RE: 3M Self-Check 6210--hints, tips or tricks to making it more reliable?

["William Gray" <wgray at greenwichlibrary dot org>]

Hi Todd,

I'm going to look into changing the cabling, as you said (along with some other recommendations). Thanks for the tip!

--Will 

-----Original Message-----
From: innopac-bounces at innopacusers dot org [mailto:innopac-bounces at innopacusers dot org] On Behalf Of Todd Humble
Sent: Friday, February 11, 2005 1:05 PM
To: IUG INNOPAC List
Subject: RE: 3M Self-Check 6210--hints,tips or tricks to making it more reliable?

We have had good luck with our machines... I would recommend replacing the network patch cable with a cat-5E cable and have your tech check the network socket.  Ours is win95 and we were allowed to defrag the drive over the phone with them on one day it was misbehaving.   I suspect your problem is network related.  If your connection is through a hub or switch try to get a new run just for the 3M machine to the main switch by your server to avoid network noise issues.  Cat-5E with plenum coating should eliminate any interference.  It was a weekly problem until we redid our network wire to the machine.  I have not had a single issue in the last year since installing the new cabling that a shutdown did not resolve (about once in six months we might have a runaway process that needs to be killed so the machine can get a new connection from the server).

Best wishes,

Todd J. Humble, Supervisor
North Richland Hills Public Library
NRH, TX 76180-7901
(817) 427 - 6822
 
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-----Original Message-----
From: Krimm, Debi [mailto:DKrimm at aclibrary dot org]
Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2005 11:55 AM
To: IUG INNOPAC List
Subject: RE: 3M Self-Check 6210--hints,tips or tricks to making it more reliable?

Will,
   We've not had our 6210 machines as long as you have but early on we had some problems very similar to yours.  What our tech finally discovered was that the printer had to have a ground wire added.  Once this was in place our problems are within normal limits.  Hope this helps. 

-----Original Message-----
From: innopac-bounces at innopacusers dot org
[mailto:innopac-bounces at innopacusers dot org] On Behalf Of William Gray
Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2005 8:30 AM
To: IUG INNOPAC List
Subject: 3M Self-Check 6210--hints,tips or tricks to making it more reliable?

 
This will come off as a bit of a rant, and I apologize in advance (not to 3M though)... If you feel you must skip the rant portion, I've delineated the non-rant portion toward the bottom. The following are my experiences and opinions in terms of operating and maintaining the machines, and should in no way be considered the official stance of my library (just the guy who has to fix them all the time).

And just in case you're wondering, I'm no newbie when it comes to computers--I've been using them since I was in fifth grade, and I am an
A+ Certified Professional (PC technician). If there was an obvious
solution to the following problems, I like to think I would have seen it.

***Rant on***
For the few years we've had our 3M 6210 SelfCheck machines, they have been very undependable. I'm talking about frequent program freezes, paper jams, items failing to check out (when there's nothing wrong with them), etc.

Just now I was in the middle of giving a patron a tutorial on using the machines; I had to skip our first machine because the start screen was frozen and would not respond to keypresses (I later restarted the program). With the second machine, we managed to check out her first 3 books okay, then the machine indicated a problem with the fourth book (nothing very descriptive, mind you, just "bring it to the desk"). So, I go to check the item out to the patron using a Millennium session, and there's nothing wrong with the book at all.  This happens a *lot*.

Never mind that one machine has had 3 (perhaps 4--I've lost count) computers swapped through it because each one failed for whatever reason, as well as three printers (also, could be 4...) because of printer hardware failures. If that machine was a car, it would be a lemon, and after all our complaints about it a reputable dealer would have replaced the whole machine (yes, we have a current service agreement).  One machine came with Windows 95; the other we got later and it came with Win2K. The Win2K version crashed about 5 times as often as the Win95, so we had that machine downgraded to Win95, which reduced the number of crashes significantly.

We've followed 3M recommendations, i.e. shut the machines down at night and start them again in the morning--I did this for a number of weeks, and it resolved nothing.

To top it all off, at the IUG last year, when I (as well as some of you) were attending a session on getting the most from our 3M SelfChecks, one of you indicated some of the problems you'd had with your machine(s).
Then another spoke up, and another, and I did as well. At which point, the 3M rep in the room stood up and asked for people's names and contact info so he could follow up with all of us and resolve our problems. Were any of you ever contacted? Because I sure as heck wasn't.

The 3M-designated service people who come out to fix the problems I can't (or am not allowed to) fix, are great. I have no quarrel with them or their abilities. But 3M corporate seems to care less now that they have our money. After every time I have to place a service call, I end up getting one of those "how are we doing" surveys and I give high marks for the service people and low ones for the equipment. I've been contacted once by a 3M sales rep, who wasn't able to do anything for us.
We're talking 3-4 years here.
***Rant off***

My question now, is, have any of you (who have had the same types of problems with their machines) come up with any fixes or workarounds to get them to work more dependably? If so, I'd love to hear from you (you may want to post to the list so we can all benefit). As it stands, we've been trying to encourage more use of the machines, but I can see that all it's going to do is cause more problems for our patrons (and us) if they have to come to desk staff every time they go to use one of the machines because the machines failed in one way or another.

Thanks in advance.

--Will

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