Epilog Tech Rocks! Again!

[Dee Gallo]

I finally decided to replace my ancient pc and also upgrade from XP to 7. Of course, things could not go smoothly, since I had no idea which Epilog driver went with 7 and X3 Corel. So I called to find out which one to download. After I was walked through installing with one laser, I told the tech I could do the other one on my own... hehehe

So, after trying and re-doing and trying again, I ended up calling back. They were so nice, and walked me through it all again.. but still could not send a job to one of my lasers. After all kinds of settings-adjusting and IP address checking, he told me to switch ethernet cables. I did (after complaining "do you know how many wires there are down here??") and sure enough the job went through.

I NEVER would have guessed that a cable can "wear out". It had enough integrity to ping the signal, but not enough to carry the data. Amazing.

So thank you Brian J at Epilog, you were so patient and nice and RIGHT. I am so glad I have a laser with super great service available. I didn't even have to wait on the phone for more than about 1 minute each time.

Just happy, dee

BTW- Windows 7 is nice! Never thought I'd say that about a Windows system.

[Chuck Stone]

Heh heh .. she said 'nice' and 'Windows' in the same sentence. heh heh

Good for you.. good for Eplilog!

[Frank Corker]

A good job you can multitask! When I was unfortunate enough to lose the motherboard on my laser, two days later the motherboard AND hard drive on my computer, just a run of bad luck. A friend of mine started to rebuild a new one for me and kept hitting problem after problem, turned out to be one of the SATA cables that was at fault and it was brand new, so yep, they can fail.

[David Fairfield]

Funny, a long time ago, on an unrelated hardware problem, I replaced a cable in desperation, because nothing else worked, and it did the trick. Never knew why, now I know! Whoda thunk it?

[Craig Matheny]

BAck to the original topic Epilog Tech Support Rocks +1 Brian J. +2

[Larry Bratton]

Dee,
Be glad your running your laser with an ethernet connection instead of USB. Epilogs 32 bit driver is unfriendly with Windows 7. I recently switched mine to ethernet after getting 7. I was about to go bananas trying to keep it communicating. I have been through a lot lately, having to replace the tube and not one, but two motherboards. Did a thorough alignment and cleaning of the machine. Epilog tech support was with me all the way..Brian J, Brian D, and Ian. Best in the business. My machine cuts and engraves better than it has since it was new. Glad your up and running. (I agree with you about Windows 7 otherwise)

[jordan djeu]

btw how can a motherboard go bad???

[Dee Gallo]

Larry, I learned long ago that ethernet is worlds better than usb for connecting my laser to my computer... no more "job failed" messages! That was another suggestion by an Epilog tech 8 years ago and they have been consistently good over the years. Not only do they know from experience every way your system can go wrong and how to fix it, they are NICE about helping you and PATIENT when you are dense about understanding them.

~ dee

[Glen Monaghan]

Speaking of Epilog tech support and ethernet, a few months ago I was setting up a second (used) Epilog and couldn't get it to work with either ethernet or USB. I went a number of rounds with it assisted by one of the newer tech support personnel and we eventually concluded that the interface board had died, or possibly the motherboard had problems. We had tried both ethernet and USB, with two or three cables on each, and even two different laptops, all with no success in over an hour of trying. He suggested I order a new interface board because that would be cheapest and, if that didn't work, replace the motherboard. Or I could save time and order both, then return the MB if not needed.

I'd received this laser from someone who said he thought it worked but didn't know how to use it, and I had the option of returning the laser if I couldn't get it working. So, I told the support guy I wanted to go over the machine in detail first to decide whether I really wanted to keep it or not, and we left things there.

A couple of hours later, Ian (probably Epilog's most experienced tech support guy) called me and said he'd seen the report that I was having connection problems and that he was sure we could sort it out. I reported what we'd already done and the conclusion that something was probably wrong on the interface board or maybe the motherboard, but he asked me to bear with him and repeat a couple of tests, then maybe try a couple of other things. In just a matter of minutes, he suggested that my laptop's ethernet circuit was at fault. I reminded him that we'd already tried using a different laptop. It had never occurred to me (or the first tech) to try a loopback, but Ian asked me to ping the loopback address 127.0.0.1, and lo! every ping failed! Out came the 2nd laptop and same failure! I pulled my 3rd (and final;^) laptop off the first laser, installed the new drivers on it, and it and the new-to-me laser played together quite happily.

I asked why the USB connection hadn't worked and Ian opined that it likely was a broken trace at the connector on the board, something he'd seen a few times before with that model of engraver.

The first tech didn't resolve my issue, but it wasn't from total incompetence or lack of trying... more from lack of experience. It somehow made more sense and was easier for me (and the less experienced tech guy) to believe the problem was in the laser rather than two different laptops (one 5 years old and one only about a year old). But Ian got to the bottom of the issue in a few minutes, saving me a couple of days and many dollars.

