Toshiba Estudio 4515ac Toner failure

[davethewave]

Aloha,
In researching my issue the only place i found with knowledgeable people online was this community, I haven't found the exact situation that I am in so I am making a post. I am not a copier tech (I read the rules and didn't see anything against me posting but let me know if not allowed and I will delete).

I recently acquired a 4515ac Estudio. My wife and I work from home and print a lot. For color copier I had in the past used a ups store or Walgreens near by. Unfortunately both their machines were down so I was in a jam and saw this copier for sale on facebook marketplace. The story the seller told me sounded good and I did some test prints and copies and bought the unit. The toners were all over 60% full and based on my research that would last a while. I brought it home and printed the large color exhibits (couple hundred pages) no issues at all.

Now 1 week later I go to print and it is working fine, then I hear a clicking sound, and it says wait adding toner. Then it says Black and Magenta empty. I removed the cartridges and saw they they far from empty by feel. I followed some advice and manually fed some toner out into the trash then re install. Same clicking sound like it is trying to fill some reservoir I think its called the developer below the cartridge with toner, machine says "adding toner please wait". It ultimately times out and beeps replace black toner and magenta again. I checked to see if the chute between the toner and developer was jammed, but that was fine.

I am also aware the toner cartridges have chips and that may be an issue as it now has marked the chip as 0% but when I replace it still attempts to retrieve toner.

I am open to any and all advice. I know I am in over my head and don't want to waste your valuable time, but I really love tinkering and fixing things, and my business partner said it would break and I would lose money so my ego also wants to fix the machine.

Let me know if you have any thoughts.

Aloha,
-David

[davethewave]

Re: Toshiba Estudio 4515ac Toner failure

To update.
the clicking sounds seems too load to be normal it seams as maybe the drive gear (2 cog gear) is slipping as the sound comes from rear of machine. I feel like manually advancing the toner gear is harder than it should be and is contributing, although when i cleaned the chute from the cartridge to the developer it refilled so some is adding to the developer.

Thanks again for taking the time to read this post.

[mojorolla]

Re: Toshiba Estudio 4515ac Toner failure

Sounds like the developer units are not turning to allow the toner to enter the system. Being that the noise is coming from the rear, same place the DV drive is, I would guess you have bad DV units.

[blackcat4866]

Re: Toshiba Estudio 4515ac Toner failure

Sounds like the developer units are not turning to allow the toner to enter the system. Being that the noise is coming from the rear, same place the DV drive is, I would guess you have bad DV units.

+1 on that.

#1) Get a service manual if you're going to service the machine.
#2) High humidity can affect the toner, making it clump. Just banging the toner cartridge on the ground will break up clumps. Manually turning the toner cartridge drive is a good way to determine if the toner is flowing properly. It should be easy to turn.
#3) The gear sound that you are hearing may be gear failure on the black and magenta developing units. When the developer seals leak, developer (ferrous powder) leaks into the gear drive for the unit, causing wear to the gear teeth. When the gear teeth wear and the unit is not driven, the machine does not get an accurate toner density reading, and tries to feed more and more and more toner to those units. Remove the black and magenta developing units (this is where the service manual comes in). Examine the front and rear of the developing units where the auger shafts pass through the frames. If you see a lot of toner and developer in the gears, you can be certain that you need to rebuild the developing unit and replace the developer powder.

Let us know what you find. Aloha (that's also "Goodbye", yes?) =^..^=

[davethewave]

Re: Toshiba Estudio 4515ac Toner failure

Sounds like the developer units are not turning to allow the toner to enter the system. Being that the noise is coming from the rear, same place the DV drive is, I would guess you have bad DV units.

Thank you for your time. I will start looking into that.

[davethewave]

Re: Toshiba Estudio 4515ac Toner failure

+1 on that.

#1) Get a service manual if you're going to service the machine.
#2) High humidity can affect the toner, making it clump. Just banging the toner cartridge on the ground will break up clumps. Manually turning the toner cartridge drive is a good way to determine if the toner is flowing properly. It should be easy to turn.
#3) The gear sound that you are hearing may be gear failure on the black and magenta developing units. When the developer seals leak, developer (ferrous powder) leaks into the gear drive for the unit, causing wear to the gear teeth. When the gear teeth wear and the unit is not driven, the machine does not get an accurate toner density reading, and tries to feed more and more and more toner to those units. Remove the black and magenta developing units (this is where the service manual comes in). Examine the front and rear of the developing units where the auger shafts pass through the frames. If you see a lot of toner and developer in the gears, you can be certain that you need to rebuild the developing unit and replace the developer powder.

