The beep from my Bizhub, or, I feel like an idiot now.

[fixthecopier]

I almost posted this as a problem but had a feeling that, well you will see how a case of "tunnel vision" got the best of me.

The call was for a Bizhub 250 making a "beeping noise". I thought it would be a stupid call

When I went, the person who called was not in. I tested the machine, found no problem, so I turned off the volume on the speaker. Problem solved.

Two days later, the call back, "Still beeping"

When I go, the caller is there. The machine is in a secure location with a vault door.When it opens, the alarm makes a long high pitched beep. The caller says the copier makes the same noise. I make copies and after a few, a high pitched beep comes from the copier. It is not constant, but there. I unplugg the speaker, just in case and the noise is still there. Must be something rotating and rubbing. I come back and put in a new drum, because it was due, and swap the fuser. Beep is still there.


The beep is the same as the door alarm. The Commander kept getting up for weeks before they figured it was my copier, to check the door.

The beep has no pattern. Comes and goes. I notice it making the beep when turning it on, with nothing moving.
It has to be the laser. It spins, Must be going out.

I go back and change the laser. Beep is still there.

I call tech support. They suggest I change the laser.

Service manager says it is the fans. I change the fans. Machine still beeps.

At this point, I was ready to post it and ask you folks for help, but I felt I had not covered everything.

The high pitch beep seems to come from everywhere. I almost had the machine picked up and taken to the shop, but held off.

Power Supply? Maybe a capacitor is getting ready to pop. I change it, it still beeps.


I give up. After a couple more days, I go back and stare at it. I sit and look at it for while. I watch as people make copies and it beeps. Then Something catches my eye. A light in the corner of my eye. Machine beeps, I see red. Every time I see red I hear a beep.

The source??? The surge suppressor they plugged the machine into. It was overloading and screaming for help. It was on the other side of the cubicle partition beside the copier.

If I would have taken the machine to the shop, I would have unplugged from the rear of the machine and the beep would have been gone, and I would have lost it.

Well there is my "Why I am a dumb ass" story for your entertainment. I feel that confessing things like that helps keep you humble.

[pepper38_cnd]

Well done! I love that story, I've had similar but could not express them so well.

[blackcat4866]

My story was not as entertaining. The noise was blamed on a Sharp MX-M350N and turned out to originate from a squirrel cage furnace blower.

The conversation went something like this:
me: "Do you hear the sound now?"
enduser: "Yes. It's coming from the copier."
me: "I don't think it does."
enduser: "It has to be the copier. It's the only thing in the room."
me: **holding up the plug** "The copier is not plugged in. It can't be making the noise."

me: "Try this: Turn up the temperature on the air conditioning."
enduser: " ... I don't hear it ... "
me: "hmmmmmm ... "
=^..^=

[sandmanmac]

Well there is my "Why I am a dumb ass" story for your entertainment. I feel that confessing things like that helps keep you humble.

Thanks for sharing that. It's a hard one to top! But no matter how long any of us have been at this, we all have our moments like this (just maybe not quite to this extreme).
Awesome!

[blazebusiness]

Got more than 20 years doing this and I think we can all attest to the fact that just when our self-confidence is at a high .....something always comes along to make us feel feckless and buffoonish. It keeps us humble. Thanks for the story. Enjoyed it. What caused the surge protector trouble? Did the customers wiring look anything like this?surge prot1.jpg

[fixthecopier]

What caused the surge protector trouble?

It was just an old piece of junk with a few other things plugged in.

After about the fourth visit I gave the customer my standard quote for when I have made too many visits on a call, which is "I may not be the best copy repairman, but you have to admit I am persistent as hell"

[Akitu]

The source??? The surge suppressor they plugged the machine into. It was overloading and screaming for help. It was on the other side of the cubicle partition beside the copier.

I did this exact same thing not too terribly long ago. It was at a power station where they were getting a new machine over 3 hours away. I was covering for a fellow tech who was on holidays. This machine showed up, not preflighted (thanks Ricoh!) so I had to assemble it in their office, all the bits and pieces. Eats up my whole afternoon, throws off the plans for the days I'm covering - I finish up, I leave. The next day I wound up having to go back for safety equipment to proceed to the rest of the areas I was to be servicing and removing an old machine of theirs, the woman working the desk informed me there was a strange beep...

Same problem, surge protector was overloaded and screaming for help - may or may not have been defective. Informed my service manager of the situation and left the scene, didn't have a Ricoh approved protector with me. Not sure how it turned out, but I haven't heard anything about it from the other tech, so I'm assuming it was replaced and all is well.