RPM takes a long time to print

Q: RPM Remote Print Manager® (“RPM”) is taking a long time to print.

A: RPM receives and passes the file to your printer quickly. The time frame from the print job being sent to RPM from the host system (e.g. AS/400, Unix, etc.) until the print job is printed can be evaluated with the following steps to determine where the bottleneck is:

Problem 1: Evaluating time to send to RPM

First, suspend the RPM queue (at the menu select Queues, Resume/Suspend). Then send the file from the host (e.g. AS/400, Unix, etc.). Note the time from release at the host until the RPM queue status states “DONE”. If it takes a long period of time for RPM to receive the job, the problem is probably associated with processing on the host system.

Resolution 1: Time to send Resolution

RPM has been used to improve print job performance significantly by performing EBCDIC or SCS transforms rather than have the host do the transformation. To use RPM to transform, set the Print Data Options in RPM to do this transform and set the host to not transform. Now, re-send the print job from the host and note the reduction in the time for RPM to receive the print job.

If your host is not performing a translation, the bottleneck is with your network architecture. You should contact your network administrator for a resolution.

Problem 2: Evaluating time to print from RPM

If the above evaluation did not identify the problem, release the RPM queue (at the menu select Queues, Resume/Suspend) and note the time from release until the job completes printing. If it seems to take a long time for the job to begin printing, the problem could be the spool settings on your PC.

Resolution 2: Time to print from RPM resolution

Set your spool settings (Start/Setting/Printer - right click on the printer you are sending to, and select Properties/Details/Spool Settings) to “Print directly to printer” and “disable bi-directional support.” Now suspend the RPM queue, re-send the print job from the host, release the RPM queue and note the reduction in time to send the print job to the printer.

If this did not reduce the time for the print job to begin printing, there are other considerations:

• The problem could be with the type of print driver you are using. If you are using a print driver from the manufacturer versus the Windows “box” driver (the driver that ships with Windows), try setting up the printer with the Windows box driver.
• If RPM is performing formatting, you may substitute the text print action with the raw print action and perform the “time to print from RPM evaluation” again. If this results in a significantly lower time for the print job to begin printing, you may choose to have your host system do the formatting and send the print job to a RAW type queue. Retry the steps above until you get the combination that works best for you.
• If this does not improve your time to print, you should consider upgrading the PC that RPM is running on. Because the print job you are formatting will be processed faster on a more powerful PC.