ES7506AC solid cyan (intermittent)

[Lunatech]

I hate this thing!
Enough about me.
ES7506AC solid cyan intermittently.
Sometimes it will print pages with solid cyan fill. Most times a reboot will straiten it up but not always. Firmware version 1910. Have replaced the high voltage board twice, high voltage leads, entire EPU with all new drum and developing units, all the high voltage junctions between the EPU and frame, the laser unit and harness, the lgc board twice and other things I can't think of at the moment. Multiple drums, developer and corona units. I give up on the hotline as they have never heard of anything like this, not even from me asking over 10 times.
Thanks in advance.

PS: I should add It has about 176k in black and white and 750k in color. So just under a million total. This has been going on for at least three years. It started at about 100k prints. This one does a good amount of 12x18 and envelopes. Another issue we have had is developing units depleting of developing material, also started around 100k. For what it's worth.

[Lunatech]

Last week this happened again. This time I reseated all connections on the NIC which is actually called the SYS board. Cleared up the issue again. Also early last week it stopped printing cyan and yellow on print jobs and on copy jobs no black as well. internal prints were fine, all colors present and in proper proportions. Pulling out what's left of my hair whilst crumpled in a corner.

[Rusty.Harris]

If you are a Toshiba tech, I would at least run the system board & logic board check tool to see if it is showing anything not working.
Also, check the high voltage board connections at the back of the EPU tray & the springs on the inside rear frame.
If this "only" happening on print jobs or copy jobs as well?
One weird thing I've seen on the Sing 19 and earlier machines is that the memory card on the system board (looks like a d-ram for a laptop)
will get built up with dust from the CPU cooling fan. This can form whiskers and cause issues with the ram module.
I've seen off the glass look good, ADF looks bad, print jobs ok, copy job bad and so on. Pull the memory card, clean it with a brush, shoot some
dust off into the memory card slot. Reattach and hold down the energy save button when powering back on until it beeps.

[Lunatech]

If you are a Toshiba tech, I would at least run the system board & logic board check tool to see if it is showing anything not working.

I'll have to look into what those are and how to use them. Thanks.

[Lunatech]

...run the system board & logic board check tool ...

I can not believe no one on the hotline has mentioned this. Also hard to believe that if something in these boards is not working there is no error code. Anyhow I can find no reference to any such tool. If you would be so kind as to direct me to where I can find this I would really appreciate it. Thanks.

[biggungoose]

The board tool can be found on FYI. You have to save it on a USB and use it from there. I would for sure run that. In-Touch center usually asked if you have ran it in cases like this. When you say "solid fill". So, your running a color copy and you're getting solid Cyan all across? I have seen something like this on the smaller, older units like 3055AC. In that case, the doctor blade was too tight and spilling DEV out and covering the page. If you changed the DEV unit then I don't see that. But, you also say your DEV is depleting, so there could be something there.

[Rusty.Harris]

I can not believe no one on the hotline has mentioned this. Also hard to believe that if something in these boards is not working there is no error code. Anyhow I can find no reference to any such tool. If you would be so kind as to direct me to where I can find this I would really appreciate it. Thanks.

WHOOPS! Sorry, there isn't a board check tool for the 06 series. They didn't introduce that until the 16 series. Since you rea losing developer, I would most definitely check the HVT & bias voltages. Sounds like they might be off. especially those spring connections on the back of the EPU. I think there was a bulletin a while back about those springs.
Little trick I did on the old E-3040's was to smear a thin coating of conductive grease on the springs, reinsert the modules, then pull them back out and see if the contacts had the grease rings on them. Worked every time and 100% confirmed they were making contact.

[Lunatech]

I offer many thanks to you, Rusty and Goose, for your input here. I did find the board check tool. I know it is for the 16 series and the mid volume 15's. I still have a fair amount of these so this tool should come in handy. I've never seen an old E-3040 but it sounds like if I were to acquire some conductive grease this would be worth trying. I probably have some in my old Wreak-o stuff.
As far as the "solid" cyan fill goes, it definitely is not physically leaking. The color is put down nice and uniform all the way to the edge and not always the same density. Sometimes in the same run there will be twenty pages +/- in a row and all of them will be a different density of cyan. Maddeningly they do not taper from denser to lighter, no it' random.
Every once in a while there will be a page that isn't totally covered. Some are a sharp edge where the "solid" starts or stops and some sort of feather into or out of solidity. Not fade in or out but looking sort of like the charge was flickering. These flicker marks do not usually go all the way across the page but if it is the sharp edge it does.
I'm rambling.

