The interesting part of this call is the unusual symptoms. We've all worked on a wide variety of scanners as part of MFP's or wide formats, but these symptoms are unique. The resolution is surprisingly simple:
So when you're scanning (this customer typically does sets of 200 mixed originals) intermittently you'll see two consecutive images with a 3/4" wide black bar at the side of the page, sometimes it's left then right, sometimes it's right then left. I expected to find a pattern like always odd then even, odd then even page numbers, but that was not the case. None of the original text is cut off or blacked out. In the black margin there is a faint light green line in the feed direction. The black margin appears at the left side of the scanner, and since it's a single pass scanner SEF, that explains the black margin alternating sides.
My next clue was in examining the PDF. The anomalous images measure 9.24" x 14.14". The correct appearing scans measure 8.5" x 14", so it's something to do with faulty original size detection. This particular scanner uses a black reference roller, so the black margin is just a scan of the reference roller. And the scanner is defaulted to Remove Blank Page, yet some of the images with margins have no text. True, they have no text, but they have a large black margin so they are not blank and would not be removed.
Then I looked at the scan settings in the software. It's defaulted to Match Original Size (same as Mixed Originals on the MFPs), requiring it to detect original size. When I selected LEGAL original size the black margin was gone, confirming the original size detection issue. So how does it detect original size?
I'm thinking the scanner is comparing the difference between the color of the black reference roller to the color of the paper to detect page size. So could a dirty black reference roller or CIS glass actually cause this? Yup. And I believe that the dirty area is outside the 8 1/2" SEF scan area, so it shows only as a slightly greenish discoloration in the black margin. =^..^=
So when you're scanning (this customer typically does sets of 200 mixed originals) intermittently you'll see two consecutive images with a 3/4" wide black bar at the side of the page, sometimes it's left then right, sometimes it's right then left. I expected to find a pattern like always odd then even, odd then even page numbers, but that was not the case. None of the original text is cut off or blacked out. In the black margin there is a faint light green line in the feed direction. The black margin appears at the left side of the scanner, and since it's a single pass scanner SEF, that explains the black margin alternating sides.
My next clue was in examining the PDF. The anomalous images measure 9.24" x 14.14". The correct appearing scans measure 8.5" x 14", so it's something to do with faulty original size detection. This particular scanner uses a black reference roller, so the black margin is just a scan of the reference roller. And the scanner is defaulted to Remove Blank Page, yet some of the images with margins have no text. True, they have no text, but they have a large black margin so they are not blank and would not be removed.
Then I looked at the scan settings in the software. It's defaulted to Match Original Size (same as Mixed Originals on the MFPs), requiring it to detect original size. When I selected LEGAL original size the black margin was gone, confirming the original size detection issue. So how does it detect original size?
I'm thinking the scanner is comparing the difference between the color of the black reference roller to the color of the paper to detect page size. So could a dirty black reference roller or CIS glass actually cause this? Yup. And I believe that the dirty area is outside the 8 1/2" SEF scan area, so it shows only as a slightly greenish discoloration in the black margin. =^..^=
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