Xerox Docucolor 242 Streaks on all colors

[Mary Lou]

I am getting streaks on all colors and a slight void line on the cyan. The black and yellow developer unit and developer were just changed. New drums, IBT belt and fuser. The windows were cleaned for the lasers which were really dirty. Any ideas besides cleaning the actual lasers?

 

[Jeff]

On ours when we had something that looked like this, it was the actual ROS assembly. On ours the ROS contamination caused both the indistinct soft-edged light streak like you have in cyan and the harder-edged narrow streaks like you have in black.
We started by swapping the drums and then developer units to rule that out which you've already done.
I cleaned the ROS windows several times, and that didn't help our case unfortunately.
In our case, it took three tries cleaning the ROS assembly and it takes quite a bit of time to get to it and then reinstall everything.

The black and cyan is one ROS assembly and the Magenta and Yellow is the other ROS assembly. Our Cyan and Black was the primary problem and got dirty twice in 1.5 million 11x17's and we had just a tiny bit of contamination in the magenta yellow ROS.

 

[Mary Lou]

Thanks Jeff. A technician cleaned the ROS assemblies about 200,000 copies ago so I was hoping it wasn't needed again. Took him about 3 hours and when he put it back together the registration was way off. I have a new tech I'm going to use for this. Any advice to avoid registration problems?

 

[InterfaceP]

Looks to me more of a drum problem. If you don't have extras change them around and see if the lines follow the drum. If they do put the worst one in the Y.

If you do determine its the ROS make sure the Ozone filter is replaced of cleaned. Its 4x6 door located on the left side at the bottom rear of the unit bellow the ESS. Remove and inspect it.

Cleaning the ROS without checking that filter may cause you to continue to have the same problem among others.

 

[Mary Lou]

All of the drums are new. Thanks for the tip about the filter. I'm not sure what the ESS is but I found a door under the bypass tray. Is that it?

 

[InterfaceP]

Sorry. Yes that's it. Was it dirty? Be careful it can get very messy when cleaning it. I typically wrap it in a plastic trash bag and bang out as much toner as I can. Then use compressed air.

ROS problems will be a deletion on the page, as the laser (ROS) is unable to write through the area contaminated by toner. Deletions that appear sharp are a developer issue as they prevent toner from coming in contact with the drum. Laser deletions will typically appear more like a shadow and unsharp.

Check the small black roller (charge roller) on the drum. If its dirty or has white/gray lines form paper dust. It will typically match the lines on the paper.

If the Ozone filter is dirty the toner starts to back up and disperse throughout the ROS area.

The ESS is the aluminum tray that i slides out when unscrewed. It's also where the cables all hook up.

 

[Milo Wilson]

Those are lines caused by ROS contamination. The mirrors inside each of the ROS assy's are specked with toner dust. They all should be cleaned and sealed by an experienced technician. You can 'kill' a ROS if you are not careful.

 

[Mary Lou]

Thanks Milo. I have a technician that's going to clean them. He cleaned the windows last week. They were really dirty but it didn't help the problem.

 

[Jeff]

Ours was not easy to clean and took a few tries. (I print a sample sheet with solid blocks and gradients of C, M, Y, and K before and after cleaning. If it's the ROS and its cleaned, if it doesn't solve it at least you should see movement of all the defects.)

 

[Mary Lou]

Thanks Jeff. Any tips on how to make sure it's clean on the first attempt?

 

[Jeff]

I wish I knew. I couldn't visually see any toner on the mirrors, and it was debatable whether I could see any color change on the white swabs used to clean the mirrors, meticulously. I think the only thing you can do is to do a print before, do the best job possible, and then do another print after. If the defects change, you know you're working on the problem, and if it's not solved, you have to try again

 

[Mary Lou]

Thanks Jeff. Hopefully we'll get it on the first try. I cleaned the ozone filter as best as I could. Do you know if it can be rinsed out?

 

[InterfaceP]

The filter is partially paper. No water,

Thanks Jeff. Hopefully we'll get it on the first try. I cleaned the ozone filter as best as I could. Do you know if it can be rinsed out?

 

[kristianeyman]

The ros could be the problem, but I would have the tech look at the developer unit, and see if there lies the problem. I have had the same problems, and the magnet on the developer has needed to be cleaned and the developer changed. Just my .02