Enhanced Print Quality setting seems to offset second page during double-sided printing

[mikechurch]

When I print documents double-sided on A4 paper using Standard Print Quality, all is good. When I change to use Enhanced Print Quality, the back side pages are offset - their content is shifted significantly to the right.

This is totally repeatable. And it makes Enhanced Print Quality quite useless for me.

[CathyO-Xerox]

Hello Mike,

I have never heard of this issue before. I searched our Knowledgebase and cannot find anything on this. So I would recommend contacting the Support Department for more assistance: 1-800-821-2797

[mikechurch]

Yes, I have contacted them already. Like you, I could find nothing in the forum covering this. Thanks for the response.

[mikechurch]

I had a support engineer call on me today regarding this matter. After two hours of investigation, all we could conclude is a hardware fault. All other possible "remedies" failed to solve the issue. I'll let you know the outcome of a hardware swap-out (hopefully tomorrow).

[mikechurch]

The hardware swap-out did not fix the problem. Even after downgrading the firmware to an earlier version (suspecting that the latest firmware has a problem), the problem persists.

So now the printer has been declared "DOA" (Dead On Arrival), and Xerox have agreed to replace this printer with a new instance of the same model. Hopefully that one won't have the reported problem, because if it does, that would suggest a fault with the printer design or (more likely) a fault with the latest firmware.

FYI, a technician at Xerox is planning to test another instance of the same printer model to see if the problem is reproduceable in the workshop.

I'll let you know the outcome once the printer is replaced.

[mikechurch]

Well, it has taken over a month, but Xerox have finally arranged to despatch a replacement printer. I hope it will be with me before the Christmas holiday, but I'm expecting that it will be after. I'll let you know if the replacement printer shows the same problem.

[mikechurch]

Just as an experiment, I decided to try printing a two-page A4 document as a two-sided output in Enhanced mode, but with the paper size set at "Letter" (the usual US paper size). Guess what? The second side was not displaced at all - both pages of the printed document were centred on the paper the same way on both sides. (I mean, the margins were applied for Letter paper rather than A4, so it was printed incorrectly - but at least the margins were equally wrong on both sides of the printout).

This might suggest that the firmware on the printer was tested only on US paper sizes. Those tests will have passed, of course. Testing on European paper sizes (in this case A4) probably wasn't done. If so, whoops (and I'm guessing the replacement printer I'm going to receive on 5th January will exhibit the self-same problem).

[mikechurch]

Oh dear. I have now received and installed the replacement Xerox WorkCentre 3345 - and it exhibits exactly the same problem as the one that it replaced.

In other words, this particular printer model has a fault in its design. Firmware or driver, I'm not sure, but a fault nonetheless.

I will be contacting customer support imminently to request a fix, and maybe some redress.

[mikechurch]

And technical support have advised me to update the firmware to the latest version (due for general release soon).

Guess what?

No change. It still offsets the 2nd pages of double-sided printing on A4 in Enhanced quality.

The printer's firmware or driver is faulty. A printer that doesn't register its printing in the right place on the paper is just not a printer.

Two months now since I first reported the issue, and still Xerox seem reluctant to own the issue and schedule a fix.

[TonyP-Xerox]

Have you checked the print driver options to see if you have an image shift option? I don't have your same device but my C405 has an image shift option where I can offset the image to make sure that the image prints correctly.