C950 Print Defect

[austonrush]

Hi Everyone,


I have a Lexmark C950 with the following print defect. 34921

The black developer, developer cartridge and drum have all been replaced. It should be noted when each one of these was replaced the problem went away for a bit but then came back.

Does anyone have any thoughts? This defect only shows up in black print, none of the colours do this.

[Lance15]

Were all of the items genuine consumables?

I have read here about Lexmark consumables being faulty out of the box A LOT.

[austonrush]

Were all of the items genuine consumables?

I have read here about Lexmark consumables being faulty out of the box A LOT.

The Drum and developer is OEM. The Toner the customer is using is a compatible. The customer has two of these units so, I'm able to swap drums to eliminate them as the issue.

The developer unit was also changed (Before it was changed this defect was worse it printed these random dots on the white part of the page no matter what. Now it on'y prints within the black print).

[theengel]

This is a common problem in developer units.

[trc]

That´s a Fuji Box.....color Boxes don´t like compatible consumables!!

[austonrush]

That´s a Fuji Box.....color Boxes don´t like compatible consumables!!

If it was the compatible toner would we not be seeing it across the whole print page? Why only on the edges?

[theengel]

I don't know how those are set up--are the toner cartridges actually developer units? If so, just change the black one. If not, you might have to replace both the developer and toner, because bad toner leaked in and might have contaminated the developing unit.

[austonrush]

I don't know how those are set up--are the toner cartridges actually developer units? If so, just change the black one. If not, you might have to replace both the developer and toner, because bad toner leaked in and might have contaminated the developing unit.

This machine is setup very similar to a copier. Toner comes in its own cartridge and feeds down a pipe into the developer unit. Drum unit is simply a Drum and PCR unit combined (no toner).

[theengel]

Don't give too much thought to what the problem was before and what the problem is now. The fact is, they're two different problems. You probably fixed the first problem, and now you have another one. This looks to me like a developer issue. If you change the developer (with a new one--not one from another machine) and it goes away, then you're good. If it comes back, it's because of the toner, and you'll have to change the developer again, while also changing the toner.

[austonrush]

Don't give too much thought to what the problem was before and what the problem is now. The fact is, they're two different problems. You probably fixed the first problem, and now you have another one. This looks to me like a developer issue. If you change the developer (with a new one--not one from another machine) and it goes away, then you're good. If it comes back, it's because of the toner, and you'll have to change the developer again, while also changing the toner.

Thanks for your quick response. I thought it was developer but, you get thrown off when the same problem comes back so quickly! Alright I'll also recommend we put an oem black toner in with the new developer unit!

Would you replace the whole developer unit or just vacuum the developer out of the current unit, (which is only a week old) and put a new bag in? The bags are cheap, lol! The unit not so much :).

[trc]

First I´ll clean imaging units....then try to replace with oem toner and take some sky shot to "wash" the bad toner...if that doesn´t seem to work....then change developer

[trc]

work with a lot of them....they are excellent, no toner or units failures....they run like Forest Gump!! jajaja

[theengel]

So that's the kind with starter? I've seen that weird pattern a hundred times on canon and HP - both mono-component. I've always replaced the mag roll when it cropped up. So I can't really say for sure.

[blackcat4866]

Like trc suggested, I think I would first install a Lexmark OEM toner cartridge, then start running 50% halftone black images to purge the compatible toner. If the developer is as new as you say, it should re-constitute itself. It could take 200 pages to purge the other toner. =^..^=

[theengel]

Blackcat/trc solution is probably the best way to handle it. Then, if nothing changes, go with a dev. unit.

[austonrush]

I've ordered an OEM toner for the customer. It'll be in today or tomorrow. Update to come soon. Thanks everyone

[austonrush]

Update:

We put the new lexmark toner in the printer and ran about 150 pages of black and grey print. The problem became less visible but, was still there. The black drum was then swapped out for another black drum (which did not solve the problem before and the marks went completely away).

So my conclusion is the drum and developer were both contaminated/ damaged by the compatible toner.

Thanks everyone for your help. We can call this one closed for now! :cool: