400ci print density washed out

[copydocinc]

I have been struggling with this problem for a while now and need some real help. I rebuilt a Task Alpha 400ci with all the new parts from both maintenance kits and using oem toners. Performed ac calibration, registration, user calibration and my color belt print out fades within a few pages, starting with the magenta bar, then the cyan starts to fade and so on. The only thing I've been able to do to get it back is force toner add on sim 132 after checking toner add motor for about 10 seconds in sim 135. If I go back and forth with these to sims 2 or 3 times, then I can get a good looking color belt print out. Then I run the ac calibration in sim 464, chack the detail registrations and then run user calibration mode. Then my color belt looks good for a few pages. I leave and my customer calls back a few days later with color problems and I go back and print out the color belt, sim 89 and magenta is faded again or washed out is a better description. Remember I have all new drums and dev units, new transfers and fuser etc. both kits were replaced. I go through the steps above again to get it looking good again and so on. I need this to stop and have the good print quality to stay. I'm hoping someone has run into this before and has a good answer for me. (the washed out look does look like sample 1 of the trouble shooting page, that says to replace the offending colors dev unit or upgrade firmware.. both have been done) HELP, PLEASE!!

[Tebow83]

Was the same problem happening with the old dev units?
Do you have a sample of the problem?

[copydocinc]

Was the same problem happening with the old dev units?
Do you have a sample of the problem?

Yes this is happening with 3 different sets of dev unit and drum units.
A perfect example of what it looks like is in the 500ci troubleshooting guide on page 5, sample 1

What that sample is, if you don't have the troubleshooting guide is a picture of the the color bar chart printed out in sim 89
there is one big bar of each color black magenta cyan and yellow across the page.
The color bar should be solid top to bottom, left to right, but in this machines case, there is a fade like steak through the bar from left to right and gets thinner from left to right(a washed out look)

[blackcat4866]

When the Saturns first came out we had issues with maintaining toner density when any one color exceeded 12% fill. Image quality lightens and becomes grainy on 12% images after 30 consecutive pages. Firmware claimed to solve this problem. I cannot be entirely certain that the firmware did or didn't work, because I set up all my machines with these settings, and they worked before, during, and after.

1) Set sim 464, Set Custom, set to On.
2) System Menu, Adjustment/ Maintenance, Color Calibration Cycle, select Custom.
3) Sim 464, "SetCalibTiming duringPrint", set to +480.
4) Sim 147, Set Operation Mode, select Mode 2.
5) Sim 464, run AC Calibration.

Keep in mind that the machine will calibrate itself more frequently, which is exactly what you need in high fill situations. =^..^=

[subaro]

Did you replace the toner cartridges ?.
I Had a similar problem with a fs-c8500 and spent quite a bit of time troubleshooting this. I cleaned laser, hv contacts and hesitated to replace drums and dev because of the low page count on the machine.
The toner cartridges was about half full and it did not occur to me that this would be the cause of the problem. but on removing the dev front cover and reinstalling the toner i decided to give the black a good shake and reinstall. I did not even have to go to u89 to see the diffrence as if i print the status page the density diffrence showed up right away. i replaced the black toner cartrdge with a new one . The thing is, it was not coding out or dispalying toner error ect.

If the black toner/dev is not outputting correct density, then the rest of the colours will be off. as it references its colour matching with the black toner/dev density.

when troubleshooting colour, the first thing i look for is if black in monchrome mode is ok, then take it from there. [unless there is problem with hv pwb ect. ]
Run the machine as you stated to get good colour, then soon after go to system menu and change default to black. turn off and on again and run a 100 pages or so to see if black density is changing or remaining stable. and you can try a new black toner as i did and see if make a diffrence.

just my take here. don't know if this make sense but my input anyway

[tmaged]

Narrow it down, is the image dark on the drum, or is it a transfer issue? I'd pull the primary belt & check the springs connect to the belt.
Was it doing it before you did the maintenance or was it something you perhaps did during it ?

[subaro]

Narrow it down, is the image dark on the drum, or is it a transfer issue? I'd pull the primary belt & check the springs connect to the belt.
Was it doing it before you did the maintenance or was it something you perhaps did during it ?

Good point and important for brainstorming the fix. He should have mentioned that as it would indeed narrow the troubleshooting ideas for he readers. If it was not doing it before, then a belt swap and or transfer roller swap will be in order for quick troubleshooting, i would think. but i totally agree with the above

[Kyo fan]

It's the developer and cleaning motors bothering you. Replace all 4 with the updated ones and you will be ok.

[copydocinc]

Thanks guys, for the replies.
Yes this is with multiple transfer units too. as well as drum and dev units.(and fuser units)
I like the custom settings idea, I will try that and I suppose trying a new toner crtg wouldn't hurt, but it was a new oem toner(all 4)
If these don't help, I will try those motors too.
I did just do a developer refresh, instead of the forced add toner stuff and the quality came back. Probably temporarily.
It may take a few days, to find out if any of these work, because that's how long it takes for the quality to go down again.
I will let you know what the outcome is.
thanks

[subaro]

The question. was this happening before installing the pm kits ?.