Thanks again, fellas.

[blackcat4866]

From your description, I would search in the direction of image processing.

Sorry, I didn't read all of the thread ...
if it affects prints only, I would lean toward the system board or laser.
if it affects copies only, I would lean towards the CCD, or CCD board, or system board.
it it affects scans only, I would lean towards CCD, or CCD board, or system board.

I know that with intermittent issues like this, it's not always easy to get examples.

This makes me think of an '40 series with a strange black & white scanning issue. My customer did huge scan jobs (1000+ pages in a document). While reviewing the scans, the customer would find 2 to 5 consecutive pages in a set that were solid black, usually toward the middle or end of the set. They saved me (4) sample files to look at. Even after scanning several thousand, I could not re-create the issue. On the first trip I replaced the CCD, on the second trip I replaced the SLG, on the third trip I replaced both together and never heard a thing afterwards. I con myself into believing that I fixed something. Realistically, I will never know. =^..^=

[Lunatech]

Solid cyan update:

I replaced the SYS board and the first page out was completely covered with cyan. Well poo, I guess that's not it. Then I reseated all the ribbon cables to the laser unit on the LGC board and made something like 90 pages before it stated doing it again. Next I pulled, disassembled and reseated all the connectors in the laser unit and thus far it hasn't done it again in the last 5000 or so pages. It has however depleted the developer from K,M and Y developing units. The black has depleted enough to cause serious quality issues 3 times in the 5000 pages. Depleting developing material is another ongoing issue with these for me.

[djbass]

One common cause of developer material depleting itself is a micro-fissure in the main charge terminals at the back of the EPU Tray causing a charge leakage, I usually replace all 4 of them (6LJ06738000, ASYB-TERM-HVT-CH).

Something also of a personal theory of mine, it's common practice to 'upgrade' the gold charge grids with silver, but personally, I've noticed an increase in developer depletion from toner dirtying the grids on machines with this modification so I avoid that practice myself and live with the decreased lifespan of the gold grids.

[Lunatech]

One common cause of developer material depleting itself is a micro-fissure in the main charge terminals at the back of the EPU Tray causing a charge leakage, I usually replace all 4 of them (6LJ06738000, ASYB-TERM-HVT-CH).

Something also of a personal theory of mine, it's common practice to 'upgrade' the gold charge grids with silver, but personally, I've noticed an increase in developer depletion from toner dirtying the grids on machines with this modification so I avoid that practice myself and live with the decreased lifespan of the gold grids.

Thanks for the input.

At what interval do you usually replace the charge terminals and grids?

[djbass]

Thanks for the input.

At what interval do you usually replace the charge terminals and grids?

The charge terminals shouldn't ever need to be replaced, only if they are faulty.

The grids just depend on their condition during inspection, the gold grids start to corrode after 100K+ prints, they are supposed to have a life of 400K+ but I've never seen them last that long. The silver ones usually only 200K+, but again they are supposed to have a much longer life, they won't be as obvious when they are corroding, and they will appear still new but on closer inspection under the light you will see a grey/blue discoloration on the surface.

[Lunatech]

The charge terminals shouldn't ever need to be replaced, only if they are faulty.

The grids just depend on their condition during inspection, the gold grids start to corrode after 100K+ prints, they are supposed to have a life of 400K+ but I've never seen them last that long. The silver ones usually only 200K+, but again they are supposed to have a much longer life, they won't be as obvious when they are corroding, and they will appear still new but on closer inspection under the light you will see a grey/blue discoloration on the surface.

Okay, this is good information. In the life of this machine I have replaced the coronas seven or eight times and rebuilt them each time between. I have replaced the terminals four times. The plastic in the coronas usually won't last long before it starts to melt and the whole thing needs replaced. I'm glad to hear it isn't just me not getting anything near expected life.

[Lunatech]

It happened again. Here is a photo sent to me by the operator.