Let us know what you fine. Aloha (that's also "Goodbye", yes?) =^..^=

Glad to see some consensus. between both of you, gives me a direction to go in.
#1--I was looking to get a service manual, but most of the websites selling them look sketchy and are covered in popups. Is the a reputable 3rd party vendor that you can recommend to purchase as an end user?

#2-- Ding-ding-Ding I just had what was a hurricane pass by, ended up being nothing, but still cranked the humidity way us, that must be the cause of my issues, now to see what broke because of it.

#3-- I pulled the DV units and they appear to be functioning, but I need to look closer, I will check the gears for evidence of leaking.

Aloha (yup hello and goodbye)

Thank you both for the help so far, I'll report back, might need a dehumidifier in my printer area to prevent future issues.

[davethewave]

Re: Toshiba Estudio 4515ac Toner failure

Quick update. I cleaned everything and manually advanced the dv and the toner cartridge and they got smoother. I reinstalled and the noise was much less, and it sounded like the machine was able to advance the way it should, but it still says I have to replace the toner 0%. could this be due to the chip being marked as empty or do I still have another issue?

Thanks again.

[blackcat4866]

Re: Toshiba Estudio 4515ac Toner failure

Quick update. I cleaned everything and manually advanced the dv and the toner cartridge and they got smoother. I reinstalled and the noise was much less, and it sounded like the machine was able to advance the way it should, but it still says I have to replace the toner 0%. could this be due to the chip being marked as empty or do I still have another issue?

Thanks again.

Yes, once the machine determines that the cartridge is empty (whether is it physically empty or not), it sends a signal to the chip: "You are empty." Even if there is toner in the cartridge, the machine won't try to use it. =^..^=

[blackcat4866]

Re: Toshiba Estudio 4515ac Toner failure

There's a rumor that members that make a small financial contribution to support this website often get what they need. When you've contributed, your name will become yellow colored, so it's easy to tell who's contributing. =^..^=

[davethewave]

Re: Toshiba Estudio 4515ac Toner failure

There's a rumor that members that make a small financial contribution to support this website often get what they need. When you've contributed, your name will become yellow colored, so it's easy to tell who's contributing. =^..^=

Sounds good, nothing wrong with contributing to helpful resources. Everything costs money to maintain and especially to avoid intrusive ads. Thanks for the tip, I just contributed.

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: Toshiba Estudio 4515ac Toner failure

I would remove the Waste toner container and by feel you can tell if it full, half full. or less than half full.

I would remove and inspact the transfer cleaning blade located on the far left of the copier directly below the toner. You must first release the gray lever on the right of the copier.

I do not think this is the source of the problem but ii is useful to rule out small jobs, quick to perform.

[davethewave]

Re: Toshiba Estudio 4515ac Toner failure

I would remove the Waste toner container and by feel you can tell if it full, half full. or less than half full.

I would remove and inspact the transfer cleaning blade located on the far left of the copier directly below the toner. You must first release the gray lever on the right of the copier.

I do not think this is the source of the problem but ii is useful to rule out small jobs, quick to perform.

Thank you for the ideas, I will try theses.

As a general update, I have made no progress you, i am reading the manual, and have looking into rebilding the developers, but I need to wait for parts to do that. I attempted anew cartridge in the magenta and burned that one, which is quite a bummer. (said empty right away).

[davethewave]

Re: Toshiba Estudio 4515ac Toner failure

Update.

I have done all of the suggested actions and have maybe made some progress. I found the drive gear on the toner side of the developer was worn and may be slipping. Is there a developer unit rebuild kit available with the gears and bearings?

Thanks again for all the help. I unfortunately wasted more toner cartridges in testing, so this repair is getting pricey.

[blackcat4866]

Re: Toshiba Estudio 4515ac Toner failure

I would start by removing the rear cover over the developing unit drive gears. Gear damage and/or developer leakage will be obvious. Cost-wise the rebuild is the more economic choice. I've known techs that will just swap in a gear, then 3 weeks later the teeth are gone again, and they say: "I wonder why this keeps happening?"
=^..^=

[davethewave]

Re: Toshiba Estudio 4515ac Toner failure

I would start by removing the rear cover over the developing unit drive gears. Gear damage and/or developer leakage will be obvious. Cost-wise the rebuild is the more economic choice. I've known techs that will just swap in a gear, then 3 weeks later the teeth are gone again, and they say: "I wonder why this keeps happening?"
=^..^=

Thank you,
I did that, I did find some toner, but not really much in the way of developer. it appears to turn the same as the other developer units which havent had issues.