Canon iR3380 fine lines

[KenB]

Hi,

We have an iR3380 with an internal print controller. The customer is using the PCL5e driver.

They run very little color - almost all B&W.

About 1/2 the printed pages have a pencil-thin (about 1mm or less) line about 12mm from the bottom of the page; sometimes solid, sometimes dashed. It happens on Word docs, PDFs, you name it, and from all workstations.

Occasionally the lines appear higher on the page, but rarely.

The weird part is that this only happens on prints. It never happens on copies, reports, etc...

The line never goes edge to edge, so that pretty much rules out any mechanical issue (drum line, fuser, and such.)

The firmware is outdated, and will be updated next week.

I updated the driver to the latest PCL5e, but no banana.

Anyone seen this before?

TIA

[D_L_P]

Can't say that I have seen this before. I would try reseating the memory 1st.
Then I would look at possible "noise" or interference on the Ethernet cable. Reroute it away from power lines. Make sure there are no folds or kinks in the cable, always loop it don't put sharp folds in it. If you have one put a magnet like on fax lines. If the ethernet cable goes through a surge protector take it out and plug straight into the copier.
I personally havn't seen this but other guys have told me about the surge protector and a fold in the cable causing problems.

[KenB]

Hi, DLP, thanks for the reply.

I, too, have seen the issues caused by the sometimes "false sense of security" that power filters can cause. This machine doesn't have one, though.

The network cabling hasn't been moved at all since I installed it a few years ago, but you never know.

What I didn't get to do today (the customer had a lot of printing to do) was print their files from my notebook using a crossover cable.

I'll go back with the tech when she updates the firmware next week (I'm an analyst, not a tech - my company doesn't trust me with screwdrivers or other sharp things ) and try just that.

The only reason that I really would like to see the firmware get updated first (other than the fact that it's the right thing to do - as Wilford Brimley would say), is that I saw the same issue on an iR5185 with an imagePASS H1 that had a similar line only when printing. Updating the iR and the RIP did the trick.

I'll repost after all that jazz transpires.

Thanks again.

[KenB]

Problem solved!

Turns out that the pdf files were scans, and there was a very faint line at the very bottom of the page because the DF registration was off just a tiny bit when the scans were made.

When printing from Acrobat Reader, the page scaling was set to "Shrink to Printable Area" so the print was slightly reduced, and that brought the line up by about 11mm or so.

The line higher up on the page was supposed to be there, only much more bold. Installing the PCL6 driver fixed that issue.

Ya gotta love it...