[CQ] Bizhub 601 intermittent "now printing" when copying - 5-30 second pause

[KonicaNet]

Hello we have dozens of these machines at customer locations. We have about 5 of them (each at different locations) that will pause sometimes for 5-30 seconds ( a few times 1-2 minutes) when copying. Happens off the glass and RADF. Does not happen every time, sometimes will happen again and again. Sometimes it will not happen for 2 days.

We have 1 customer that wants it to work without pausing.

We used a known good machine that has never done this. We swapped out EVERY board and power supply and it still did it. We swapped out the NVRAM and it fixed the problem. We ordered a new NVRAM and it worked fine for about 2 months. Now it is pausing again.

We have a brand new machine that is working fine. We swapped out the NVRAM to test and it still pauses.

Originally we thought they had an electrical problem because there were 2-4 volts on ground and it was not a dedicated outlet. They had an electrician remove all of the outlets off the circuit and now he thinks the copier outlet is the only thing on the line. They also have a fax machine plugged into the same outlet as the copier. There was talk about the electric being run from a sub panel too, but it is only about 20 feet from the copier outlet. They are not 100% sure the outlet is dedicated, but the ground voltage is now .3 volts at the highest.

Power cycling the machine does not make a difference. total clears do not do anything. Attempting an NVRAM recovery on the original failed with errors, but we were able to do it this time with no problems. Made no difference.

***We tried their NVRAM in our good machine and it made our new machine pause. This is why we then put our NVRAM in their machine and it seemed to fix it - which is why we ordered a new NVRAM.

We also tried another power supply from our new machine and it still paused.

In the past they originally had us adjusting fuser temps and everything else they could think of.

Has anyone else experiences this "now printing" pausing problem?
Any ideas? Seems like we tried everything already.

One would think that this is how the machines were designed and might be considered "normal", but we also have the same model in several other locations that have not shown this issue at all.

thanks!!!

[Mr Spock]

This occurs when the machine has made x number of copies and it runs a mini quality adjustment and toner add. This value is set in service mode and can be turned off(I think). I believe the default is set as 2 hours since last done, coming out of power save, temp/humidity change over a certain amount, and 1000 copies.

[fixthecopier]

If the drum patch reading sensor gets dirty, it will do stupid things, clean it, or change it for good measure.

[KonicaNet]

thanks for the input. We will try the drum sensor. When I told them what you wrote they remembered that this machine has light print and the quality does not look as good as it does on a new machine. Their solids are not as full and their lines are not as crisp.

*correction to original post: When they tried an NVRAM from a new machine it DID work correctly, just like it did a couple of months ago.

We did not understand how to adjust the 'mini quality adjustment' but did find where some things could be hapenning in the image adjustment..

We are going to change the drum TS board.
*Also, when they print from the computer, it works fine each time. There is no messages and no pausing.

[KonicaNet]

As a follow up, the machine is quiet when it says "now printing". We do not hear any motors turning or anything else.

Again, this happens on about 6 of the 15 or so machines of this model in our area. Only 1 customer wants it fixed because they think they are not getting the correct PPM speed that they paid for. On the same note, once it starts making the copies it is fine. The pause and display showing "now printing" is only when making copies (RADF or glass). Scanning to SMB works fine and so does printing.

we changed the drum sensor as suggested and it made no difference.

thanks!

[fixthecopier]

Have you posted this as a problem with KM? I would have bet it was a board.

[KonicaNet]

Yes, and we have had them on-site. They thought it might be a power problem, so the customer had an electrician come in and make sure it is a dedicated line. The only thing on the line now is a fax machine and the copier, and the voltage and ground are within KM specs.

Again we changed EVERY board, power supply, etc. The only thing that fixed the problem the 1st time was swapping out the NVRAM, so we ordered a new nvram and it worked fine for about 2 months. Now it is doing the same thing. We swapped the nvram out this time too and it solved the problem, but we only swapped it for testing purposes.

We cannot keep putting new nvram's into the machine ever couple of months. Also *** the same thing happens on about 6 other copiers, all since they were unboxed. We have about 5-7 more that do not pause like this.

Could it be that KM has a bunch of bad NVRAM chips? But why would it just show this 1 problem???

It does happen every time they copy, but enough to notice. Sometimes it will happen 5 copy jobs in a row, while other times it might happen once out of 10 times. The pause length has been times up to 2 minutes long!

We have a few suport tickets logged and none had a solution, which is why I posted here.....
thanks!

[faultman]

Re: Bizhub 601 intermittent "now printing" when copying - 5-30 second pause

Was this fault ever resolved? I have a machine doing a very similar fault.....any ideas fellow techs!!

[EarthKmTech]

Re: Bizhub 601 intermittent "now printing" when copying - 5-30 second pause

go into service mode, into the counters section and check the warnings.

these wont actually bring up an error message on the screen in normal operation but will log each instance the machine has felt concern for some reason or another and may of affected its normal operation. The most common one that catches young players is dirty drum sensors and when it gets critical that normally results in a machine doing nothing at all but telling the user its "warming up".

perhaps there is a warning of impending doom you are not aware of - check the warnings and pay special attention to anything relating to the drum cartridge/image development/adjustment.