MPC4500 CRAPPY PHOTOS

[mikadonovan]

I have a B222 in the field that just started this problem. The good print is from a 4500 in shop for comparison. The not so good print is from the customer. Identical settings, as far as I can tell, same PCL6 driver used with identical print settings. The photos are really washed out. 28% on pcu's, 75% on developers. Here's the kicker. I can lay a photo on the glass and make a GOOD copy of it, so the problem is only when printing. Scratching my head on this one. Performed ACC, no effect. SP mode printer test page is excellent.

[rsyarcia]

Re: MPC4500 CRAPPY PHOTOS

have you performed the force line adjustment?

[mikadonovan]

Re: MPC4500 CRAPPY PHOTOS

Uhhhhhh, no I did not. Might be a good idea. Is it Friday yet?

[Tonerbomb]

Re: MPC4500 CRAPPY PHOTOS

I have a B222 in the field that just started this problem. The good print is from a 4500 in shop for comparison. The not so good print is from the customer. Identical settings, as far as I can tell, same PCL6 driver used with identical print settings. The photos are really washed out. 28% on pcu's, 75% on developers. Here's the kicker. I can lay a photo on the glass and make a GOOD copy of it, so the problem is only when printing. Scratching my head on this one. Performed ACC, no effect. SP mode printer test page is excellent.

After the LP adjustment / if it passes enter sp mode. execute sp 5610 then do auto color cal in user tool/maintenance.

[teebee1234]

Re: MPC4500 CRAPPY PHOTOS

Have you tried playing around with the Quality settings in the driver? The default may be set to something like Speed or High Speed (change to Quality), 300/600dpi. You should find the ability to set to Photographic, High Quality, 1200dpi. Depending on the driver (RPCS has the most quality adjustments available), you may find choices like General Documents, Photograph, DTP and CAD. The RPCS also has Color Balance Adjustments (brightness, contrast, saturation and color balance) in the Custom Settings. PCL drivers usually don't have quite as many adjustments but enough to make a difference.

[Herrmann]

Re: MPC4500 CRAPPY PHOTOS

Just a shot in the dark: you said, that you have the same mashine availible at your shop, i would try to interchange the controllers at first to see, if the problem is mashine related or driver/settings related.
second shot in the dark: what happens if you try different drivers like pcl5 and rpcs?

[Gift]

Re: MPC4500 CRAPPY PHOTOS

Yes you can only compare if you ensure that bot machines are printing with the same driver settings. Another hint: Check the user tools - there's a "4 color mode priority" setting somewhere within the printer options in user tool. You can switch it between "photo" or "text" iirc. Switching the setting to text does usually decrease the overall quality.

[mikadonovan]

Re: MPC4500 CRAPPY PHOTOS

It was a matter of a single box in advanced print options being unchecked. Don't know if the latest update changed the default, or what. A simple but time consuming fix. Thanks for the replies.