Ricoh mpc 5504 with asking 4 black toner

[chester]

Hello, I would be grateful for any help/advice please.

Went to a 5504 a week ago and the client had reported that the device was outputting poor colour prints.
On closer inspection the pcu and developer units were very dirty and on the smc data had gone way over life.
Having ordered both 4 pcu and 4 developer units along with ITB and cleaning unit I returned yesterday and fitted.
Once the 3=701-xxx had been set to one for all replaced units and device switched off/ back on I set up the Auto colour calibration.
Once this was done I ran off about 100 colour A4 and 100 colour A3 with no issues.
I then let the client start using the device and about half an hour later they advised me that it was asking to replace the black toner.
I checked that the bottle was an original one which it is and found that although the bottle is full the screen shows that the black has 0 toner.

I then got a pcdu from another machine and tried this which made no difference and had put another new toner in.

As it was late in the day panic set in and have had to advise the client of the issue and will go back hopefully armed with some ideas.

One thing I did do when replacing the pcu and developer units was at first I mistakingly fitted a colour pcu with the correct black dev unit for the black section.
When inserting this unit I found that there was a bit of resistance with the final insert of the unit, once I realized my mistake I fitted the correct pcu but I am wondering if I have damaged the black vertical duct and have created a fault.

Any advice will be gratefully received.

[copier tech]

Re: Ricoh mpc 5504 with asking 4 black toner

Hello, I would be grateful for any help/advice please.

Went to a 5504 a week ago and the client had reported that the device was outputting poor colour prints.
On closer inspection the pcu and developer units were very dirty and on the smc data had gone way over life.
Having ordered both 4 pcu and 4 developer units along with ITB and cleaning unit I returned yesterday and fitted.
Once the 3=701-xxx had been set to one for all replaced units and device switched off/ back on I set up the Auto colour calibration.
Once this was done I ran off about 100 colour A4 and 100 colour A3 with no issues.
I then let the client start using the device and about half an hour later they advised me that it was asking to replace the black toner.
I checked that the bottle was an original one which it is and found that although the bottle is full the screen shows that the black has 0 toner.

I then got a pcdu from another machine and tried this which made no difference and had put another new toner in.

As it was late in the day panic set in and have had to advise the client of the issue and will go back hopefully armed with some ideas.

One thing I did do when replacing the pcu and developer units was at first I mistakingly fitted a colour pcu with the correct black dev unit for the black section.
When inserting this unit I found that there was a bit of resistance with the final insert of the unit, once I realized my mistake I fitted the correct pcu but I am wondering if I have damaged the black vertical duct and have created a fault.

Any advice will be gratefully received.

Seen this multiple times. Once a dev unit fails, (usually the gears) the machine tries to add toner but can't, this toner backs up breaking the hopper.

So you will need to replace the black hopper, power back on machine will recover you can still use the bottle that shows empty (because it is not)

Just to confirm if you have time take off the k hopper vacuum it out you will see the worm screw broken.

Also as you say you may have broken the small link that goes from the dev unit to the hopper, but this is only 2 screws so whip this out to check.