Oki c9300 Belt life/Waste Toner

[bigdogmi]

Ok... First let me say I am a novice but all we have here, short of calling in the calvary, which I will do if need be, but I am not without skills and am capable of simple maintenance. (If I have the proper info)

I work for a catholic school system (so we get a lot of donated "read old" stuff) A while ago we received an Okidata C9300 color printer. We dumped some money into it and it seemed to be working fine. We got the "Belt near life" error so we replaced the transfer belt and that error went away, working fine again.

Not too much later (month or so) we received an error saying the belt was done and it won't print anymore. I did some research and found out how to reset all the consumables, which I did but no luck still have a giant paper weight.

I contacted a local tech and he claims it is a full waste toner bottle. I really don't want to pay 140 dollars for someone to come out and empty a bottle, unfortunately, I do not with a cursory look seem to be able to find it, and can't seem to find any diagrams or info with regards to where it is located at. I would like to know what I'm looking for before opening up as I don't want to spend a lot of time with the hood open, as it were.

Any help, advise, info, etc... would be greatly appreciated.

Mark
Tech Support
Greater Muskegon Catholic Schools

[Jeffmoi]

The waste toner container is on bottom of the the transfer belt, you may be able to remove and empty it but it's messy. I have done it. A white plastic box on the underside.

[bigdogmi]

Thanks Jeffmoi

I emptied the toner out and so far I am not seeing the error, but I'm not sure if it is fixed yet, because now I am getting a 310 error (top cover not closed)

I can't figure out what I could have possibly done, to cause this error to appear. The cover is shutting and clicking shut, there doesn't seem to be any missing pieces, all the metal contacts seem to be present and in place...

Can anyone point me in the right direction? What to look for?

[Walter Chavez]

you are right, the 310 error is the cover open error, you could have a bad switch, try adjusting the switch metal actuator up(bend it), or replaced the switch, make sure nothing is obstructing the cover from closing properly.
Also make sure the belt, the fuser and the drums are seated all the way down. Check that the plastic on the cover that pushes the sensor down is not broken. One question, was the belt you put in new? usually takes the life of the belt to fill the bottom container, which I believe is 80K pages on the C9300. E-mail me if you have any questions.

[bigdogmi]

Thank you, both, Jeffmoi and Walter. (It's up and running!!)

It was the metal actuator, for the cover, it was off to one side. I was able to gently bend it back and I was good to go.

As I said earlier I had emptied the waste toner out, (and no Walter, It wasn't full. I did empty it though.) but I still had the "belt life" error. I took all the consumables out again, and used compressed air to clean out below where the transfer belt sits, and in all the cracks and crevices. I also made sure any moving parts I could see, freely, moved. I put the consumables back, turned it on, and voila! Up and running.

I am not entirely sure, exactly, what it was that was causing it, nor for that matter what it was I did that resolved it, but it was your input that led me in the right direction so thank you for the help

Mark.

[Walter Chavez]

That's good, but you should not blow the excess toner, but you should vacuumed it or wipe it. The reason for it is that the dust may block the registration sensors, plus other sensors and the Printheads above on the cover, these printheads have tiny LED's and those form the image on the drums. Cleaned the heads periodically with a lint free alcohol pad.
Good luck

[mrmunroe]

Waste toner

I thought waste toner was carried back to the toner cartridge.

[Walter Chavez]

No , the toner waste goes at the bottom of transfer belt

[blackcat4866]

End Of Life, not Near End.

You have just discovered what I did a few years back. The cartridge (toner, drum, or transfer belt) must be replaced at end of life, not near end. If the cartridge is replaced early, the counter is not reset, but the resistor/fuse in the cartridge is blown (so it cannot reset the counter a second time). When the counter reaches life, only a new cartridge whose resistor/fuse is not blown can reset the counter.

Oki told me to install a new cartridge, regardless of how old it is. It's dumb, but true.

[mrmunroe]

Waste toner

I'm confused, but that's not unusual. I pulled apart a yellow starter cartridge just to see what was inside. It appeared to me that there are two compartments in the cartridge. The front compartment seemed to hold new toner, and the compartment behind it seemed to have dirty yellow toner. It looked to me like the dirty yellow toner somehow traveled back to the cartridge via an auger in the stud that you mount the cartridge on. It occurred to me that if a person was refilling a cartridge with aftermarket toner, and they didn't empty the back waste toner compartment, that eventually it would get so full that it would clog up and stop the little plastic gear from turning and you would get an error message. I'm guessing that some sensors in this area must rely on the physical resistance of this or that, since there doesn't seem to be any electrical connections in a starter cartridge.

[blackcat4866]

I've never successfully gotten any of these cartridges apart, so I haven't seen the inside. This is how its been described to me by my Oki rep.