Subject: Ricoh MP-5000 Tone Up
Question: Hello there guys. Can anyone tell me the proper procedure to tone up an MP-5000 getting very light copies? Customer has put in a new toner cartridge but copies are still light. Thanks.
Answer: SP-2207 will do a forced toner supply, but I doubt that’s your problem. You’ll be back in 1000 copies for the same problem. You get about 150K max on developer, 125K max on drum. Plus the mag roller gets caked with toner. Other things to check are optics and slit glass.
Question: Oh wow, thanks a lot. I didn’t know, that’s very helpful. Is there a calibration for the developer change? Thanks again.
Answer: SP-2801 developer; drum is SP-3001-2.
Question: Thanks again, you’re the best.
Answer: Tell my wife that. She says I drink too much beer. I disagree…I always drink just enough beer.
Subject: Samsung 5935 Awful Noise
Question: My tech thinks the print head is going bad. Noise starts when you lift the doc feeder, gets louder and changes pitch when it starts to print. I’ve never had one do this before—do these print heads do this or is there some other thing I should look for? Thanks.
Answer: It’s probably the laser if it’s a high pitched whining noise. I’ve had to replace three or four over the years.
Answer: Yep, done that for a couple of these. It’s the same laser as the SCX5530.
Answer: It doesn’t have a print head. It’s a cartridge. I’d lean toward laser too.
Question: “Laser print head?” 🙂 I don’t know where I picked up that terminology. About how much time is involved in replacing this?
Answer: Yes, some manufacturers call it a laser print head, Lexmark for example. Pawl, claw, picker finger, stripper. The terminology mix is kind of funny. Re: Time to change? Well, if I was doing it for speed and fun I bet I could do it in 10 minutes in and out but when you have it torn down I would clean good, etc. so say 40 minutes if you do it well but timely. Give or take fuser clean and optics, a full hour is good all the way.
Question: OK, thanks!
Subject: Canon 6025 False Exit Jam
Question: Yes, I know that it is older than dirt; so am I. Symptom: When a (single) copy exits the machine, it shuts down normally. When the main drive motor coasts to a full stop, THEN it throws a jam indication. • With the sorter removed, the symptom is unchanged. • If I physically block the exiting copy, a ‘normal’ immediate jam occurs. • When duplexing, the copy enters the ADM, the second side is copied, and the false jam symptom occurs when the copy exits the machine. The client insists that the symptom occurs in the morning, and vanishes in the afternoon. (I did not observe in the PM). I trust her observation. All thoughts are welcome; when you have a screwy problem, you gotta think screwy. TIA!
Answer: If you were a rookie, I would say the exit sensor is hanging up but I’m pretty sure it’s not because I know who you are and so on. I had a similar problem around 1982 with a Sharp SF- 770. Morning only problems. Turned out that machine was facing a window and bright sunlight would reflect into cassette, off paper and up into the photocell of the “add paper” system. Since your exit sensor is probably a photo-interrupter, stray light could conceivably be leaking into it and confusing things, only at a certain time of day. Pretend you are Indiana Jones doing that thing at the beginning of “Raiders” to find the exact spot where the arc was or whatever. No snakes to worry about.
Question: Alas, this machine is far removed from a window (or any source of light beaming into the exit). My favorite line from “Raiders” is when he’s being dragged behind a truck: “What are you going to do now?” “I don’t know; I’m making this up as I go along!” Light story: Old Toshiba moving-table machine in Santa Monica. Copies were light at one edge only when using bypass, only on SOME mornings. Long troubleshoot revealed that on bright, foggy mornings, dispersed light from a window 20 feet away would enter the open bypass door, striking the drum at its rear edge. NOT on clear mornings. Oy!
Answer: Wow. That’s a good one. Diffused light—coolest. Spent many hours troubleshooting a Sharp SF-741 with a constant jam. Turned out to be a spider web (spider and insect carcasses included) in the light tunnel, blocking the light from a bulb to a photo sensor. Machine had been unused for a few months which is when the spider must have made her home in there.
Question: Not in my equipment (I’ve seen many), but at a client’s location. A retail location, with random burglar alarm triggers. Cause: a tiny spider inside of one of the IR motion detectors! Oy!
Answer: Guys you’re getting off track!! Have you cleaned all the chargers in the machine? Also, does this machine, if memory serves, not say whether it’s the A or B jam? I have had weird jams with dirty chargers. Had to take them home and wash out in soapy water then dry out over a radiator before refitting. P.S. went to Ricoh 3020 back in 1984, customer reported a squeaking from machine. I told her the mouse running the belt must be hungry!! Big mistake; on examining I found a dead mouse under the pressure roller. That was one empty office when I showed the customer I had found the fault. It still makes me laugh 🙂 Well, at least no one has said to upgrade the firmware!! And the mouse thing—it was wireless!
Answer: Have you changed the pickup, feed, and separation rollers? May be damped papers. I had weird paper jams on NP 6650 by a bad main board. And today I spent 5 hours for weird jam problems with stupid customers’ papers.
Question: Well, I did not specify the paper source in my OP. The symptom occurs whether feeding from the bypass, tray one (LTR) or tray two (LGL). I have been playing telephone tag with the client during the holidays, so I haven’t returned. Funny thing about this model: the fuser exit sensor is NOT actuated whilst duplexing, until the final exit occurs. I’m going to rob a PI sensor elsewhere, swap it with the fuser exit sensor, then watch it for a few days. Further thoughts welcome, and I WILL post the final results. Of the troubleshoot, not my mental health. TIA!
Answer: Make sure the fuser exit sensor flag flops back to its home position easily. If it’s delayed, this will cause a jam signal for the paper being too long. Just a thought. If the sensor was bad, you would probably have the jam signal right away.
