Overall Impression of the MP4000/5000

[cobiray]

Is anyone else thoroughly let down by this new model? The PCU and fuser units seem to be over engineered, labor intensive and tedious to disassemble and service. I've had a few scanner motors fail and then there is the ongoing issue with the toner fusing in the developer unit to the mag roller. Anyone else fed up with these or am I "the only dealer who's having this much trouble?"

[FRIDGEMAGNET]

I think everyone is fed up.
The manufacturer is now saying the bulletin that relates to the bias changes is the FINAL FIX!

[rthonpm]

I have about five of these out in the field and so far most of them are nothing but trouble. The toner density seems to vanish after 25,000 copies even with the right supplies, the combined drum and dev unit seemed like a good idea at first but in practise it still pukes the same amount of toner out. Why the new drum when the only difference with the old one is a longer plastic lip at the one end?
The fuser is a complete nightmare, especially as the 35/45 fusers were the only piece of that whole family that worked. Why put a web in it??? Why make the whole process of removing that web so freaking time consuming?
Why throw a supposedly improved line out with the same issues as the older versions while adding more complications?
Also, why the freaking B units? All they do is make sloppy techs install the wrong firmware on them. I've had to try and clean two of them up now for other guys on my team.

[cobiray]

I have about five of these out in the field and so far most of them are nothing but trouble. The toner density seems to vanish after 25,000 copies even with the right supplies, the combined drum and dev unit seemed like a good idea at first but in practise it still pukes the same amount of toner out. Why the new drum when the only difference with the old one is a longer plastic lip at the one end?
The fuser is a complete nightmare, especially as the 35/45 fusers were the only piece of that whole family that worked. Why put a web in it??? Why make the whole process of removing that web so freaking time consuming?
Why throw a supposedly improved line out with the same issues as the older versions while adding more complications?
Also, why the freaking B units? All they do is make sloppy techs install the wrong firmware on them. I've had to try and clean two of them up now for other guys on my team.

I really can't come up with any idea for the "improvements" in the fuser either. Change to a web roller, 10 or so separate fuser covers, various support brackets, etc. The only thing I can think of is that the machines didn't use enough parts, so the design was changed to increase the likelihood of tech induced breakage.

I think everyone is fed up.
The manufacturer is now saying the bulletin that relates to the bias changes is the FINAL FIX!

Final Fix?!? Doesn't it have to actually work for it to be called a fix? I've not had any success with changing either the developer bias or charge roller settings. I've also tried lowering the fusing temps about 10 degrees with no success either. Has anyone had success with this fix?

[Lagonda]

Final Fix?!? Doesn't it have to actually work for it to be called a fix?

Dont know about a Final Fix my RTB talked about a "Final Solution" which sounds a bit Third Reich to me! And no, MP 5000's not performing any better down this end of the world.

[hjvol]

i would just like to say that it is the biggest shit on the market right now!!!! They should have stayed with the 1035 up models at least they reached their drum and dev yields!!!Also got low density copies and changed a few parts already, to see if problem presists!!!Hope they get the answer to the problem soon!!!

[Cipher]

The final fix is not to sell this model, and for once our sales team is doing just that.

[TonerMunkeh]

First impressions? Anyone got a recipe for thermite? That's all these filthy, problem ridden bunches of turkey sputum deserve, burning at high temperature!

[Scott_Lewis]

Is anyone else thoroughly let down by this new model?

Still too new for us I guess. No problems so far. I haven't had the joy of replacing the web roller, yet. I've heard it is a real PITA.

[unisys12]

Same here. We haven't had any problems with these so far. We did have one that through an SC code a few times for the charge roller, so we changed that. Weird! Then I had one last week that said the waste toner was full. Saw the TSB and ordered the parts. Other than that, that's about it.

Tomorrow we are delivering a MLP150n (printer version) to an account as a demo. I set it up yesterday. Of course not a big difference from the parent MFP. But if this guy like it, he will be buying 18 of them! After doing the math on the account, he will be averaging around 70k a month on it. My first response was that of . But, since I haven't seen one of these new models really be put through their paces, I figured what the hell. My owners saying that we didn't have much choice in the matter helped some too, so...

[FMC]

From my experence of these, I would say we're in for lots of problems.

I had one the other week that last about 40K before the dev went!!!, when I replaced it, it still had a background on it.So I too the toner out and ran it empty till it asked for toner, retoned it and the CQ came back.But like I said I see ALOT of trouble ahead.

Just wait till you get customers with old Adonis C3 toner putting it in the new MP4000/5000, because thats what the background looks like.

[cobiray]

Had the rep in today. He literally told me he didn't know anything about it. He hadn't even seen the TSB on it yet!!!! If you guys are seeing this problem please call and tell your reps. I know it sometimes doesn't help, but he said he would warranty dev units if the TSB is followed. Plus if we don't proclaim our displeasure, nothing will get done.

We went out to a machine I had been to last week I had scrubbed the mag roller on and it already had build up on the front side. I also checked the resistance on the drum ground (a la MP3500/4500) and got about 40 ohms which seemed to be a good number. I ordered the dev unit today so hopefully it's just a bad lot of them.

[SGT_Snacks-64]

I have to say as an Engineer who regularly sees the MP3500/4500 range out in the field. I'm absolutly fed up with this Developer problem. On a regular basis I'm cleaning the Mag roller with this coating of pure crap, if it's not that then half/quarter of the copies are faded, the crap gets inbetween the Doctor blade, then there's background.

Almost every call, vac all the leaking toner out the machine, run paper through the Doctor blade "you'll see the long, thick lines of crap that comes out of it" Clean the Mag roller, preserving the Developer in the machine, reassemble and cross your fingers.

You know what I've been considering? Vac all the toner/dev out of the machine, whack some B079 in there with the old type Toner and see what that does, certainly worked better in the older machines.

Shame it wouldn't fix the problem =(

edit: To add to that, you notice on the RTB it states the Developer has to be replaced. Could this be some sort of way for Ricoh to make an extra buck on more Dev bags being used? :\

[paulg]

Do you ever get the feeling that Ricoh are trying to get out of the BW low volume MFP market?
Well at least putting R and D on the back burner. If you get any say get the customer to look at or salesman to offer the MPc 3500 or 4500. Im sure i heard rumors of a MPC4/5000 (cough check tessa). Although the dreaded words lower melting temp for new toner are in the info i have seen so far..

Look how Ricohs last analogue machines were just put there to fill the spec...
Any one rember the FT7950/60/70 penguin i think it was. they were worse than the machine they replaced in terms of quality and had bizzare new features which i presume were junior designers experimenting.

[FRIDGEMAGNET]

I had 3 x 7950 Penguins on my area 6 years ago and they regularly went 300k between calls - PM to PM - much better than the digital equivalent 650.