eS5506ACT "Replace Magenta Toner"

[blackcat4866]

Just delivered. Within minutes of the delivery driver leaving it goes into toner add condition.

I tried clearing the indication a few times, it always comes back. First I swapped the piezo sensor on the sub-hopper magenta with yellow. If it was a piezo issue it should have moved to yellow. Also I powered it up with the piezo outside the hopper, and it makes the traditional whistling noise.

Next I tested the sub-hopper motors in 03 mode. CY&K all go reverse and forward. Magenta goes reverse ... & reverse (225: reverse, 221: supposed to be forward but goes reverse). So it always agitates, but never adds any toner.

After some fiddling I powered it Off/On, and to my surprise it toned up and printed the queue. I'm going back tomorrow. Does this sound familiar? =^..^=

[arnh79]

I had a similar issue on an e5540c and it turned out to be a pinched harness somewhere down the line. Unfortunately it was awhile ago so I can't be more specific. But it was the exact same situation, fresh delivery and busted out of the box. We had to pull it, put their old machine back, and spend a few days tracing the issue.

[blackcat4866]

Thanks arnh.

I don't believe that the motor ever rotated forwards. There was no magenta toner at the hopper outlet, none. And never once did the magenta sub-hopper motor rotate forward while I was running it out of magenta, always reverse.

So I spooned in a little magenta toner and ordered up the LGC. As long as they print primarily B&W, the only color toner useage will be an occasional auto-calibration. It should go a few days if they take my advice and print black only.

I'll post a follow up. =^..^=

[blackcat4866]

Alright ... this was entirely unexpected. The LGC did not help, same symptoms.

That brought me back to the PWA-F-EPU. I re-seated all the connectors on the board, and the connectors into the back of the modular connectors. I also swapped the yellow and magenta sub-hopper motors. When re-assembled it immediately toned back up ... and made a bunch of color images. All of the sub hopper motors demonstrated forward and reverse operation.

The connectors into the back of the modular connectors are particularly scary since they fit very tightly. I fully expected to yank out a few individual leads in the process. I can't even begin to guess which individual connector/pins made the difference. I really hope I don't experience this again. =^..^=

[blackcat4866]

Just a follow up:

This one came back to bite me again. The symptom had changed from Magenta to Yellow Add Toner condition. During my various attempts I had swapped the magenta and yellow sub hopper motors. Since it takes a while to deplete the developer far enough to reach the Add Toner condition, it's possible to walk away from it too soon.

Today I changed out the yellow sub hopper motor and now BOTH yellow and magenta sub hopper motor work reverse AND forward. This same motor is used as a subhopper toner motor on the Broadpeak X, Broadpeak XMKII, and as a second transfer waste motor on Broadpeak, Broadpeak X, Broadpeak X MKII, and Shasta.
=^..^=