Poor print quality on Konica Minolta C454e - lines runing through every colour

[York Print]

I'm thinking this is the laser as Ive replaced drums etc and the line does not shift. Dont Graduation and all that stuff.

Can you clean the laser or do i need a new one OR is it something easy that I'm missing.

What do we reckon?

BTW its a new Black Original drum on so im asuming the black speckles are either terrable OEM toner or the Dev needs replacing - happy to hear your thoughts on this too.

[allan]

Re: Poor print quality on Konica Minolta C454e - lines runing through every colour

Take the transfer belt out and have a look at it if you did not already.
Parts life? Counter?

It almost looks like gradation failure.

[tsbservice]

Re: Poor print quality on Konica Minolta C454e - lines runing through every colour

Laser unit can be cleaned no doubt but dirty poly mirror will result in uneven density not lines.
Check what allan suggested as TBU is common for all colours and those white spots in black can be result of poor primary transfer.

[copyman]

Re: Poor print quality on Konica Minolta C454e - lines runing through every colour

Don't think that has anything to do with the laser. Might have a few things going on here but main issue is with black. I would look for black dev loss and then transfer belt. Don't forgot to open shutter with belt out and blow off IDC sensors.
Know you said K drum is new OEM but do you have another drum to try? Or swap chip with color drum and see if those spots follow to color.

[blackcat4866]

Re: Poor print quality on Konica Minolta C454e - lines runing through every colour

It's already been mentioned, but I believe the light spots in black are poor developing/developer depletion.

The lines can be primary charge or dirty laser slit glasses (inside OR outside the laser unit). =^..^=

[Oystercopy]

Re: Poor print quality on Konica Minolta C454e - lines runing through every colour

I know this is a reach, but what about the BLACK DRUM UNIT? And what's the consumable life of the components say? I've had black drum units cause a host of CQ issues I didn't think they could cause....
OC

[York Print]

Re: Poor print quality on Konica Minolta C454e - lines runing through every colour

I have a C364 also, are the ITB the same? if so i could swap them over and see what changes - love a bit of good old fashioned fault finding.

BTW were are the IDC sensors - you mentioned a flap, will i see it when i remove the belt assem?

[copyman]

Re: Poor print quality on Konica Minolta C454e - lines runing through every colour

I have a C364 also, are the ITB the same? if so i could swap them over and see what changes - love a bit of good old fashioned fault finding.

BTW were are the IDC sensors - you mentioned a flap, will i see it when i remove the belt assem?

Yes the ITB is the same in all the 4 & 8 series. I would first swap the black drum from the C364 then the ITB.

The IDC sensors are under belt on right side, you have to slide a spring loaded metal plate with 2 openings to expose and blow out both sensors with air. (shows in service manual)

[Gift]

Re: Poor print quality on Konica Minolta C454e - lines runing through every colour

What happen to the quality if you delete all gradation data and don't run a new gradation?

[York Print]

Re: Poor print quality on Konica Minolta C454e - lines runing through every colour

Will give that a go and get back to you.

Ive just been offered a C458 with 98k clr and 110 mono
or
C558 135k clr and 52k mono.

WHat do you reckon, are they anygood - i like the C454, its been a good machine up to know and the way small format volume is dropping away I don't need anything that much faster these days.

[Adamano1]

Re: Poor print quality on Konica Minolta C454e - lines runing through every colour

Will give that a go and get back to you.

Ive just been offered a C458 with 98k clr and 110 mono
or
C558 135k clr and 52k mono.

WHat do you reckon, are they anygood - i like the C454, its been a good machine up to know and the way small format volume is dropping away I don't need anything that much faster these days.

We have the Olivetti variant of both these machines here on the island, one of which has been in our print room for a few years and is still running strong with over 1.5 million copies. I do not really have any bad words to say about either machine. Like others have mentioned, if you have a machine there you can essentially swap bits over to test then that would be a good place to start.

[York Print]

Re: Poor print quality on Konica Minolta C454e - lines runing through every colour

Spot on with the black drum unit, swapped it out and CQ came straight back, still a bit of an issue with dev I feel, but its been running on 3rd party toner so a fresh KM original is going and and will run it a little bit and see how it performs. If anyone has a Dev unit or ITB/fuser etc etc they would like to sell, let me know as i imagine im going to have to replace it at some point.