C224E light gray/yellowish background

[Dalmatian]

Hello,

I'm recently experiencing some print quality issues with Minolta (Develop Ineo) C224E. It's working lightly for 2,5 years, counting about 50.000, still the 1st set of drums at about 35%, everything else at 80-95%.

Lately I have noticed that there is light gray/yellowish background (say equivalent to 2% gray printout - not easy to scan/photo - just visible by eye). It's uniformly covering everything but the bleed area of the paper. I can see it just on the biggest SRA3 paper (edges white as they came in the printer, print area slightly tinted), but can't seem to notice it on smaller paper sizes. It's visible on color printouts, b/w printouts, but also on copies - so I ruled the computer/driver out.

Beside being regularly cleaned and well maintained, of course cleaning was the 1st thing I did, but I can't chase away the shadow

Any ideas or suggestions?

[Synthohol]

the consumables do age even when not in use, not aging in the counters but electric contacts start to corrode and the developer in the units become stale and oxidized and can do some funky things.
even kyocera strongly suggests doing a full PM every 3 years even if there is only 10k on them.

[Dalmatian]

Got the point. Still, it's not even 3 yo - so I don't think replacing just about everything will be the way to go. I would still like to try to pinpoint the cause for said symptom.

[Synthohol]

the C224e was discontinued in 2016.
take every consumable out, clean the hell out of it and run gradations see if that helps if not you have my .02 above
swap color drums around to see if it changes.
take out the transfer belt immediatly after some color copies and see if the blade is cleaning the belt.
process of elimination?

[copyman]

Genuine K/M toner? If not everything suggested on this forum probably won't work.

Usually gray toner is waste toner. My guess is the transfer belt cleaning blade needs to be replaced. Good point by the other poster that time takes a toll on consumables. Actually running a machine heavy is better then little use. I've see high volume accounts with 500k+ on drums rated for 120k and low volume accounts with only 50k and quality issues.

Good advice to clean & vacuum everything then do the graduation adjustments.

[Phil B.]

Genuine K/M toner? If not everything suggested on this forum probably won't work.

Usually gray toner is waste toner. My guess is the transfer belt cleaning blade needs to be replaced.
Good advice to clean & vacuum everything then do the graduation adjustments.

I ALWAYS insist that my techs START with a COMPLETE CLEANING any time they have a PQ/CQ .. jamming call... yes Tbelt cleaner failure would be a brown/grey color for the waste system ( depends on how much color toner involved. ) It really doesn't matter how MANY pages is on a unit VS how long they have been in unit... AMOUNT of usage... and TYPE of drums/devs/toners are used in the product ( damn I HATE 3rd party SHIT FUCK KATUN crap (china shit too) if you want reliable USA made toners/drums ... Static Control in Sanford NC

[Dalmatian]

Thanks everyone!

I'm an IT 'GP' in a small town, so I don't have many similar machines to deal with regularly. I'm cooperating with KM representatives in a city and I have their technicians & engineers visiting occasionally - but I can't have them on site for every occasion as it's like 5 hrs drive.
Machine was cleaned completely and adjusted by KM technician, but the 'shadow' remains. Also, all consumables are genuine and purchased trough official KM network.
Just to mention, background is much more prominent/visible on heavier and/or coated stock (150-300gsm). All heavier/coated stock is from the same manufacturer/supplier (UPM digi sourced trough IGEPA group) and it's ment for digital print. All office printing paper is Navigator or Mondi. Also, some digital print labels by Avery Dennison.
I think I'll start with exchanging color drums to see if there is a difference and checking the belt cleaner, as well as checking the behaviour with heavier stock of other manufacturers. Any further suggestions/ideas are welcome.

[Albonline]

Thanks everyone!

I'm an IT 'GP' in a small town, so I don't have many similar machines to deal with regularly. I'm cooperating with KM representatives in a city and I have their technicians & engineers visiting occasionally - but I can't have them on site for every occasion as it's like 5 hrs drive.
Machine was cleaned completely and adjusted by KM technician, but the 'shadow' remains. Also, all consumables are genuine and purchased trough official KM network.
Just to mention, background is much more prominent/visible on heavier and/or coated stock (150-300gsm). All heavier/coated stock is from the same manufacturer/supplier (UPM digi sourced trough IGEPA group) and it's ment for digital print. All office printing paper is Navigator or Mondi. Also, some digital print labels by Avery Dennison.
I think I'll start with exchanging color drums to see if there is a difference and checking the belt cleaner, as well as checking the behaviour with heavier stock of other manufacturers. Any further suggestions/ideas are welcome.

fuser unit ?

[Albonline]

seriously though ,what you are describing can only happen at 2nd transfer, if there was no deletion frame it could be elsewhere.try running halftone charts at near zero output see if misting is still present,the system puts a small amount of background on the belt for lube ,seems your transferring it to the paper.

[tsbservice]

Can you get hands on service manual? Seems like you have basic knowledge and with little help can cover most of points to be checked. There is pretty good procedure in manual for foggy background. You may have results even after few of first steps doing stabilization, gradations and background image adjustments. You can swap drums(good advice), clear laser slit glaces(ph windows).
Just go ahead and be consistent.