Lanier 528, quality when scanning

[fixthecopier]

The prints that come out are perfect. Anything run through doc feed or laid on glass are faded/washed out.
Recently rebuilt the pcu, maybe 2 weeks ago. Yesterday I put a ccd from another machine. It coded 101-01, for the white strip. I put theirs back in. Went back this morning with a different ccd. It made it better, but not like it should be. I don't see any adjustments that affect it.

Question would be, do Ricoh ccd's ware down? Would ordering a new one resolve the issue? Machine is close to half a million.

[totoro]

Ok, I'm not trying to be a smart ass, but your use of ccd is throwing me off. This machine uses an exposure lamp and mirrors. The Lanier 528 is the Ricoh mp2851, right? If someone came to me with your stated image problem I would tell them to clean all the mirrors, the lamp, and the laser shield glass.
I have not had an exposure lamp go bad in one of these yet , but have had issues with lamps in the older Ricoh models. Have you watched the lamp while it is scanning to see if the lamp is the same brightness all the way across and stays the same during the scan? The lamp stabilizer could be an issue or one of the mirrors could be out of place or have residue on them.

[slimslob]

Ok, I'm not trying to be a smart ass, but your use of ccd is throwing me off. This machine uses an exposure lamp and mirrors. The Lanier 528 is the Ricoh mp2851, right? If someone came to me with your stated image problem I would tell them to clean all the mirrors, the lamp, and the laser shield glass.
I have not had an exposure lamp go bad in one of these yet , but have had issues with lamps in the older Ricoh models. Have you watched the lamp while it is scanning to see if the lamp is the same brightness all the way across and stays the same during the scan? The lamp stabilizer could be an issue or one of the mirrors could be out of place or have residue on them.

Yes, the machine does use exposure lamp and mirrors. It also has a CCD that the mirrors direct the light from the exposure lamp to through the lens.

[Iowatech]

If you haven't tried already, try tweaking the manual gamma values in service mode.
I forget the exact service mode, but it is somewhere near the end of SP4.
The default value is 15, when I've had this problem adjusting it to 17 usually does the trick.
Be sure to adjust every 15 to 17 though, there's at least 9 of them, three for every scanning mode (text, photo and text+photo).
There might be some 0 values in manual gamma, I don't remember if the LD528 has them or not. If you do find them there, don't bother with them as I don't know what they are for and they didn't help for scanner specific CQ issues when I tried them on older color machines.
I think I've only seen one Ricoh CCD related failure, but that's probably because I'm out here on the periphery. That one looked a little like if you laid an original on the platen glass and then moved it around with your hand while it was being scanned.

[totoro]

Thanx slimslob, I did know that. He said " Yesterday I put a ccd from another machine. It coded 101-01, for the white strip. " I've never had a ccd give me an exposure lamp white reference error. I did think of something else though. If you lift up on the left side of the scanner while scanning is the copy better?

[nmfaxman]

How White is the white plate?
Is is pressed against the glass?
I have seen the white plate discolor after time.
I usually put a piece of paper over the white plate and restart the machine.

[copyaction]

If you haven't tried it already, try lifting up on the left front of the scanner section.
Sometimes these get leaned on and give a light washed out image.

[slimslob]

Thanx slimslob, I did know that. He said " Yesterday I put a ccd from another machine. It coded 101-01, for the white strip. " I've never had a ccd give me an exposure lamp white reference error. I did think of something else though. If you lift up on the left side of the scanner while scanning is the copy better?

White reference error means that the CCD did not properly see the white reference. He might have not had it in straight or a connector not fully seated. I have seen the connector not fully seated a few times.

[totoro]

You know slimslob you are right; you have my apologies. I have just never had that problem with a ccd. The only times I have had white reference errors were due to bad lamps and their power and wiring, bad white plate or I think once a SBU. I think that the only ccd I have ever changed was 15-20 yrs back in a Xerox Docutech. I must be getting to old to do this job. I tend to think more about how I've seen things instead of what could actually cause the issue.

[fixthecopier]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Yes everything such as mirrors and glass have been cleaned several times.

I knew the white strip error should not have came up from putting in a different ccd, and assumed it was something I did, so I checked my plug ins and reseated it three times, got the same code every time.Went back yesterday and a different one worked first time.

The quality with a different ccd was a noticeable improvement.

After describing the problem to them, Ricoh tech support said to change the ccd.

Monday I have to drive to another state to fix a shredder, so on Tuesday I will make the recommended changes and probably change the lamp.

Thanks again for the help. This was somewhat confusing because in what must be over 12,000 Konica calls I know I have done, I have never had a bad ccd, and maybe changed 4 lamps.