Smudges down side of page on Kyocera ECOSYS P7240cdn

[HeMan]

Hi,
I have a P7240cdn which has been working just fine until earlier today when over the space of a few hundred pages a grey smudge has appeared on the edge of the pages. It is affecting both edges (left and right) and both sides (front and back) to some degree, although not uniformly. I have run the Drum, LSU and Auto DrumRefresh with no luck.
I am printing in B&W only, but I notice on my colour test sheet there it a smudgy line down the middle of the page as well (which doesn't happen on the B&W prints), and the colour areas don't look very even (although I don't really care about that, it's the edges of the B&W prints that is my main problem).
It has just cleared 26,000 prints (only 1,500 in colour) and other than toner, nothing has been changed to my knowledge.
Please see attached examples showing the issue.
Any ideas?
Thanks.

Oops, wrong forum, meant to post to printers, not copiers! Will re-post there, sorry.

[Lunatech]

Looks like a black drum issue. You could try swapping the black and magenta drums to see if the fault follows the drum.

[HeMan]

Can you do that? It won't mix up the colours will it, so I end up with black and magenta mixed together in a durgy mess or anything will it?

[ihatefinishers13]

Can you do that? It won't mix up the colours will it, so I end up with black and magenta mixed together in a durgy mess or anything will it?

No, every time the drum goes around it cleans itself off, so you shouldn't have any issues.

[HeMan]

Smashing, thanks, I will give it a go...

[tmaged]

Measure it and check it against the repetitive defects guide in the service manual.

[HeMan]

Unfortunately the service manual is a rare beast. If you have the relevant info, I would appreciate it though?

[tmaged]

Here it is. Make sure to double check the speed.

[Ropariva]

Hi. 26k is pretty low for drum failure though it certainly looks like the repetition is drum diameter. Curious as to whether the toners are genuine or generic?

[HeMan]

Well, it's hard to be precise, as the smudges don't have a distinct beginning or end, but as the P7240cdn is a 40ppm model, the Repetitive Defects Guide suggests it is the Charger roller, or maybe the Sleeve\Middle roller.

But here's another thing that may be relevant; I left it overnight and this morning it is working perfectly again! I did notice yesterday that it had been running for quite a while (maybe a little over 1,000 duplex pages) and the pages were coming out quite hot. It's in a air conditioned office at 21dc, but in a corner so not great airflow past it. Should it be expected to run solidly without cooking itself in what I would call pretty normal conditions?

After about 400 duplex pages, I notice that if you look at the side of the output pile, the smudges are starting to appear again. They are not really noticeable on the front of the pages yet, but it does seem to be getting worse again now it's hot.

Oh, interesting... Sorry for the blow-by-blow report here, but it just did that thing where mid-job it pauses and has a little ponder about its place in the universe (I guess it runs some cleaning cycle) and then continues and now the smudges have gone again.

And another 15 minutes later and, mid-job, I saw the red attention light come on as it paused, I didn't get to it in time to see what it said on the display as within 10 seconds it continued and suddenly the pages are really bad again, with almost solid grey smudges down both edges and sides of the page.

Finally, probably unrelated, but an oddity; although the print job is B&W only (and in the driver the printer is set to B&W only for the job) the other colours are gradually going?! I guess the cleaning cycles waste some perhaps, but considering it hasn't printed anything but B&W for the last 2,000 pages, it seems odd it has used around 10% of each of the other colours?!

It says they are genuine toners at start-up, but they may be "remanufactured", whatever that means?

[Larhal]

I would check the cartridges to insure they are Original Kyocera cartridges not remanufactured. If they are then that could be the cause of your problem. This sounds like the drum unit is causing the problem. You have to look at the PCR to see if it is fouling at the edges. The consumption of the colour toners is caused by the cleaning cycle as it uses toner to clean the drums.

[HeMan]

OK, I can check that as they should have some invoices somewhere... But considering the toner cartridges are separate to the drums, would it make that much of a difference? Or is the rule of thumb to always pay the extortionate prices for branded toner?

[Larhal]

OK, I can check that as they should have some invoices somewhere... But considering the toner cartridges are separate to the drums, would it make that much of a difference? Or is the rule of thumb to always pay the extortionate prices for branded toner?

Excuse me HeMan, You say your an experienced tech 10 years. I don't believe that at all with the comments you just made. Any Tech would know the process of printing and the Toner has a direct effect on how the drum unit functions.

Call in a Real Tech and pay to solve your problems.

[HeMan]

Sorry, I couldn't help lighting the blue touch paper on that. I know it's a perennial discussion, but toner and ink seems to be such a rip off, even I find it uncomfortable telling people to be ripped off and keeping a straight face. I am a tech, with decades of experience, and whilst print isn't my usual wheelhouse, I am no stranger to a screwdriver I can assure you...

I guess I already know the answer, but am I to say that the problem is because they bought a £27 cartridge when they should have bought a £107 one (I just Googled it, and that's the ex-VAT price for a remanufactured vs genuine). How confident are we that if I go down to the local store and pick up a genuine one the problem will go away? Or is there a chance the manufacturers hide behind this, knowing they can either rip people off (win) or deny warranty claims (win) because of it?

[Larhal]

[QUOTE=HeMan;n1576313] I am a tech, with decades of experience, and whilst print isn't my usual wheelhouse, I am no stranger to a screwdriver I can assure you...

But are you a trained copier MFP Tech????? If so with what brand of devices???