Ricoh MP-4054 light copies

[acsolutions]

Hello, The MP4054 I'm working on has light copies, initially. The customer said they ran it out of toner and ordered toner and continued to use. The developer never recovered and I also never experienced the toner bottle rotate adding toner to the hopper. I pulled the developer and it was completely dry of toner! I forced toner through the service mode several times and heard a motor run possibly the hopper, The density never increased. I'm assuming the hopper was dry because the bottle never rotated adding toner to the hopper! Why didn't add toner appear or error out, weird!
Anyway, I replaced the developer and set it up to initialize when rebooted, setup SP3-701-024 and set to 1, rebooted! Copies came out great but still never experienced the bottle turn! Shouldn't the toner bottle rotate to fill the hopper? Could there be a pressure sensor in the hopper that thinks it's full?
I did bring OEM toner and I thought after doing a developer change and initializing that the toner would at least fill the hopper and would experience toner bottle rotate! Is it possible that the customer created this problem by continued use when the copier was out of toner?

[Lagonda]

Have you checked that the toner bottle is actually engaging with its drive? If they were using a non OEM bottle they may have damaged something fitting it.

[acsolutions]

Have you checked that the toner bottle is actually engaging with its drive? If they were using a non OEM bottle they may have damaged something fitting it.

The drive gear looks good. How can you get a good look at it? It's possible, You would think motor noise would be constant trying to fill the hopper. I guess it just depletes and gets low density copies. why doesn't it error out or just stop when toner is low? It shows bottle presents and being full. Theory goes out the window in this case!

[slimslob]

If the developer has been depleted, they will have to replace the developer. You will probably have to initialize the toner add system, it is in the service manual.

[acsolutions]

If the developer has been depleted, they will have to replace the developer. You will probably have to initialize the toner add system, it is in the service manual.

I did a developer change. Why doesn't the machine try to add toner, shut down or error when it's low on toner? Tried to manually add toner and it should turn the bottle, right?

[TonerMunkeh]

Pull the toner hopper out. You'll probably find the supply auger is broken.

[acsolutions]

Pull the toner hopper out. You'll probably find the supply auger is broken.

Good plan! but why doesn't The machine error out or ask for toner? I just thought about something I noticed! Should I be able to turn the motor by hand or should it be locked with the drive? If it's locked the customer probably forced it when they ran it out of toner! Thanks

[Coptech]

It was light still after developer change? Is it light all the way across or just one side? The transfer roller sticks away from the drum on one side or the other if they don't close the door from the center.

[Iowatech]

As I've been out of the field for a while this might be utter nonsense. Still, it kind of sounds like part of the developer drive is busted, to the point that the developer material is not being agitated and is just sitting on the toner sensor.
As I've never worked on that model I will now shut up and go away. Good luck.