings look like this in the attachment ?

If so maybe we should uninstall and refresh your printer's drivers.
Navigation to your printer's XP drivers starts here:
http://www.canon-asia.com/index.jsp?fuseaction=support

Attached Images

Print Spooler.JPG (92.2 KB, 7 views)

guzwid

Yes, since I just built this new system then all my driver and setting are still in default.

Regarding the driver, I'm using the one came together with the printer, which is: Version 1.63. Should I upgrade it to the one from the canon site which is i6500 Printer Driver Ver. 1.90 (Windows XP)?

Is it possible the problem happened because the printer has not enough memory to do the process? Or is there anything to do with printer cache memory that is full? I'm not sure about this, just checking

jflan

Yes, I would try the new driver. The old one may not be optimized for XP.

That is a wide-format printer and I'm sure it is designed to handle large amounts of data very well.
It's not a good idea to leave the printer's queue with documents waiting to print, unless it is intended for some reason.
Many printer's on-board memory can be cleared with a power cycle.
Just unplug for a few minutes.

These printers have their own memory and they retrieve data for the print job as needed from your hard drive.
This hesitation must be your printer communicating with your computer (HD) and retrieving more data.
There is supposed to be a buffering effect so that this is seamless.

I'm hoping that the new driver will cure this issue for you.

Here's a FYI from Wikipedia :

In computer science, spooling refers to putting jobs in a buffer, a special area in memory, or on a disk where a device can access them when it is ready. This is similar to a sewing machine spool, onto which a person puts thread, and a machine pulls at its convenience. Spooling is useful because devices access data at different rates. The buffer provides a waiting station where data can reside while the slower device catches up. Material is only added and deleted at the ends of the area; there is no random access or editing. This also allows the CPU to work on other tasks while waiting for the slower device to do its task. It can also refer to a storage device that incorporates a physical spool, such as a tape drive.

The most common spooling application is print spooling. In print spooling, documents are loaded into a buffer (usually an area on a disk), and then the printer pulls them off the buffer at its own rate. Because the documents are in a buffer where they can be accessed by the printer, the user is free to perform other operations on the computer while the printing takes place in the background. Spooling also lets users place a number of print jobs in a queue instead of waiting for each one to finish before specifying the next one.

PGJG

This may also work with XP. I was having a similar problem with my HP C7180 all in one printer using Vista Home Premium. I sent a number of emails to HP support to which they replied with a number of options to try . None worked. They also sent me to another website (non HP) and that didn't work either nor did Microsofts resolution. HP told me it needed personal attention and to phone their support. I did that and it seems to be working at the moment. Bear in mind my printer was printing A4 pages OK, it was just the photo tray that wasn't printing. Sorry for going on a bit but try what they told me (if your printer is connected by USB cable).

1. Click the start button
2. In the text box, type services.msc
3. In the right hand pane, scroll down to "Print Spooler"
4. Right click on it and make sure "Startup type" is set to "Automatic".
5. Click OK
6. Right click on "Print Spooler" again and click on "Restart" and then "OK".
7. Remove the USB cable from the back of the printer.
8. Restart your computer.
9. Once it is restarted, put the USB cable back in and try printing again.

I hope this is of some help.

Phil

guzwid

Thanks guys for your attention and advices. I did update my driver and try to remove the usb stuff, but still same problem occur. This one getting worse, I tried to print a photoshop testing image (10mb) in A4 and the printing process took a minutes. It print one line and then stop for 10 sec, continue like that until finish, can you imagine that?

So, any other suggestion? Is it try to reset the waste ink tank counter number will do any different?

One other question: If my print has a solid 100% black vector image and there are also other image in color, is my black color will be printed with only black ink or combination of CMY ink? Because the result of print black color from black ink only is different from combination of CMY ink.

guzwid

One feedback came from Canon office here:
There are possibility of problem in printer logic board.

Is this really possible?

jas_minor

I had same problem a while ago and it was due to having 2 printers set up on my PC with a job in the print queue of the one I wasn't using. As soon as I deleted the print queue from the other printer. The printer I was using worked fine again.

guzwid

In my case, i only have one comp and there's no other print queue. After discussion with some technicians, they said this happened because of the ink waste counter which almost full. So, i try to reset with the manual way:

1: Power off printer
2: Hold Resume button then press and hold POWER, the beeper will sound once.
3: Hold POWER and release RESUME
4: Press RESUME twice
5: When the indicator lights steady, press RESUME three(3) times. The indicator should be orange.
6: Press Power to set data

I tried it several times but still there's no 'beep' indication in the step no.2, and no affect in the next step also. Is this manual guide correct for canon i6500?