MP-2851

[aAandy]

Hey Guys

here's a head stomper for you,,

this machine prints beautifully, it scans to email beautifully & you can print out that scan just fine - but COPY?? comes out faded as! same result from ADF or platen copy

client said it happened suddenly, not gradually

even after setting everything imaginable to the darkest setting, in service mode, the best i could manage is a far cry from what it should be

Ricoh MP2851 samples.pdf

anyone got any suggestions?

thanks in advance

[sandmanmac]

Very common. Tons of threads about this
Replace PCU.
Yes, I know it would seem that print quality and copy quality should not differ so much, but they do, as the PCU nears the end of its life.

[copyaction]

Very common. Tons of threads about this
Replace PCU.
Yes, I know it would seem that print quality and copy quality should not differ so much, but they do, as the PCU nears the end of its life.

sandmanmac nailed it, replace pcu

[slimslob]

Return all settings you change to where they were before. Since it happened suddenly, check to see anyone change the original type from Text to Text/Photo. Also clean all mirrors, the face of the lens and the bottom of the glass under the scale. After cleaning cycle the main power off then on to force a white reference scan. If the white reference is off and you are in Text/Photo original setting, you WILL get light image. Unless an original has multiple shades of grey that you need reproduced, i.e. a photo, never use Text/Photo. Blacks will be rendered in grey scale and not high contrast B/W.

[copyaction]

Definitely do all those too, but most of that would affect scans as well.

[slimslob]

Definitely do all those too, but most of that would affect scans as well.

Changing default copy function original type to Text/Photo will not affect scans.

PCU would not change suddenly.

[aAandy]

UPDATE

a previous repair organisation had attempted to repair the machine and had done the following prior to my attending: (i hope you have your auto-translating glasses on)
MP-2851 prev work done.pdf

looks like they fitted a new PCU and a bunch of other stuff - i fitted a new PCU anyway and it made no difference, checked the text/photo bizzo, it was on text only

naturally the very first thing done is a thorough clean of the optics, slit & platen glasses, white reference plate, exp lamp & reflectors, mirrors, lens and if accessible the CCD face

told ya it would be a head-stomper

internal prints perfect
prints perfect
scans perfect
prints the scan perfectly
copies like a wet paper bag

i now know what's wrong with it,,,,,

it's broken!!

[Lagonda]

Pull the cover off the lens housing and check that the CCD chip hasn't started to come unglued and isn't sitting parallel to the lens. I've seen this a couple of times on this model. Just a drop of Supaglue does the trick.

[Coptech]

sp2907 on old machines default is 5 later machines are 6 or 7. Set them to 10 which is the max. It is a line width during copy in different modes.

[gkalchik]

sp2907 on old machines default is 5 later machines are 6 or 7. Set them to 10 which is the max. It is a line width during copy in different modes.

I can attest to this SP setting.
Long ago when I started to service these line of Ricoh copiers I just automatically changed the settings of this SP to max.