I asked him why he'd called back after the other tech had already fielded the ticket. He said that he saw I had an unresolved problem and figured he could help. And if his call could get me up and running, it would save time and money unnecessarily shipping boards and swapping them in and out... Having resolved my immediate problem, he then voluntarily proceeded to walk me through the various things I should inspect to help me decide whether to keep the machine or not.

One time earlier when I had reason to contact Epilog's tech support, it took a day to hear back from them, which miffed me at the time. However, when you consider the time and effort they spend with a caller, it's a bit hard to hold a grudge for the delay. I've spent just as long waiting on tech support from other companies, only to have clueless techs rush through what clearly were scripts for dummies, apparently in an attempt to minimize call time and keep up their call numbers. Epilog's tech support philosophy should be a model for others.

-Glen

[Scott Shepherd]

Not trying to be a fly in the ointment, but there is nothing wrong with USB. Epilog has a problem with THEIR USB that they won't seem to address. BILLIONS of devices and computers run off of USB every day. Hard drives use it and work fine, connecting to all sorts of devices work just fine, day after day. Universal and Trotec lasers don't even have ethernet ports, so they are all USB and I can't recall a single post saying someone had a USB problem with those lasers. So it's nothing to do with the USB port.

[Larry Bratton]

btw how can a motherboard go bad???

The fact of the matter is that electronic components are doomed to fail the day they are manufactured. I have no idea what caused the first failure. We had just finished running a file and started to put in fresh material and noticed that there was nothing in the menu window. After deternining that the emergency Stop had not been pushed in, we called tech support. Bought that board -$1000.00. The second one went while we were trying to get proper alignment between the red pointer and the burn. Don't know for sure that this happened or not, but if you accidentally touch your wrench to the wrong spot on the diode adjustments, you can short the board. Anyway, Epilog took care of me and sent me a new board under warranty and Brian D also threw in a new mirror I was going to buy. Sometimes it's just Murphy's law.

[Larry Bratton]

Not trying to be a fly in the ointment, but there is nothing wrong with USB. Epilog has a problem with THEIR USB that they won't seem to address. BILLIONS of devices and computers run off of USB every day. Hard drives use it and work fine, connecting to all sorts of devices work just fine, day after day. Universal and Trotec lasers don't even have ethernet ports, so they are all USB and I can't recall a single post saying someone had a USB problem with those lasers. So it's nothing to do with the USB port.

I agree with you 100%. I ran my machine from USB for years until I got a new computer with Windows 7. I have no idea why Epilog hasn't addressed this in the 32bit driver. They imply this has been fixed in the 64bit driver. Ethernet does work fine for me though and actually seems more reliable.

[Ross Moshinsky]

Not trying to be a fly in the ointment, but there is nothing wrong with USB. Epilog has a problem with THEIR USB that they won't seem to address. BILLIONS of devices and computers run off of USB every day. Hard drives use it and work fine, connecting to all sorts of devices work just fine, day after day. Universal and Trotec lasers don't even have ethernet ports, so they are all USB and I can't recall a single post saying someone had a USB problem with those lasers. So it's nothing to do with the USB port.

I agree. I read this post and thought two things.

1. It's nice to see Epilog is willing to work with their customers. I wish I got the same support from Gravograph/New Hermes.
2. It should never be this hard to install a driver for a laser engraver. You should plug the thing in to any port you want, install the driver, and have it running in a matter of 5 minutes. It shouldn't take hours on the phone. If I had my customer service reps going over installation procedure on a regular basis due to driver failure, I'd absolutely chew out the driver programers. In 2012, installing a plug and play device should be just that, plug and play.

[David Fairfield]

Funny, I used to get "USB Job" failure message on my Epilog, maybe once out of every 25 jobs. Then it just stopped. As far as I know, I didn't change anything. Strange. Sometimes I could swear the machine improves with age and wear. Or maybe its just the operator getting wiser with age and wear?

Dave

[Glen Monaghan]

Not trying to be a fly in the ointment, but there is nothing wrong with USB. Epilog has a problem with THEIR USB that they won't seem to address. BILLIONS of devices and computers run off of USB every day. Hard drives use it and work fine, connecting to all sorts of devices work just fine, day after day. Universal and Trotec lasers don't even have ethernet ports, so they are all USB and I can't recall a single post saying someone had a USB problem with those lasers. So it's nothing to do with the USB port.

I didn't say there was anything "wrong with USB" other than, on this machine, the USB port simply doesn't work. Ian said it likely was a broken trace at the connector, something that he'd seen previously with that model. Apparently, the connector needs to have better physical mounting/support to prevent cracking/breaking trace(s) where it is soldered to the board in case the cord gets yanked or someone is repeatedly clumsy inserting/removing the cable and torques the connector, etc. I haven't examined the connector, but maybe it's simply soldered to the PC board without other mechanical supports on that model, dunno.

As for USB driver problems, I wouldn't know as I've always used ethernet and been quite happy with it, but I agree, hard to imagine a good excuse for problems with a USB interface.

-Glen