[Misc] color signature fading on mail merge on word doc.

[fanasa]

We have a MX4501 and a customer that does mail merging on word. When he prints it after about the 20th page the signature (which is blue) starts fading away and then disappears.
He can print PDFs and other documents all day and that doesn't happen.

Has anyone seen this before?
Tech has replaced the DV unit twice, Transfer belt, HV board and fuser unit.
It keeps coming back.

[OMD-227]

Does the remainder of the mail merge document print ok. Is it just the signature part that fades off during the print run?

[ESA]

Sounds like a software bug maybe. If you're able to print all day anything then something sounds a miss and I won't expect it to be a developer issue. What o/s are they using? In word there is really three ways to merge. Merge at the printer, merge to a file and merge to email. To test for potential software or print driver bug do the following tests and see results.

1) when client goes to merge. Use merge at printer option. This provents very large file from being created. At the print driver there is an option for colate

[ESA]

Too fast my fingers on my phone sorry to continue.

When they get to the print driver remove the collate option that MS puts in for small desktop printers. At this point word will send each merge by itself. At this point you should see the printer queue fill quickly. If you have a machine problem this is it.

2) second thing you can do if you want to see if problem is memory or how it handles large files leave the collate check box on and wait till whole job is spooled before it really goes at it.

In both cases you should be able to see print queue handle each way deceived differently. If you still have problem with fading with one colour then see if you can increase your toner flow, although I would tend to bet against it.

[fanasa]

yes, it's the signature that faced away.
Teh tech has replaced the DV unit and everything

[OMD-227]

I doubt this is a machine hardware issue. That small signature is not enough toner coverage for the machine to be all of a sudden low on toner density in the developer. This would occur if you were printing solid pictures only, before the machine would automatically adjust process control.

When you print, go into the color tab of the printer driver and select 'Text to Black' and/or 'Vector to Black'. This will force the machine to print text & lines in a darker color.
Also, in the word document, try right clicking on the signature image insertion, select format picture, and adjust the brightness & contrast of the image to something a little darker.

Also try just printing the signature image in another program by itself, say in Microsoft paint or Image viewer etc etc. This would rule out any issue with Microsoft Word (which is mental in its own right) and the actual image.

[fanasa]

This is what the tech sent me this morning about this issue. he went back to the customer and he tried to figure out what the problem was. He said the following:

"I had them take the the mail merge and do a select-all copy and past into a email. That wa sent to a different user in the office. That printed the same way. I then had what is NOW just Word doc put on my thumb drive. I printed it from my laptop over a crossover cable. First I printed 30 of just the last page with the color signature, all were good. The I printed the 3 page word doc after the 5 set (15pages) the color fell off then vanished..."

He is going to send me the file to see if i can figure it out here. But I am not sure what else I can tell him. I did give him all your messages.
Any idea?

[OMD-227]

So continuous printing of the single page with the signature works OK, but as soon as that page is incorporated into the whole mail-merge document the signature fades? Is that right?
If so, that definitely sounds like a Word issue, not the machine. Have you done what I mentioned earlier about the driver settings? Have you printed the signature image from another program by itself? That would rule out the image or show the issue is with the machine.
Has the machine had a full color calibration run over it? Is the firmware up to date? Is this the only document that this happens to?

[fanasa]

By the way, I got the file from the tech and tested it in 5 different model machines and it didn't do what he says is doing on their machine. so we are looking into a problem with the machine. I think he replaced the MFP, he ordered the memory and may be replacing the boot and program chips. hopefully that'll take it of it

[costd]

Interesting issue. I am new at this but it seems to me that it is a main charger or possible drum issue. Wonder, for test purposes, if you change the blue signature to say red - does it still happen? If not, I would look close at the cyan drum assy.

My idea is it may start with a good charge, then does not recharge fully (or possibly drains away)????

[OMD-227]

I still cant comprehand how an image as small as a signature is causing so much toner/density loss.

The image file of the signature has been printed multiple times BY ITSELF and works fine. As soon as the signature image file is incorporated into the mail merge document, it fades out, while the rest of the document stays OK.

You have said that it is just the signature that fades away during the printing of the mail merge document. That rules out any consumables in the machine, as the rest of the document would also be affected in some way too. This is basic logic.

How can an image print OK by itself perfectly fine, but fade away once it is printed within another program or file.....??? Sounds like a software issue to me. If it was a hardware issue the whole document would be affected, not just an inserted signature image.
This surely cannot be the machine, but a problem with the way the file is processed. Did you try any of the driver changes I mentioned above while at this site? Was there any changes at all?
This has been going on for 2 weeks now. Why havent you changed the drums/devs just as a test, or at least swapped drum units around temporarily if you think it could be consumable related? You have had techs replace dev units, transfer belts, HV boards etc etc and its still there.
I understand that everything else is printing perfectly like you have said, so surely you understand that a problem with just one type of document cannot be caused by consumbles that are also being used for everything else.

Changing the Boot & Program roms is a complete waste of time. This has nothing to do with it. As long as the firmware is up-to-date on the roms already, and they are not giving errors such as 'Main Program Error' or firmware file loss, there is no need to replace these.

I really hope you guys work this one out soon. Its been hurting my head just thinking about it

[mansart]

You could (as a test) print the mail merge to PDF, then examine resulting PDF's for same fading of signature block...............

If not fading in PDF then print PDF to Sharp and see if fading occurs

[fanasa]

The problem was a spring in the shutter section of the laser unit. We removed the spring and it was fine. Apparently the spring would not keep the shutter open as long as it has to and that's why the signature (which was in color blue) desappeared.
thanks for your help

[Nachoman4life]

Uh, that is a return spring, its what closes the shutter, without it installed the shutter may remain open and a front to rear band should start appearing on the back side (when the lsu does a laser check) Similar to a tech bulletin when this series first came out about metal burrs in the base plate between the lsu and process units, that held the shutter open. There are a few other recent posts that have been shutter related, you may want to read up on them. And check the IDNC about the fixes for this.

Was the signature pure cyan? If it was "blue" there should have been traces of magenta still visible. If not both the cyan and magenta shutters may need a little attention.

Good habit - if you have one shutter showing problems, do the other three at the same time.

[fanasa]

All that was tried. Nothing seemd to work except when they removed the spring from the LSU shutters.
Thanks for your input though