MP 5055 won't detect new toner

[Dark Helmet]

Howdy folks

2 weeks back i had a MP 5055 that kept saying to replace the toner even when you put a new toner in.

Checked toner motor & toner detect switch in SP modes. Toner bottle turns and the switch changed states. When you put a toner in and close the door the machine fires up for 5 seconds, spins the drum a few turns and the add toner message never leaves the screen.

I went into SP 3100 and turned off toner end detection and the machine fired up and started printing. It was super overtoned. I ran 50 sky shots with 1" on lead edge blank to prevent jamming and the background went away. Machine seemed good after that.

History on machine:
Machine does about 40k a month.
First drum went 160k, i usually get 200k on these.
We don't rebuild these drums, put in a entire PCUDU
2nd drum had lines at 80k.
3rd drum seems to be ok so far but im wondering if the machine didn't calibrate properly. April 15 we dropped them 2 MP6054 toners which yield 37k each. Customer chewed thru those and ran out on May 4 (obviously the force is not strong there ). I went down with another toner to verify the toners were empty and they were. I put a new toner in and the machine refused to start up. I had to change SP3100 again. Machine started printing fine with no back ground, after about 30 pages it started leaving background on the back of the pages. There is some toner leaking from the front and rear of the drum.

Im thinking new drum and going into SP3701 and manually triggering the drum replacement to make sure the machine calibrates and resets the counters.

Any thoughts or anybody seen this before?

Thanks

[DH1980]

Re: MP 5055 won't detect new toner

I agree with SP3701. I would trip each item in the PCU and make sure the machine runs like it is doing process control.

[copyaction]

Re: MP 5055 won't detect new toner

Was the toner waste full? Those 2 toners must have gone somewhere.
Also is it genuine Ricoh toner?

[Dark Helmet]

Re: MP 5055 won't detect new toner

Was the toner waste full? Those 2 toners must have gone somewhere.
Also is it genuine Ricoh toner?

I always change the waste toner when a drum is done. When i was there 2 weeks ago i did check the waste toner and it was not full. I pulled the top of the drum and checked the waste auger as there is a TSB about that breaking and causing backups but it was fine and not a ton of toner in there. We are using OEM toner and parts for the machine.

Unless there are any other ideas i think im going to hit it with another drum and put the latest package firmware on it.

Thanks

[BLADE]

Re: MP 5055 won't detect new toner

I seen one do this, couldn't work out what was going on. I thought maybe the user put a bottle in with the cap on and buggered something, then it fixed itself happy dayz... in the old days you could look for a small door open symbol but that symbol is gone now

[slimslob]

Re: MP 5055 won't detect new toner

We are using OEM toner and parts for the machine.

OEM or Genuine Ricoh. There is a difference. Though OEM might meet the Original Equipment Manufacturer's specifications it very seldom meets their testing standards and quality of production.

[Dark Helmet]

Re: MP 5055 won't detect new toner

OEM or Genuine Ricoh. There is a difference. Though OEM might meet the Original Equipment Manufacturer's specifications it very seldom meets their testing standards and quality of production.

All parts and toners come directly from Ricoh.

[slimslob]

Re: MP 5055 won't detect new toner

Since you say that you replace the entire PCDU I would suspect that the last one you put in had a bad TD sensor. Turning off toner end detection tends to support that possibility.

[Mark Bbb]

Re: MP 5055 won't detect new toner

TD sensor, possible.
But also ID sensor could fail.

[dalewb74]

Re: MP 5055 won't detect new toner

this might not help, but thought i would mention it. an issue i had once with a ricoh ECO model was the ricoh toner that came from ricoh said it fit that model machine. this was the black toner. the ones for the color was fine. but what i discovered on the black was even though the box said it was the correct one that it actually wasn't. but when you open the cover to replace the toner there was a sticker below where the bottle inserts. that gave a different part number and once i ordered that one it worked just fine. kinda odd that ricoh would put the incorrect model number on their box.

