CM4540 yellow background

[theengel]

I have a CM4540 that got a new fuser drive unit. What a job. After the job, I was printing out test pages, and suddenly, in the middle of it all, they started turning solid yellow in the background. I checked all the connections, and everything seems good. Then I saw on the formatter interconnect board, that a couple of the metal contacts on that ribbon cable were loose and folded out. I tried fixing it, but finally replaced it. Eveything else works now, but, except in colored prints, all yellow background...except the edges. The edge-erase is working fine. All edges are white. I ran an engine test, and those print fine--no yellow background.

I guess I know the answer to this--the formatter. But I'm hoping someone knows something I don't. I don't feel like going to the customer and telling them they need to spend another $300.

[Phil B.]

Re: CM4540 yellow background

yup you said it.. if you did engine test w/o the formatter and test was good.. plugged formatter back in and bad.. replace formatter

[Iowatech]

Re: CM4540 yellow background

How does the yellow drum look? If the unwanted yellow shading on the drum happens before the laser window you might try a different yellow unit.

[theengel]

Re: CM4540 yellow background

no. Drum looks fine. OEM toners. And like I said, the edge erase works.

[boscru]

Re: CM4540 yellow background

i've got 14 4540's at one site i service, and replaced 5 formatter boards in 3 years. never had the issue OP describes though

[theengel]

Re: CM4540 yellow background

Just an update on this:

The cust approved the formatter. I have one coming from China, because there weren't any refurbs available in the US. I'll post results when I do the job.

[theengel]

Re: CM4540 yellow background

SO I put the formatter in, and got a hard drive error. I put the hard drive on the old formatter, reinstalled, and got more hard drive errors. If I install it without a hard drive, I still get a missing hard drive error. I'm honestly at a loss now. I mean, the next logical step is to replace the hard drive, but me and the cust both believe we've put enough time and money into this machine. They're going to replace it instead of fixing it.

[Lasersupplies]

Re: CM4540 yellow background

I dont understand why HP dont make these formatter boards universal. I have hot swapped a few of these ant i also get this message. I believe there is a way to disable the hard drive error message on these devices.

worth a try i guess, i have been successful in doing so with some of these

[Phil B.]

Re: CM4540 yellow background

I dont understand why HP dont make these formatter boards universal. I have hot swapped a few of these ant i also get this message. I believe there is a way to disable the hard drive error message on these devices.

worth a try i guess, i have been successful in doing so with some of these

The formatter has to be specific to the machine because it controls the print functions of the machine.. it's not like a printer driver that can be used over a few models.

you should investigate HOW the board works and it might give you greater insight to your question.

[Lasersupplies]

Re: CM4540 yellow background

The formatter has to be specific to the machine because it controls the print functions of the machine.. it's not like a printer driver that can be used over a few models.

you should investigate HOW the board works and it might give you greater insight to your question.

I am aware how the formatter works, thank you for pointing this out though! What i meant by this is in the older models i could have hot swapped a formatter from 1 HP 4730 and installed it straight into another HP 4730 without any issues. Now when this is done through the new versions i am prompted with error messages which the last user described.

I pointed out a fix that worked for me and hoped that this would also work for him

[theengel]

Re: CM4540 yellow background

That machine is gone. I ate the $350 part. Sometimes that crap happens.