Glade you found the issue, becuae trust me that is a shot is the dark. Had a machine down in my product enviroment for month with this issue.
honestly if hate the developer issue its time to move to a 750/920/950, depending on your needs. The older models drop developer, the newer ones do not have nearly the same number of issues.
Round 1: In one day all 3 color drums dropped their life count to 0. Customer never called and said the warning display had popped up which WAS turned on to display. The drums were done. Locked up the machine so it couldn't print because they were out of their life (BTW there is a way to bypass that only for experienced techs). Replaced all 3 drums. Made test prints. Color copies were light shaded and streaked for Magenta and Cyan. All copies had 2 large colored streaks on prints. See attachment.
Round 2: Magenta and Cyan Developers were splotched. Bare random spots on roller. Thought the developer wasn't charging well (both?). Adjusted BIAS VOLTAGES around a bit without success. Figured out there was about half as much developer in the units than there should be. Went looking for the developer. Waste toner bottle was at least 50% developer. Put a magnet inside and it was covered. Dumped it into a bag and tested it through the bag and was shocked at how much developer was in the bag. Magenta and Cyan were dumping developer.
Round 3. Large Streaks. Transfer belt cleaning blade and toner auger shell was PACKED full of toner and developer also. Packed so full it was leaking out of the edges causing the streaks. Removed that from transfer belt and cleaned it out. Cleaned up the streaks.
Round 4: Good drums, clean transfer belt, clean copies still Magenta and Cyan problem. Justifying 2 color developer units to my employer on a copier that only had 88k color copies run through it was a tough sell (500.00 ea). Developer powder only sold separately aftermarket.
Big question though is why did 3 drums go at once, transfer belt get so plugged up and 2 developer units lose so much all in one shot? Traced all down to the developer units dropping developer and passing it throughout the system.
Hence all of this was the vicious circle of a day of a C364.
Transfer belt dumping toner out the sides, toner covered rear inside of machine, bunged up developer unit contacts, developer units not charging well, developer not adhering to roller well and passing onto drums and transfer belt, plugging them up further causing more spillage and so on and so on.
As it sits now we are cheaping out and going to try and fill the developers back up to normal level. Figure if we destroy them with aftermarket stuff no big deal we may have to buy new ones anyway. Everything else is working great for now. Will update after it has all been running a bit.
That's my story. I hope this helps out someone because it drive me into madness.
I replaced the developer powder in both units which worked great. The reason for the developer dumping is still a mystery at this time but I am monitoring it to see if the developers themselves are bad or if the new powder will take care of the issue.
Either way customer is happy and all is well with that unit. Save my employer 800.00 too so he is somewhat happy although I doubt I hear anymore about that savings.
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