MP C3003 - very unusual output

[sandmanmac]

Hi All.
I got called in a couple of days ago to service an MP C3003 that 'apparently' was making some strange noises, and that there were wires hanging out of it.

This place is in the middle of a major renovation, so the caller who contacted me (who is working from home) was convinced that it was because, they hadn't covered it, and that it was related to the construction somehow, however the machine wasn't really that dusty or dirty when I arrived.

At the time of my visit, I saw that it was in an SC370 error state (which was not reported to me). When I opened the front cover, I could see a couple of broken wires poking through the front cover of the C-PCDU.

When I removed the ITB, it was shredded, so the cause of the SC370 was pretty obvious.

Because end users often turn into a bunch of 6 year-olds when they know they've done something wrong, you can never get anyone to own up to anything, so I determined that someone probably did hear noise coming from the machine as the belt was beginning to shift and shred, and they attempted to get inside to be a hero and fix it, and broke the wires on the C-PCDU in doing do.

I was able to repair the wires on the drum unit, and replaced the ITB with one from a known working machine.

I got it up and running.....sort of.

I first printed a configuration page which looked pretty normal. After doing a line position adjustment, I printed out the colour pattern, and that's where I saw the strange defect on the black bar that runs along the long edge of the page.
I've included samples, but FOOLISHLY, I scanned them to my email in B&W from the customer's machine rather than in colour, and my phone was dead at the time, so I wasn't able to check them until later (This entire day was just a comedy of errors!! )

Anyway, you'll see on the sample that the black bar is quite faint - it's actually quite a bit darker in the scanned sample than on the original test page, yet the black boxes in the corners are fine.

You'll see that the configuration page looks fine as well, but the very unusual thing is that the 3rd sample is a sky shot, and it's virtually blank.

I've not run across anything quite like this before.

The last thing I did was take their drum unit with me to my Wholesaler to test in another machine, and it was fine.
I currently still have their black PCDU in my car, and intend to go back tomorrow to re-install it so they can at least do basic copying and printing until I find a solution.

Anybody seen this type of thing before? I feel like it's most likely another issue caused by the "on-site hero" in their attempt to repair

Thanks for any suggestions!!

EDIT: Colour samples located (see below)

[sandmanmac]

EDIT:
Here are the COLOUR samples of the same pages.
I actually did notice at the time of the first scan I sent that I'd neglected to select "colour" and re-sent them to myself, however they never arrived - I just found them in my spam folder for some reason (The fun never stops today!)

I wasn't able to attach them by editing my initial post so here they are:
(nevermind the small defects in the Cyan)
colour samples.pdf

[slimslob]

Very interesting. Usually see a near void streak like that only in the direction of paper travel like the cyan one. The only thing that I can think of that would cause failure of the laser to discharge basically the entire width of the K drum would be a poor drum ground.

[Mark Bbb]

They never print skyshots, do they?
So, why worry?
Machine is fixed now, customer must (and will!) be satisfied you corrected his "sabotage" without complaining!!!
I remeber a = issue here, with one of our customers.
Never had any complains afterwards and customer is still satisfied.

[copier tech]

EDIT:
Here are the COLOUR samples of the same pages.
I actually did notice at the time of the first scan I sent that I'd neglected to select "colour" and re-sent them to myself, however they never arrived - I just found them in my spam folder for some reason (The fun never stops today!)

I wasn't able to attach them by editing my initial post so here they are:
(nevermind the small defects in the Cyan)
colour samples.pdf

Looks like the rear cover is missing from your black PCDU ?

[tsbservice]

Generally speaking on digital machines I Don't do skyshots to test print defects. Just print full coverage CMYK pages from engine within service mode(or from my USB).

[Gift]

Looks like the rear cover is missing from your black PCDU ?

Yeah that one with a little copper contact plate inside can cause this kind of effects in case it's missing or improperly connected.

[luca72]

Hi All.
I got called in a couple of days ago to service an MP C3003 that 'apparently' was making some strange noises, and that there were wires hanging out of it.

This place is in the middle of a major renovation, so the caller who contacted me (who is working from home) was convinced that it was because, they hadn't covered it, and that it was related to the construction somehow, however the machine wasn't really that dusty or dirty when I arrived.

At the time of my visit, I saw that it was in an SC370 error state (which was not reported to me). When I opened the front cover, I could see a couple of broken wires poking through the front cover of the C-PCDU.

When I removed the ITB, it was shredded, so the cause of the SC370 was pretty obvious.

Because end users often turn into a bunch of 6 year-olds when they know they've done something wrong, you can never get anyone to own up to anything, so I determined that someone probably did hear noise coming from the machine as the belt was beginning to shift and shred, and they attempted to get inside to be a hero and fix it, and broke the wires on the C-PCDU in doing do.

I was able to repair the wires on the drum unit, and replaced the ITB with one from a known working machine.

I got it up and running.....sort of.

I first printed a configuration page which looked pretty normal. After doing a line position adjustment, I printed out the colour pattern, and that's where I saw the strange defect on the black bar that runs along the long edge of the page.
I've included samples, but FOOLISHLY, I scanned them to my email in B&W from the customer's machine rather than in colour, and my phone was dead at the time, so I wasn't able to check them until later (This entire day was just a comedy of errors!! )

Anyway, you'll see on the sample that the black bar is quite faint - it's actually quite a bit darker in the scanned sample than on the original test page, yet the black boxes in the corners are fine.

You'll see that the configuration page looks fine as well, but the very unusual thing is that the 3rd sample is a sky shot, and it's virtually blank.

I've not run across anything quite like this before.

The last thing I did was take their drum unit with me to my Wholesaler to test in another machine, and it was fine.
I currently still have their black PCDU in my car, and intend to go back tomorrow to re-install it so they can at least do basic copying and printing until I find a solution.

Anybody seen this type of thing before? I feel like it's most likely another issue caused by the "on-site hero" in their attempt to repair

Thanks for any suggestions!!

EDIT: Colour samples located (see below)

it would seem that, either the cover with the contact behind the pcdu is missing, or the itb unit you have mounted, during transport it may be damaged, in the sense that some transfer rollers behind the belt have broken / released, in this case, that of black....while you're at it, also clean the id sensors

[luca72]

Very interesting. Usually see a near void streak like that only in the direction of paper travel like the cyan one. The only thing that I can think of that would cause failure of the laser to discharge basically the entire width of the K drum would be a poor drum ground.

I am 99% sure of the back cover, if you look at the test print, where there is little black the density is normal (min.load), instead where there is the long strip the whole sheet (max.load) there is no he does it, missing contact

[sandmanmac]

I've had such good luck with the models, and the vast majority are still relatively low usage, so my experience in servicing them is not that vast.....so
Just to be clear, this black cover that many are referring to, and some say "behind the pcdu", are you referring to the actual cover on the rear of the PCDU itself or something inside the machine cavity? The cover is definitely attached to the pcdu, and it works perfectly in another machine.

As for the ITB, I've also tried 2 of them.

I'm heading back later today, because the point made about them "not running skyshots", is actually interesting and not untrue.

While I've been there in the past, they're not what I'd call a regular customer, and I've not been there since before the pandemic, so who knows how long this particular issue may have been happening. The test page results/ skyshot caught me off guard, and maybe caused me a little bit of 'tunnel-vision" so I'm going to simply print out and copy some routine colour pages, and promotional things that they use it for, and see what the results are.

Maybe it's also related to the fact the the test pattern is 1200 x 1200 dpi which is also not used .

Thanks for the tips!

I'll report back later!