[Notrons]

Re: MP 5055 won't detect new toner

You might have a broken auger in the toner hopper. I have had this happen twice in the past year with those models. There is a small plastic linkage to the auger that moves toner from the hopper to the PCU. If a toner rock gets stuck in there, it will cause toner to back up and snap that linkage. The only way to fix it is to replace the whole toner hopper. Real pain to troubleshoot and replace.

[Dark Helmet]

Re: MP 5055 won't detect new toner

You might have a broken auger in the toner hopper. I have had this happen twice in the past year with those models. There is a small plastic linkage to the auger that moves toner from the hopper to the PCU. If a toner rock gets stuck in there, it will cause toner to back up and snap that linkage. The only way to fix it is to replace the whole toner hopper. Real pain to troubleshoot and replace.

One of the other techs mentioned in my company they had that auger break as well but their machine made a grinding noise when the toner bottle went rotate. Mine rotates fine and the copier will not even attempt to rotate the bottle when replacing. They actually cut the broke part of the auger off and it is still working that way.

Apparently you can get at that hopper if you take the bridge unit out and the belly cover and not have to rip all the crap out the back of the machine.

[skinnyb]

Re: MP 5055 won't detect new toner

One of the other techs mentioned in my company they had that auger break as well but their machine made a grinding noise when the toner bottle went rotate. Mine rotates fine and the copier will not even attempt to rotate the bottle when replacing. They actually cut the broke part of the auger off and it is still working that way.

Apparently you can get at that hopper if you take the bridge unit out and the belly cover and not have to rip all the crap out the back of the machine.

I concur. Bridge unit, cover under it and take pcu out and it wiggles out once all the screws are removed. Need a stubby driver for a couple of them. The waste toner drive in the back is a pain. Boards have to come off and all kinds of stuff.

Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk

[FrohnB]

Re: MP 5055 won't detect new toner

Did someone forget to properly initialize the machine upon setup??

From The manual:
While the front cover is open, turn on the main power switch.
If the front cover is closed when turning on the main power switch, the machine starts a normal
toner supply.
7. Enter the SP mode, and then press [System Sp].
8. Set SP3-510-031 (ImgQltyAdj :ExeFlag: Init Toner Replenish: K) to “1”, and then press “#” on the
operation panel.
9. Press [EXIT] to end the SP mode.
10. Close the front cover.
11. The machine automatically starts the initial toner supply. The initialization message appears.
12. Enter SP mode again, and then press [System Sp].
13. Enter SP3-011-001 (Manual ProCon :Exe), and then press [Execute].
Be sure to do this procedure in the main machine installation. Otherwise, abnormal images may
be developed until the next process control.
14. Press [Exit] when completed.
15. Press [EXIT] to end the SP mode.

Note if the initial toner supply has not been performed
If you start printing without executing the initial toner supply at installation, the machine goes to the toner end
condition even if the machine has plenty of toner in the toner bottle. Do the following procedure to perform the
toner end recovery if the machine has entered the toner end condition.
1. Open the front cover for five seconds or more.
2. Make sure that the toner bottle is set properly.
3. Close the front cover.
4. The toner end recovery automatically starts

[slimslob]

Re: MP 5055 won't detect new toner

Be sure to do this procedure in the main machine installation. Otherwise, abnormal images may
be developed until the next process control.
14. Press [Exit] when completed.
15. Press [EXIT] to end the SP mode.

Note if the initial toner supply has not been performed
If you start printing without executing the initial toner supply at installation, the machine goes to the toner end
condition even if the machine has plenty of toner in the toner bottle. Do the following procedure to perform the
toner end recovery if the machine has entered the toner end condition.
1. Open the front cover for five seconds or more.
2. Make sure that the toner bottle is set properly.
3. Close the front cover.
4. The toner end recovery automatically starts

I thought about that when I first saw the title of the thread but then noticed from his first post of the thread that the machine has over 240K on it. As the xx54 were the last model out before I retire from actively repairing, is there any way that he may have done inadvertently something to erase the toner supply initialization?