Faulty Lexmark Imaging Units.

[Lagonda]

Re: Faulty Lexmark Imaging Units.

Well the $hit is about to hit the fan! We are now getting IU's that are failing straight out of the box and the Big Boss is furious and threatening not to pay the account.
I've spoken to our wholesalers returns dept and they are as much in the dark as we are cos Lexmark ain't telling them nothing either.

[Lagonda]

Re: Faulty Lexmark Imaging Units.

Finally managed to get hold of some one in Lexmark who is actually here in Australia and he seemed to be greatly surprised that there was a problem with their Imaging Units. He's asked for some samples to be sent to him which I thought was a bit strange as by now the wholesalers should have a small mountain of dud units in their warehouses. It's obvious that the wholesalers can't be bothered talking to the importers and everybody is just going to bury their heads in the sand and hope it all goes away.
So, please if you come across a faulty Imaging Unit please return it to your supplier and ask for a free replacement as if we don't all complain the Factory will just keep churning out the same old rubbish, pocket the money and just walk away.

[austonrush]

Re: Faulty Lexmark Imaging Units.

If it is happening in a specific machine at a customers location on a regular basis I would replace the transfer roller on that printer. I've seen similar issues with MS810n printers where you put a new imaging kit in (because the print is super light), is lasts a week, has 98% life left and is all the sudden super light again. You switch it into another machine and it is still super light. Believe it or not more than 50% of the time this is actually a printer defect causing the issue. In the most rarest of cases paper can also cause this problem (ie high static discharge from label paper or super poor recycled paper).

Update the firmware, replace the transfer roller and lastly if required the HVPS. Unless your positive it is the imaging unit that is just defective.

Also if the printer is in a dirty environment clean the Lexmark printhead glass above the toner. The newer lexmark models are much more sensitive to dirt. You could splash toner on the printhead of an older T64X series printer and you would hardly notice any change in print quality.

[Lagonda]

Re: Faulty Lexmark Imaging Units.

Long over due update to this thread.
Had a visit from the local Lexmark head service guru and a heavyweight from the States who admitted that there was a manufacturing problem with one of the IU's that gives the dirty smears down the page. The other problem of voids and blank streaks down the page are cause by toner starvation caused by the TD sensor not reading correctly. This was caused by a batch of dud co-ax cable that was picking up electromagnetic interference.
Their fix was the ubiquitous firmware update that would cut down the number of rotations that the IU did with out actually printing anything. We debated the point for a while that the firmware option wasn't viable as a lot of major clients have their networks locked down so tight that we can't access them and then they would complain that the printer configurations had all changed.
The Lexmark bigwigs answer to this was to promise a firmware update package that only changed engine settings and left everything else alone. It eventually arrived, we did try it on some printers but haven't seen any major improvement.

So things are still the same, the field techs bring in about 5 IUs a week and I send them back for refund or replacement as they haven't reached anywhere near their life expectancy. Lexmark have given up challenging that the IU is the problem and claim its the way the customer uses it and just send replacements out the next week.

[NeoMatrix]

Re: Faulty Lexmark Imaging Units.

Take a particular note of the ambient temperature of each problem machine location. Does the temperature ambience or otherwise play a roll in the problem UI ?

When Drum blades and Rec blade become cold and harden in cold temperature/weather, they require a machine running period to warm up and soften the rubber compound. The softer the Rec or Drum blade the better the UI cleaning station works.


I don't know.... I haven't worked on a Lexmark for ages.

Sound like a lot of fun...

[onlyinnewfoundland]

Re: Faulty Lexmark Imaging Units.

Hey guys

I also have issues with IU's from Lexmark...we get the majority of our supplies through Synnex - we are in Canada, so not sure how widespread the issue is.

I know Lexmark was recently purchased by a Chinese aftermarket company so I suspect the quality will probably go down but everything will get even cheaper as a result.

85% of my base up here is Canon so I am extremely jaded by all these trivial issues the Lexmark boxes seem to have. We are selling BSD stuff so, no consumer stuff. I have noticed on the XS792 series (not sure what the consumer equivalent is) we go through a lot of colour carts way before they are done. Seems like what happens is the cartridge does not have a very reliable ATR system compared to Canon and others...most of them that I have hauled apart have the transfer roller in bad shape and they are usually starved of toner. Drum surfaces seem okay and tend to last.

On average, I'd say we are getting somewhere in the ballpark of 50-85% use out of them and they start showing issues.

The newer models seem okay (XC6152, 4150, etc) - haven't had any failures other than the system software being pretty bad.

[austonrush]

Re: Faulty Lexmark Imaging Units.

We also have issues with Lexmark imaging units not getting anywhere near the life advertised....

A new generation of machines has just been released lets see if they are any better.

[Lagonda]

Re: Faulty Lexmark Imaging Units.

We also have issues with Lexmark imaging units not getting anywhere near the life advertised....

A new generation of machines has just been released lets see if they are any better.

Log a job with Lexmark and then send them back to your local supplier for a credit. It won't be until that it starts to hurt them financially will anything be done. They just don't seem to care that the end user is inconvenienced by given faulty consumables.

[austonrush]

Re: Faulty Lexmark Imaging Units.

Oh I send them back for replacement all the time (especially if there on MPS contract printers). I never have an issue getting a credit for them, it is just stupid that Lexmark can claim a 60k life cycle for a drum that I'm lucky to get 20-30k out of at most.... From a customers perspective it doesn't look good because the machine print quality looks horrible but, there printer reports the photoconductor has a lot of life remaining.

The optics look bad (yes the pun is totally intended). lol

[Lagonda]

Re: Faulty Lexmark Imaging Units.

I've got yet another 4 sitting beside my desk waiting for me to process Jeez, its depressing

[ShmulikSalama]

Re: Faulty Lexmark Imaging Units.

I have a customer with an MX812 that has had light copies and gets only about 10k - 15k from them. I'm pulling my hair out trying to figure out if it's the imaging units or the printer...(a new IU fixes the issue for 10K - 15k then it gets light and streaky again).

Dont pull your hair out... its the IU - they are crappy! manufacturing problem with the DB.

[ShmulikSalama]

Re: Faulty Lexmark Imaging Units.

i'm not impressed with the newer line of Lexmark ANYTHING.

its not a new line, its the same excat machine with a new name and a smaller toner cartridge - MX417 instead of MX410.

no improvments what so ever in the IU section.

[dalewb74]

Re: Faulty Lexmark Imaging Units.

yes lexmark has known bad imaging units for different models. And they are aware of it. copiers that i service its a known issue on 2 modles that use the same unit. that once the life gets down to about 50% then you have to replace it. and each time i have to call and give them info in order to get new ones. they want to know the part number on the box, as well as the barcode on the unit itself.

[Lance15]

Re: Faulty Lexmark Imaging Units.

It also applies to the "licensed" printers. Dell uses several models of Lexmark printers. Just had two Dell B3460's (MS510/610 series) within two weeks that the imaging unit dumped toner inside the printer and had to be vacuumed out.