Dear copier technicians. I am used to tinkering on laser printers and have worked on the HP Laserjet series mostly from ~1990 to about 2003. This beast however, is a different matter. It belongs to a self employed friend of mine who is struggling along due to the current economy. She needs a copier/printer for her work (she does legal advice) and this C350 is her work horse. She bought it used with about 500K on the clock and it's at 650K now. She has someone (self employed) that comes over to give it repairs/maintenance, since it's not my speciality and he came recommended from the (retired) guy that sold her this unit.
The problem with this device is that it intermittently jams, it has gotten progressively worse and it has gotten to the point that she is now using her desktop scanner and old HP laser printer to make photocopies. The usual technician has taken a look at the machine and his diagnosis is that the transfer belt unit needs to be replaced. (At least, that is what I gather from her rather non technical explanation). This would cost her around 450 euros for the part including sales tax, excluding labour. Since the commercial value of the device is roughly that, he advised her to have it removed (he said he wouldn't give her a cent for it on trade in) and to buy a different copier. Since she's in her 6th "lean year" (lets hope this is a biblical thing and the 7th year will be the last) spending over 1000 euros on another 2nd hand machine isn't an easy decision for her to make.
I've taken a peek in the service manual and it doesn't really describe how to pull the transfer belt unit. I've had a quick look at the machine itself and the amount of parts that I had to remove to get close to the transfer belt unit was so much that I decided to first ask here. I just tried to do a bunch of prints, but the stubborn machine refuses to jam, like the always do when you come over to take a look at something broken. That means I can't really give you guys an error message or the location on the screen where it claims it's jammed.
Would you guys know where to look with this description, or possibly how to fix it without having to spend over 450 euros? Any advice where to look, how to get to the culprit if it's not in the service manual and such would be appreciated. If not, could you indicate what steps to take to figure out what is actually the matter with the machine? I could try and print a whole rim of paper, but that seems rather boring and wasteful, so there may be a better way to get this tested/read out?
Thanks in advance!
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