How do they do it at their shop?????

[fixthecopier]

This rant is for all the newbies that throw their one liner questions up. You know... I have dirty copies , what do I do? Is this what you do at your shop? Do you call the service manager and say "My Bizhub is jamming , what do I do? At my shop there is a thing called service history that tells when parts were changed. If some of you used that info and changed overdo parts, you may learn something about how stuff wears down. How about a meter count once in a while. You may fix your own problem with your question, like "My Bizhub 600 has 600,000 prints and nothing has been changed and I have dirty copies? "Oh wait, maybe I should change everything trhat needs to be changed and see if I still have a problem. OK I am done.

[mrwho]

My answer:

"Fix it!"

[blackcat4866]

After a lifetime of these questions I just keep on doing what I'm doing, and ignore them. If they persist, "Start with, Use you f'ing brain. Try something. Then get back to me." =^..^=

[JR2ALTA]

I think the more information out there the better, whether it's simple or complicated.

But people should not ask a question without searching for it first.

[DAG COPIERS & COMPUTERS]

I believe there many ways of tackling problems: Some people prefer to get mentally / ( & spiritually) prepared first for a task so that what they go and do physically is very little; others prefer to first tackle the job, give it a trial, and then ask for help afterwords when stuck. Both approaches work and yield the desired results. However, a real technician should be professional by first giving the task a trial before asking for help/advice. By the way thanks mrwho for having done something about your avatar, you are a disciplined fellow !

[mrwho]

I had a colleague that used to go like this when people acted like that to him:

- Hey, I need your help with *insert problem here*.
- Ok, what did you do so far?
- I've done everything and the problem is still there.
- Well, then you didn't do everything, did you?

[DAG COPIERS & COMPUTERS]

Let's face it, some people are naturally lazy and want quick solutions to their problems. how on earth can one claim to have done everything possible and the problem is still there? Pure laziness and lack of persistence. But such characters do exist among us. to help or not to help them then depends on individual thinking.

[JR2ALTA]

I agree it's best to fix the problem with persistence and self reliance.

But at the same time, this isn't a measuring contest. We have customers that need to stay productive, we have a company we need to represent.

So if a tech gets his calls in the morning and asks a senior guy if he's seen anything like that before, there's nothing wrong with that.

There is no point in tearing a machine apart, potentially breaking something, ordering expensive parts needlessly instead of gathering all the info you can beforehand.

Work smart not hard.

[gwaddle]

I normally prefer to look at the machine first, but when the machine is 150 miles away, I like to get some input before I go if it's a problem I've not seen before. It always made sense to me. Of course the original post was about asking for help without giving specific info. I do try to give more information than "I'm getting dirty copies, what's wrong with it".

[mrwho]

I agree it's best to fix the problem with persistence and self reliance.

But at the same time, this isn't a measuring contest. We have customers that need to stay productive, we have a company we need to represent.

So if a tech gets his calls in the morning and asks a senior guy if he's seen anything like that before, there's nothing wrong with that.

There is no point in tearing a machine apart, potentially breaking something, ordering expensive parts needlessly instead of gathering all the info you can beforehand.

Work smart not hard.

True, true. That's the main reason why I come here - to know if someone else already got my problem before I start dismantling things, and point me in the right direction.

[DAG COPIERS & COMPUTERS]

Generally most if not ALL techs have a tendency of consulting each other before handling specific faults on a machine. The point to note here is that ,it can be a very rewarding experience to first try fixing the fault on your own. But as i said earlier a MULTI- PRONGED approach to get a quick solution to the problem is not a bad idea. It serves time and resources.

[fixthecopier]

I often come here to see if what I have encountered is a common problem before I make a big deal of it. The intent of this thread was people asking us questions on this forum with no info. The advice I would give could could vary a lot if the machine in question has gone 200,000 past a PM as opposed to the same machine with a low meter. I mean if the problem was poor print quality and you know that the charge corona grid and wire have 700 to 800,000 on them, I am sure most of us would give the same advice to start. Just stating that your copies are grey or have black streaks with no specifics makes our advice just a guess.

[Stirton.M]

Personally, I try to fix the problem and take my time ensuring that what I fixed, actually fixed the problem. Too often I see the handiwork of others who "fixed" the problem but in fact, didn't even come close.

Basic maintenance itself is really a matter of experience. We don't keep a log book with each machine. The life counters are our log, along with the history counts for jams and other issues since the last service call. If I do a repair someplace, I will reset the jam counts for that repair, if applicable. Generally I will give the machine an entire lookover for issues. Might take me a half hour or so for the full inspection and basic cleaning. I test the unit out and if I see problems, I deal with them.

When I first started out, I had to ask a lot of questions, but after my first couple courses, I knew enough to be somewhat dangerous. Over the years, I almost have a sixth sense for many issues. There are guys who've had more time in with the company than I did, and I often help them out. The added bonus is that I may learn something new, and sometimes more.

I do not fault someone for asking, but I will fault someone for constantly asking for seemingly every call they do. It gets tiring, especially if I am particularly busy.

As for collaborating with my fellow techs, we get together at the shop for the first half hour or so and have discussions about the various machines and some things we may have found that might be of interest to the others on resolving issues related to common problems. Some of the novice techs may bring in samples of prints for review....this helps all of us stay on the same page, more or less, when dealing with issues like paper types vs humidity or fusing or transfer quality and the like. Nothing worse than having a customer ask the same question of 5 techs and getting 4 different answers.

[kingarthur]

I dont mind helping out techs i work with if they have tried to sort it themselves, or done a little research, i find it annoying that they try to pick my brains, before looking in the manual or doing any other research, i always ask what they have done to resolve the problem, usually it's "well nothing actualy", my response is RTFM ( Read The F**king Manual), it annoys me that they cant be bothered to download manuals & bulletins to their Pc, they come & ask if i have it on mine. i will always try & help those that help themselves, but there are some people, who unfortunately take, without giving anything back

[DAG COPIERS & COMPUTERS]

Good Posts STIRTON.M and kingarthur. One of the secretes of our trade as technicians is to constantly keep reading the technical manuals of these machines in order to stregnthen our knowelge of the technical theories of these machines, and keep abreast with the technological changes. however I have realised that few technicians really bother to spare sometimes to study these books. Instead many simply focus their attention only on the quick solution ERROR CODES. I think these ones fall into the category being debated on this thread.