Firmware update stopped connection to server

I hate when you think you have fixed a machine but realise that you have created a seperate major problem.
I had a Konica Bizhub C308 that was reportedly skewing and blurring scans.Skewing scans is a common problem and easily fixed by realigning the Document Feeder. While I was doing that I had a quick look at the firmware and saw that it was running version G00-54. That is really old and probably explains the blurred scans. G00-54 was notorious for scan quality problems so I loaded the latest firmware I had which is GC2-R9. No more scanning issues.

So I am about to leave, feeling good about a job well done, when the secretary says "Um, I can't print".

So I am wondering how updating firmware now prevents printing. I hopped on a computer and had a look at the print queue and see that it is on a remote server, is full of jobs and is reporting that the printer is in error. As a quick test I installed a new printer on the local computer and am able to print ok. Next step is to call the IT support for the remote server and let them look at the server. After they do the same tests as me they determine that it is a server side issue and they will fix it. I am still highly suspicious of the firmware update. So I call around the other techs to see if they have had this issue. The finale guy I called remembered an E-mail from a couple of years ago alerting to a problem with an old firmware. Auto Selective IP Address Filtering is turned on by default. 

So while the IT guys are messing around I have a look at the IP settings and see that the IP filtering has been turned on. This means that the machine is filtering out traffic from the remote server but still accepting traffic from the local network. I turned the setting off and the machine starts printing.

I let the IT guys take the credit for fixing the problem rather than admitting that I had caused it.

Colour copier refusing to print in colour

I have been called to a Bizhub C554e that won't print in colour. On my way here I was thinking that it must be either a driver error or a documents printing defaults problem. However when I arrived I was shown the machine and it clearly has a message that no colour printing is available. 

This can happen if the copier is out of a colour toner or one of the imaging drums or developing units is far past its end of life. Except we turn this setting off for all new copiers we install.

So I checked the toner levels and the unit life values and they are all OK but when I select full colour for a copy the machine pops open a window to tell me that some units are past their end of life. The weird thing is that the machine won't tell me which units. The window is blank. 
Since this seems to be a firmware problem I forced an unexpected cold restart (turned it off then on again) and now the copier will allow colour printing. So it is corrupted data in the memory somewhere. I don't know how this happened and have no way of knowing how to do it again but the machine is running an older firmware so I'll update it.
While the firmware was being prepared and then loading onto the machine I had a look around the OEMs support site and also Google to see if this is a common problem but found nothing. So I'll call this a first and hopefully it is also a last as well.

A cockroach on the laser

I got a call to fix a Bizhub C364e that was reported to not be printing all of the text on documents. When I arrived I was shown samples of some black and white documents with voids at diferent locations on the pages. So to start with I printed out the C, M, Y, K gradation test prints and this is what I got:

The magenta print was from the first try. I had no idea what caused the marks so I pulled the drum out and had look at the charge unit but didn't see anything so I shone my torch into the machine to have a look at the developer unit. I couldn't see anything on the mag roller but am sure I saw a shadow move under the cyan unit. After a bit more looking I didn't see anything so tried the gradation prints again. This time the colours were fine but I had a void through the black as seen in the above picture. So I am thinking what the hell could cause a void to move from one image unit to another?

I pulled the black drum out and shone my torch into the machine and again saw something move over the laser glass and disappear under the drum mounting rail. So I got down lower and looked into the hole for the laser glass cleaning wand and got face to face with a medium size cockroach. It was sitting on top of the laser unit and seemed to be dazed. My guess is that it was walking back and forth across the laser unit occasionally blocking the path of the lasers and causing the voids in the prints. The dazed look was probably because the roach had been blinded by the lasers. 

As I watched it crawled right and up toward the registration rollers. I had to get it out because I didn't want it to make a mess on the laser glasses or worse. What would happen if it got into the high voltage supply behind the image units? 

Since I last saw the roach heading toward the rego rollers I opened the right hand door of the machine and was sure I saw something disappear into the tray 1 feed station so I pulled all that out. Nothing there. So I pulled the registration assembly out. Still nothing. So it must still be on the laser unit so I pull all the drums, developer units and image transfer belt out but I still can't see it. Next out comes the power supply and then the laser assembly.

I look into the now hollow machine and see no sign of the cockroach. 

I look down at the laser unit in my hands and can see a leg poking out from underneath the end of the laser unit. I carefully tip the laser onto its side and the cockroach immediately runs and hides in a small hollow space next to one of the skew adjustment motors. Aha, cornered.

At this point I think I should mention that I have an irrational fear of anything with more than four legs. Insects really creep me out, spiders are worse and the bigger they are the easier it is see how freaky looking they are. So being this close to a decent size cockroach is really getting my heart pounding. But this copier must be fixed!

So I stick my screwdriver into the hole and flick the cockroach out. It went nuts on the floor trying to find a place to hide and I dropped the laser unit and both tried to jump on the cockroach while at the same time jump away from it. Unfortunately with all the parts I had pulled off the photocopier spread around the floor around me the cockroach had many places to hide. 

So there I am in the middle of this office shoving copier parts aside with one foot and stamping the floor trying to end this cockroach. I am sure I didn't impress any of the girls working there. But I did get the cockroach.

