e-Studio 202L series... poor copy quality...

[Oystercopy]

I don't know what's going on in the field with these things, but I'm having a HECK of a problem with all kinds of copy quality issues.... I've been using OEM Drums for a while, but it seems like the drums are failing prematurely lately. I'm getting overall dark, shadowy and streaky copies. I've also got (what appears to be offsetting) but the Fuser is not at fault; problem happens BEFORE fuser.

I suspected drum ground, and have now checked several machines to see if I'm getting drum ground from the machine frame DIRECTLY to the flange on the end of the drum and NO GROUND... I'm wondering how it is that these drums achieve ground because they don't have a ground clip inside the drum (the way that the Katun equivalent and most other drums do....). I'm told that the rear flange on the OEM Drum is of a conductive material, but I have no clue.

WEIRD.... I guess I could also be looking at failed discharge/LED erase lamps and the like, but it seems so random, and I'm having this trouble on (about) 4 machines now.

Somebody tell me I'm not crazy, PLEASE??
OC

[ToshibaTech]

Probably a dumb question but are you replacing the cleaning and recovery blade?

These have a bad tendancy to get "fuzz" in between the recovery and cleaning blade. Especially at the ends and especially the front side when using crappy paper. I think it's good to replace the three items as a set. Other CQ problems are usually crud behind the doctor blade. I usually open the gap up just a hair and it seems to help quite a bit (two spring loaded screws seen after taking the developer lid off, which you have to remove to clean out behind the doctor blade anyway.)

OH.. and make sure you aren't missing the little bushing that goes over the drum at the rear. If that is gone the drum will flop around a bit and cause havoc.

I really like this series and if you keep them PM'd fairly well they run pretty trouble free. I have not had many offsetting issues that I recall, or any trouble with the erase lamps. It is EASY to forget to plug in the erase lamps when you have the process unit apart. Two connectors on the same length of wiring have to be removed. One is a two pin on top of the unit visible with the front door open. The other (also two pin) is the little yellow harness towards the bottom front, usually I hold the unit underneath at eye level and plug it in with my free hand.

Make sure you get all the DV out when you do a PM as it does recycle the waste toner. There is a code to run the recycled crap out or you can just manually auger it out when you do a PM.