[CQ] Ricoh D014 / C6000 Toner density

[onegreatsteak]

onegreatsteak - 13 Minutes Ago - permalink Edit Report

Ricoh D014 / C6000 / Lanier LD 260c
Copy image gets lighter with use slowly dropping over 600 copies on all colors. Will even do it in pixel count mode. Looking through Sp's Vd:K through Vd:c/y/m are all ranging -715 to -739 volts. Correct is no more than -700V. Looks like bad potential sensor power pack according to the manual, but I can't understand it doing this in pixel count. Anyone else seen something like this?

[E Winter]

Yes - unfortunately that is a very common issue (has been already discussed here without something I'd call a final solution). All of the MPC6000 in my field are running with a low image density (compared to the density a mid/low end range MPC is able to reproduce). Even using a good quality "color laser" paper the so called "soldids" doesn't look solid in any way. But these buggers tends to use quite a lot of toner because they fill up the waste toner bottle very quickly. I've seen full waste toner bottles after ~100k printouts (normal coverage). I think it's not hard to imagine how much $$$ (or €€€) ends up in waste toner. Btw.: A waste toner bottle of a MPC2500/3500/3300/5000... has probably half or third the capacity but last way longer (250-350k pages according to my experiences).

I already recommended our salesdudes NOT to sell this piece of shit again - it's better to go with a pair of MPC5000.

[onegreatsteak]

I probably should have been more clear since these have a history of graying out, but this one becomes unusable. Black and all colors fade away. Noticeable at 600 and continues to disappear. It must be getting some toner since it would not last 600 copies but it will not keep up. Also the toner feed motor was replaced.

[E Winter]

You can force the machine to add toner via SP and you will see better solids instantly but even if you perform another td sensor initialisation after manual toner add, the machine will become weak again after some hundred printouts. I assume the process control doesn't work well on the software side.

Messing around with the settings isn't really recommendable as well because you risk toner spilling/dirty units and other side effects regarding the printout quality.

[onegreatsteak]

Forcing will bring the color back, I am not changing the settings the numbers are what the machine reported and they are out of range. Trying to figure out what is wrong and how to correct the issue.