After that I put the copier back together again and everything works as it should. 

I am just glad it wasn't a big Huntsman spider in there or I would have had to call another tech to come and get it out. Either that or write off the machine.

Tape on toner cartridge

This is quick but it made me laugh. I was working on a photocopier and noticed a used toner cartridge on the floor next to the machine waiting for the cleaner to hopefully pick it up. What got my attention though was the packing tape was still covering the shutter on the cartridge.

So the toner had been taken out if it's box and jammed into the machine without the user spotting this tape. Amazingly the tape tore and stretched to allow the shutter to open and the machine to work. If it didn't I am sure I would have been called to fix it.

An Unknown error

Yesterday I got asked help with a Bizhub C754e that had some scanner problems. Most mornings the machine would have a C-9401 error when first used. According to the manual C-9401:

While this seems to indicate that the exposure lamp is the fault I was asked to change the CCD first. We didn't have a new CCD in stock but we did have a Bizhub C654e that was being stripped for parts that I could take the CCD out of. 

I went out to the C754e first thing in the morning to find the scanner had been locked out and the history showed that the C-9401 error had caused this. The actual swapping of the CCD was straight forward as was getting it lined up.

However when I powered up the mc I was given a C-D291 error. When I looked up the code in the manual I found an entry for the code but the only description there was "Unknown". What does that mean?

I knew that it was most likely caused by the CCD so I checked that all the cables were seated correctly but that was ok. The only thing that I could think that was different between this CCD and the original was the firmware. The manual never mentioned updating the firmware when installing the new CCD but the manual also doesn't mention anything about using a 2nd hand CCD either. 

The machine already had the latest firmware loaded on it as did the machine I took the CCD out of but I loaded up this firmware again, rebooted the machine and now it works.

So if you have a C-D291 error or other unknown error try reloading the firmware, you might get lucky. Also changing the CCD fixes the C-9401 error.

Power cord instructions

I had a comment on my IH power supply post about what power cords are used on these machines so here is page from the installation instructions which may help.

Paper behind the trays

At least once per week we will get calls about a copier that has an error after a jam with a code C-0202, C-0204, C-0206 or C-0208. These codes will be displayed on a bright red screen that states that one of the paper trays can no longer be used. The message continues to ask if the user wishes to continue to press a "Continue" button on the screen then prompt the user to turn off then on the sub power switch which is on the control panel. If this is done as instructed the copier will work as normal except the affected paper tray will no longer be selectable. Usually the user will panic at seeing a scary red screen and call us or will fail to read the on screen instructions and turn the copier off and on at the main switch and will have the error again once the machine starts up.
The C-020x errors are common to all Konica Minolta Bizhub copiers and printers. The code refers to the paper tray lift motor malfunction and the last number refers to which particular tray is affected, 2 for tray 1, 4 for tray 2, 6 for tray 3 and 8 for tray 4. The error occurs when tray has been pushed into the machine and then engages the motor behind the tray that lifts the paper into the feed rollers above but the paper does not reach the upper limit sensor within a set period of time. If the machine tries to lift the paper in the tray but waits for a longer than reasonable time for either sensor that shows that the paper is at the correct height or the sensor that shows the tray is empty then the machine presumes something is wrong and stops.
While I have had a couple of lifting motor gearbox couplings fail in the last few years and once had an upper limit sensor fail these are fairly rare. Just about every time I see these errors it is because of a sheet of paper getting behind the tray and preventing the lift gearbox coupling with the lifting plate in the tray. The paper usually gets behind the tray if there is a miss-feed from the tray and the sheet ends up between the feed and separation rollers and the tray is then pulled out and the stuck sheet stays in the machine and falls behind the tray. When the tray is then pushed back in the sheet is pushed into the lift motor. To prevent this the on-screen instructions for clearing the jam and the instructions in the user manual both state that before pulling out the tray the lower right hand side door should be opened and any paper pulled out. But not many users read the instructions.
Removing paper from behind the tray is not as easy as it sounds even if know it is there. This is because of the group of switches behind each tray that detects the position of the guides in the tray to automatically detect the size of the loaded paper. To prevent accidental damage to these switches by people reaching into the machine the designers of the machines added brackets at the front to prevent the trays from being removed. The brackets are in different places on different models or even on different trays but are easy to spot if you know what you are looking for.
Once the paper is removed opening and closing the front door of the machine will clear the error code or if the tray has been locked out then switching the machine off and on at the main switch will allow the tray to be used again. After the tray can be used again the cause of the original jam should be investigated to prevent the chance of the same error happening again.
So the lesson is if you have a jam always check for paper in the right hand side of the machine before pulling the trays out.

Jamming at the horizontal transport unit exit

I am running up a new Bizhub C754e today with a FS-534 finisher and I am reminded of some problems with paper jams that I have had with this combination.
The first time we had trouble was with a customer who was an hour and a half drive away and was reporting "Jamming everywhere in the copier". Jamming everywhere usually means a jam in the finisher or towards the end of the paper path. Larger printers have multiple sheets of paper running through them at once to keep the time between prints as short as possible. A jam like this means that there is paper all through the machine when the jam occures and they all need to be removed before the machine will work again. This is described by normal people as jamming everywhere. In fact it is only jamming in the finisher.

