looking for more info on the mpc 305

[fshead]

hi
i rolled the dice and sold two of these unit as they both had low meters ,3-5k both for black and color.
Plus my local ricoh dealer i get parts from has the main shop guy and he tells me he love that series..
One installed in july,no problems but the 2nd installed 2 months ago i just returned from.
Customer called and said unit was asking for magenta and stopped working.
all firmware was updated but i dont know what "customized firmware" is re bulletin RD117051b
so I bring a full set and swap the magenta but it was still quite full.
I do force magenta feed via service mode and the magenta issue goes away but switches to add black...........
I tried force feed black after swapping out cartridge and it never cleared..
SO i shut off toner end and switched toner supply to pixel.
So after looking at some bulletin.
I see it could be a foam seal blocking opening or toner motor etc etc.
SO any info appreciated as this machine is located in a customer bedroom and i really dont want to
pull a machine into 1000 pieces in that location.
thanks in advance

[davel]

[Zeldaman]

[fshead]

Re: looking for more info on the mpc 305

thanks
as i have to give them a small loaner,and have a spare mpc305 with 100k black and 5k color do you think
I can assume it might be updated or there is no norm on these units when they fail?

[fshead]

Re: looking for more info on the mpc 305

the bulletin says something about a D1185755B Customized firmware.
OR is this just nothing?

[JDYAL]

Re: looking for more info on the mpc 305

x2 on What Zeldaman said. Usually the toner hopper. I didn't particularly care for these units but then again I don't like any small units people tend to treat them like a 60 ppm machine.

[fshead]

Re: looking for more info on the mpc 305

x2 on What Zeldaman said. Usually the toner hopper. I didn't particularly care for these units but then again I don't like any small units people tend to treat them like a 60 ppm machine.

thanks
can i tell if a machine had the new style toner hopper?
serial number or looking at it from the inside"saw they made a cut out on sponge seal".
Is that where the toner bottle would sit when open and dropping in toner?
I dont want to swap out machine with another anchor..
I dont have time to do the repair right now

[JayPaul]

Re: looking for more info on the mpc 305

I hated these machines. Seemed ok for first few months when released but then for me it was often the yellow toner 'empty' even though you know it is still half full. Augers can sometimes break because toner clogs up. Pumps not great. Also if you are that deep in a machine change the little PCB as well part number was D1175162 (but could have been superceded by now)
Takes about 2 hours to swap all that stuff, loads of screws and such

[Zaxxon]

Re: looking for more info on the mpc 305

Shitty pins for toner bottle detection, they bend when toner bottles are pulled out and in. Can be fixed with a small hook (careful) when LSU are removed. 5 minutes job, changing entire PCB takes a couple of hours.

[JayPaul]

Re: looking for more info on the mpc 305

True, but if he has to go deep diving to fix a pump/hopper I would always say take another few minutes to replace that board. That alone helped me out a few times in the past. Got fairly quick at it after a succession of that same problem in different places. Also other faults on that model, jamming in bypass can be resolved with some grease in the slits each side where the tray plate moves up and down. If a colour totally disappears on print outs, it's not the PCU all you have to do is unplug the harness on top of the laser and plug it back in again. The plastic along the bottom of the transfer roller on earlier models had 3 little cuts along it, after a while that will cause jamming, there is a modified version where the plastic is solid. If the tray is the old type, the spring will snap the black bit of plastic on the back of it, there is also a stronger modified version of that as well. The fuser gears turned into dust on earliest versions after about 20-30k in the end a whole fuser is cheaper than rebuilding it if you buy from Ricoh. There are probably other faults I just can't remember right now.

[fshead]

Re: looking for more info on the mpc 305

True, but if he has to go deep diving to fix a pump/hopper I would always say take another few minutes to replace that board. That alone helped me out a few times in the past. Got fairly quick at it after a succession of that same problem in different places. Also other faults on that model, jamming in bypass can be resolved with some grease in the slits each side where the tray plate moves up and down. If a colour totally disappears on print outs, it's not the PCU all you have to do is unplug the harness on top of the laser and plug it back in again. The plastic along the bottom of the transfer roller on earlier models had 3 little cuts along it, after a while that will cause jamming, there is a modified version where the plastic is solid. If the tray is the old type, the spring will snap the black bit of plastic on the back of it, there is also a stronger modified version of that as well. The fuser gears turned into dust on earliest versions after about 20-30k in the end a whole fuser is cheaper than rebuilding it if you buy from Ricoh. There are probably other faults I just can't remember right now.

wow
it is so hard to believe that the company that designed the mpc300/mpc401/spc430 engine thought this design would be "an improvement"..
what a turd........No wonder I see 30 to 40 them offered up for sale..
I got a crazy quote for parts and just decided to swap it out for a mp301 b/w..i also bought a small canon IR1435IF small footprint all in one..
I cant be bothered wth headaches and rather GUT the ricoh and try to salvage USE..

[Dan G]

Re: looking for more info on the mpc 305

fshead the C305 was a hit and miss unit - good ones were good - bad ones were always bad
as for the original issue you posted machines following C306 407 etc had similar issues but it was because toners were not being able to be inserted fully to contact board in the rear. there is a toggle near the hopper that sticks because of toner build up in the area . a good cleaning to ensure toggles returned to home position seemed to help- Easier with laser units removed

[fshead]

Re: looking for more info on the mpc 305

fshead the C305 was a hit and miss unit - good ones were good - bad ones were always bad
as for the original issue you posted machines following C306 407 etc had similar issues but it was because toners were not being able to be inserted fully to contact board in the rear. there is a toggle near the hopper that sticks because of toner build up in the area . a good cleaning to ensure toggles returned to home position seemed to help- Easier with laser units removed

I BOUGHT 4 OF THEM AND PLACED TWO and so far only one is out there..
I rather not have unhappy customer

[Klydon]

Re: looking for more info on the mpc 305

Miserable little machine. JayPaul nailed a lot of the issues with this lemon.

I would also add that the PM cycle is short on a lot of things in the machine. Shorter than you think they might be. You won't usually get much past yield either. Color units are 24K and they are done.

There are some other issues as well. As someone mentioned, customers get this machine and they think it can/should do more than it is capable of. The machine is rated at 5k max with no more than 20% color volume. The 20% is low compared to about anything else. The sweet spot is 2k a month (so 400 color).

The machine has a chance to run decently if it is lower volume. (IE, within specs). Even with that, I have had to replace my fair share of hoppers. My comment if you have to try one for the first time is mind the ribbon cables going to the lasers.

MPC 306 is basically a 305 with the upgraded mods done standard.

MPC 307 is marginally better because they changed the DF to a single pass. The other DF is light duty and not meant for heavy duty scanning, etc.