oki c5600 prob, banding?

[Chris Wool]

does it show up on the test page

chris

[Hugh Potter]

Hi Chris,

no mate, test print is 99% text, seems ok on that, seems to happen more on reds and blues, leaves streaky lines through the pic.

just printed of a close photo of long grass, it’s harder to see, but still there.

not sure what else to do!

cheers.
Hugh

[Tim Painter]

Hugh which way does the banding go?

I assume the 5600 feed short edge of the page first, does the banding appear (Page Portrait) top to bottom or left to right?

Tim.

[Hugh Potter]

yes mate, short edge first, appears across the page on the shorted width.

cheers.
Hugh

[Tim Painter]

Does the banding repeat itself at regular intervals?

Tim.

[Hugh Potter]

Hi tim,
i can’t say there’s a specific repeat pattern, but it does seem to be fairly regular, looks almost like when an inkjet is running low on one colour! there’s small areas where it’s perfect, but the majority has grainy banding of various widths.

thanks.
HUgh

[Tim Painter]

Doesn’t sound to me like fuser problems.

Possibly the drums are they low on life?

[Hugh Potter]

not particularly,

toners…

80% Y
20% M
20% C
100% K

drum lifes are all on 87%
belt 95%
fuser 98%

seems all ok to me!

[Peter Mindham]

Ambient temp OK Hugh. Sometimes mine doesnt like higher humity or lower temp?

peter

[Hugh Potter]

hmm, could be lower temp, no heating on in here yet, still not that cold at the mo, is it?

Hugh

[Adam McGuire]

With my printer engineer cap on (dusted off a little as it’s been hanging up for almost a year!) I’d say print a page of of each of the 4 colours (or even a page split into the 4 colours). If it’s happening on more than one of them, I’d say a temperature or a charge problem. What is it you’re using it for? My Oki C5450 has problems printing when it’s cold or a little more damp than usual, seems to be caused by condensation as the printer warms up. It seems to print a little patchy and mainly only on the black. I get round this by warming the printer and the media for 2 minutes with a small electric fan heater.

Seeing as you seem to be having problems across the narrow edge, you could have a "blind" spot on one or more of the drum units. The drum is sensitive to light, so if it’s been exposed to brightish light for a few minutes, it can go blind and can cause banding. Any chance of a scan to show us?

Also, try carefully wiping the transfer belt with a clean, soft white cotton cloth. If the belt is dirty or not purging properly, then it has trouble printing a clean image. Just be careful not to stretch it or scratch it.

Hope this helps. If you can get a printout scanned and up here, I’ll have a much better idea.

Adam

[Hugh Potter]

thank you for the suggestions Adam,

i’ll have a little play with it later and see if i can post up the results somewhere.

thank you.
HUgh

[Hugh Potter]

ok,

i’ve printed a full page of yel, mag, cyan and blk, all ok with exception of the magenta, looks to have a fairly definitive pattern in the banding. thing is, i’ve not changed that from the original toner cart yet, so it is the least likely to have been left out too long and blinded.

they’ve all been out on occasion, like twice, once when i got it, and once when i spilled toner on the belt below, but nothing more than a couple of mins in a shoebox on the bench (no light on over bench at time), so maybe it’s a faulty drum?

Hugh

[Simon Polakof]

Hugh does it happen on all your printable media? or is it only on one?
I had kind of the same trouble with my VP540, and it turned out to be the media itself which was causing the problem.
So my advice is to try to print on different medias, and if you see that the print works on other medias, then you should contact your local supplier and see how they can help you.

[Hugh Potter]

hi there,

it does it on all the papers, 210g, 180g, 160g, and 100g. only on magenta though.

Hugh

[Simon Polakof]

I don’t know about your machine Hugh, but on the roland VP540 you can use a special cartridge so that one can clean a special channel, I would suggest that you try something like that. Otherwise I would advise you to contact your dealer you bought the machine from.

[Hugh Potter]

Hi Simon,

crossed wires here i think! my machine is a colour digital laser printer, not solvent or for sign printing.

thanks dude.
Hugh

[Paul Humble]

I had huge problems with my 5600 on blues and reds when printing onto transparencies. I even contacted the company who sold me the machine only to be told it was a known fault with 5600’s.

I found by setting it to Label 1 it was a bit better but not perfect. In the end I just bought a 5800 and used the 5600 for other jobs.

[David Mellon]

quote Hugh Potter:

hi all,

shok up all the toners and cleaned the black sensor things in the top lid,

still doing it, any ideas please?

regards.
Hugh

No Expert – I’ve said that before!!!

But I think a good shok shake shook up is a NO NO!

Unless you remove the cartridge from the drum

Had similar problems when using re-fills! – so seductive – price wise – never again!

Reds n pinks murder – laying down too much colour or streaks banding etc

As that Magenta is so low and will soon be changed – amazing how quickly it goes from 50% – 20% – to OUT OF !

I suggest you find a big sink and empty all that toner that’s in the Magenta drum out before changing – wear a mask – messy!

Worked for me!

p.s. the licencse plate guys seem to be cheaper on certain colours!

[Hugh Potter]

quote David Mellon:

quote Hugh Potter:

hi all,

shok up all the toners and cleaned the black sensor things in the top lid,

still doing it, any ideas please?

regards.
Hugh

No Expert – I’ve said that before!!!

But I think a good shok shake shook up is a NO NO!

Unless you remove the cartridge from the drum

Had similar problems when using re-fills! – so seductive – price wise – never again!

Reds n pinks murder – laying down too much colour or streaks banding etc

As that Magenta is so low and will soon be changed – amazing how quickly it goes from 50% – 20% – to OUT OF !

I suggest you find a big sink and empty all that toner that’s in the Magenta drum out before changing – wear a mask – messy!

Worked for me!

p.s. the licencse plate guys seem to be cheaper on certain colours!

Hi David,

with the toners i’ve found the opposite to be true, the remaining carts are start-up carts, i find i can still do around 200 colour leaflets between it telling me to replace the cart and before it stops working, as the magenta abd cyan are still on 20% i can see them lasting a while yet! they can’t be refilled either.

the replacement carts (k+Y) are genuine oki, if i’d spent £50 on a used printer i wouldn’t worry about cheap toner, but at £400+ i’m not gonna take the chance just now, had awful probs with cheap inkjet inks in the past, don’t wanna repeat that!

as you say with regard shaking toner carts, remove the cart from the drum.. that’s the advice i was given too, and followed, so i don’t think the drum could have been damaged by myself.

i’ll contact oki later today.

thanks.
HUgh

[Colin Crow]

Humidity can cause havoc with electrostatic printers which rely on a charge across the paper. If your paper gets even slightly damp the charge is dissipated and results in a low grade (grainy) image particularly where colour is built up with more than one colour (ie blue & red). To check if this is the problem try a sheet from a sealed pack of of new paper. If the humidity is getting to your stock you may have dry out the paper somewhere warm and then keep the papers in grip seal bags. This is the reason that Magic Touch always recommend the paper is kept sealed in a bag after opening. Its also the reason that using a warm air heater may give an improvement. 15 years of experience with colour copiers and now printers has taught me to always suspect the media first before doing any work on the machine.

Colin

[Hugh Potter]

HI Colin,

thats a good point, at first i thought you could be right in this instance, but thinking on it i did use fresh paper from a new ream 🙁

had magic touch on the phone earlier so i mentioned it and the tech dept is gonna call me back.

cheers.
Hugh

ps, it’s only magenta doing it.