I wasn't the first tech to have a look at the problem but the guy who was did a lot of testing but couldn't get it to jam. A couple of days later another call came in for the same problem so I went to have a look. All photocopiers keep a log of the latest jams including a code that describes where the jam occurred, the time, date and what paper was being used. When I looked at the log all I could see were document feeder jams. So I cleaned the ADF and replaced the feed rollers and then gave the machine a good test.

Since it was a decent drive to the office where the machine was located I really wanted to make sure that the problem was fixed but I had doubts. I was worried that we are missing something with jams not being logged so I turned on the option for the machine to display jam codes. Normally when there is a jam the machine will display a picture showing where paper needs to be removed from the machine but no information about what caused the jam. Now when there is a jam a code will be displayed on the screen. I asked the girl at reception if she could keep a manual log of any codes if the machine jams so we could have a better chance of fixing it.

Sure enough a couple of days later we got a call that the jamming had not stopped. I was surprised when I arrived that the receptionist had not only taken note of the lack of jam codes displayed but had used her phone to take pictures of the paper jammed in the machine before it was cleared. I was interested to see that not only wasn't the machine logging jam codes but won't display them either. The pictures though showed clearly that the front corner of the paper was catching at the finisher entrance. 

It didn't take too long after looking at the pictures that there was a groove cut into the plastic lower guide at the exit of the horizontal transport unit. 

The lower guide is removable (3 screws) and has a series of ridges that look like they are there to reduce the friction of the paper sliding over the plastic. However with the C754/FS-534 combo the edge of an A4 sheet lines up perfectly with the inside edge of the front most ridge. After a 200000 pages or so have gone through the paper actually cuts the plastic an causes a groove on the inside of this ridge. This causes the jamming.

To fix the problem we replaced this guide with a new one but that only fixed the problem for another 200000 pages and the jamming started again. So a final fix was to use a sharp knife to remove the bridge and then polish the plastic to smooth it out completely.

So the lesson here is to not always believe the logs.

Customers annoyed that I am fixing their copier?

I just had a job to do a periodic black drum replacement on a Bizhub C552. This was an automated call so the customer did not call us but should have known we were coming because there was a message on the copiers screen. Replacing the drum hardware only takes less than 5 minutes and then I would need another 5 minutes to perform gradations and stabilisation adjustments. 

Before I could finish replacing the drum I had a guy looking over my shoulder to see where his printing was. Since I don't turn the machine off while doing this procedure the print job was in the queue so I quickly shut the machine to allow his print job to complete while replacing the filters in the back of the machine.

Since there are no more jobs in the queue I switched to service mode to do the calibrations. The gradation adjustments involve printing a pattern of gradation bars and placing the print on the scanner to allow the mc to analyse them. The first page worked fine but the second failed. I started the sequence again but while printing a girl came over and grabbed the gradation sheet from the output tray thinking it was her print job. She took one look at the coloured bars on the page, gave an annoyed grunt and then asked if the printer was working. 

She had to walk around me, a stranger to this office, step over my open tool bag but only thought to ask if the machine was working after she had grabbed my printing? Clearly not the brightest and unfortunately not the only unobservant person in this office. During the following problems I stopped what I was doing several times to allow printing but was constantly getting questions about when the machine can be used by annoyed looking staff. My reply was, as always, to smile and say that they can print but may need to wait a minute to collect their jobs. The responses were universally grunts or moans.

The problem I had was that I was printing the gradation patterns on A4 paper and the copier was not accepting the first pattern but gave no explanation. The pattern looked ok to me so I first cleaned the scanner optics (pausing for print jobs) and tried again but failed. So I next cleaned the IDC sensors, performed initialisation and stabilisation and tried again but still failed. So while pausing again for any print jobs I had a look at the gradation prints and noticed that the patterns were evenly centred on the pages. Normally they are closer to the bottom of the page. Hmmmm.

The machine normally takes its paper from trays 1 and 2 for gradation prints so I pulled them out as well as tray 3 which had pre-printed letterhead loaded in it and tried again. I wanted one of the lower trays as they are large capacity trays that are only for A4 and therefore have their guides fixed to the machine and so there will be less centring issues. Sure enough the gradations worked.

So the problem was with either tray 1 or tray 2 not being centred. These trays can hold several sizes of paper by having their guides opened or narrowed to suit. The guides can also be moved forward and back in the machine to adjust the centring of the paper by loosening two screws and then adjusting them. A notch on the metal base plate lines up with a scale on the plastic tray to give an indication of where the centring currently is. On this machine both trays were currently pushed all the way to the rear off the scale. Gouge marks in the plastic around the fastening screws showed that the guides had been forced to the back without loosening the screws so my guess is that someone had tried to open the guides without releasing them first and this caused the centring to change.

Easily fixed.

While not being able to complete the gradations or the centring problem with trays 1 and 2 were not critical problems and probably not noticeable to most of the people on this office it would have been nice to fix them without all the negative comments and noises. I am just trying to help.