Konica Minolta c554e Print quality issues

[narellano2]

Re: Konica Minolta c554e Print quality issues

The ports and vent tubes are inside the copier, behind the Drum and Development units. Take a look at Page 3 of the PDF file attached to THIS POST (Click), and you will be able to see what they look like. Normally you would use a special toner vacuum to suck the excess toner out, but I'm guessing you don't have access to one. Don't use like a shop vac or similar, you need something with some sort of HEPA filter, or you will end up blowing toner everywhere in the room. It's very messy, and whatever you use will need a thorough cleaning afterward.

The filter will be on the back side of the copier and have a finger grip allowing you to just pull it out.

I don't have one but i'm going to invest in one and get those vent tubes cleaned out.

[narellano2]

Re: Konica Minolta c554e Print quality issues

I've had this issue quite a few times on the 4 series now.. has happened to multiple color units, but the worst recurring one was black. It has NEVER ONCE been a clogged toner hopper, as others have stated, at least for me. My understanding is that there is some kind of HVT problem that leaks the bias voltage and allows all the developer to be pulled out of the unit. Put a brand new unit in the first several times we saw it, and a few weeks later, we were called back out for the same thing and the machine simply pulled the developer out of that particular unit again... Replacing black units was not that big of a deal, but when it happens to a color unit, those things are $600 and too expensive to mess around with. I crunched the numbers and it was cheaper to give the customer a different machine, in the long run. On the machines I was having this problem with, I never did get to try the HVT mod that was suggested, but I think the information to fix it came from Hytec, not even a KM bulletin...

Hope this helps,
OC

Yikes. I really hope that's not the case here. Actually on this same machine i had an issue where the toner chute got clogged up causing the transfer belt waste auger gears to skip. I have a thread about it here Konica Minolta Bizhub 554e Nasty Grinding noise.Could that cause a Dev dump also?

[femaster]

Re: Konica Minolta c554e Print quality issues

I don't have one but i'm going to invest in one and get those vent tubes cleaned out.

If you can find a unit with this attachment right here...
wand.jpg
That's my favorite. It has a long reach, can get into tight spaces, and is stiff yet flexible enough to get it just where you need it.

[copyman]

Re: Konica Minolta c554e Print quality issues

I've had your exact issue at least 20 times, I call it the dev white lines of death. Never once has it been a high voltage issue. It has always been an overlife drum of same color as bad dev unit or even a different color overlife drum causing the short and dev dump. I guess you could call it a high voltage short, but my point was i never had to replace any HV parts, wires, etc. I service at least 100 of the "4" series and this has been my experience.

Like I mentioned in previous post "any overlife consumable, including transfer belt can cause ANY other dev unit to dump!"

If you search this forum as I suggested you will even see how you can save a lot of money using a lot less expensive black dev unit for any color. You can turn black into a color unit and save around $300!

[Oystercopy]

Re: Konica Minolta c554e Print quality issues

I've had your exact issue at least 20 times, I call it the dev white lines of death. Never once has it been a high voltage issue. It has always been an overlife drum of same color as bad dev unit or even a different color overlife drum causing the short and dev dump. I guess you could call it a high voltage short, but my point was i never had to replace any HV parts, wires, etc. I service at least 100 of the "4" series and this has been my experience.

Like I mentioned in previous post "any overlife consumable, including transfer belt can cause ANY other dev unit to dump!"

If you search this forum as I suggested you will even see how you can save a lot of money using a lot less expensive black dev unit for any color. You can turn black into a color unit and save around $300!

Interesting... I've had many over life components in my machines and only a handful of them ever pulled developer out of a unit... I run my machines to the very end of the transfer belt life and the drum life and I've never had a developer pulling problem but about four machines five maybe.

I certainly have had the transfer belt lock up because of that waste tube in the front of the machine clogging up, but that was mostly on the c360 series.

And how do you turn a black unit into a color without buying an aftermarket developer product? Or is that what you're talking about?

[copier tech]

Re: Konica Minolta c554e Print quality issues

I will order a new toner filter also.

Oh Okay great information. I am a bit of a novice here so forgive me; but the suction ports are in the back of the machine where the vents are? The toner filter is in that area as well?

See this bulletin for more info the service manual is not much help for this issue.

Premature Developer Unit Failure - Image Unit Failure V2 - copierfirmware.co.uk.pdf

[narellano2]

Re: Konica Minolta c554e Print quality issues

Hello,

I hope everyone is doing well. So I was able to finally work on this machine. I cleaned out the ports in the back, they honestly didn't look to bad. I swapped out the dev units for both the cyan and black as well as new drum units.
So the print quality is much better now. Unfortunately, I am now getting c-2557 errors now after a few prints go through.

searching the forum it seems like that error could be quite a number of things.

[copier tech]

Re: Konica Minolta c554e Print quality issues

Hello,

I hope everyone is doing well. So I was able to finally work on this machine. I cleaned out the ports in the back, they honestly didn't look to bad. I swapped out the dev units for both the cyan and black as well as new drum units.
So the print quality is much better now. Unfortunately, I am now getting c-2557 errors now after a few prints go through.

searching the forum it seems like that error could be quite a number of things.

Low black density, the most likely cause is the white bushing on the front of the hopper clogged up.

Modified part number is A5C1RA0000 - Bushing