Faded Prints, SC348-11, Toner Supply issue Ricoh c7100sx

[oconeeprinting]

I have a similar issue happening and thought I'd reply to this rather than starting a new thread. My issue is coming from black. The print out is significantly faded (probably 70%) and I will get SC348-11 to flare up shortly into any run. In the service manual, this calls for a toner supply issue and for the sub hopper to be replaced.

I have a extra parts machine here and pulled the sub hopper off it and changed it out. No luck. I tried vacuuming the supply line as well. When I go through the processes for DEMS and any others, they all fail on black. I just put a new toner bottle in just before this happened and wondering if there was a clog in the supply line further up than I reached with the vacuum.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to test/remedy this? The machine is in the middle of a large book run right now and desperate to get back online.

[slimslob]

You may have an SP setting related to the K toner supply that someone has changed. Check the following:

1. SP 3300-011 Default is 0.170
2. SP 3301-011

These settings affect the calculation used to determine SC 348-11

[oconeeprinting]

I'm showing 3300-011: .106
3301-011: .163

I dont know that would be enough to have this reaction.

[Leoculus]

not sure if its relevant but i have twice had the toner end sensor fail in the rear sub hopper(under the bottle). i wasnt getting any codes but the machine would come up saying the affected bottle was empty. upon removing the bottle it still had toner in it but would still display empty after 100 copies or so after reinstalling. tried a new bottle and the issue seemed to go away. about a month later exact same symptoms. spent a day disassembling inspecting and testing the toner add system. installed another new bottle and issue disappeared again but i wasnt convinced. then i noticed the bottle had completely filled the hopper right up to the mouth of the bottle. after swapping parts one by one (did not have a donor machine) with a different colour i swapped the hopper housing with the end sensor and the issue transferred to the other colour. Feeling confident we ordered the whole toner bank assembly and i installed a full bottle in the newly affected colour to limp it along until the part came in. The toner bank assy fixed the issue.

6 months later have the exact same symptoms but with a different colour. Cleaned up the old toner bank and popped a new toner end sensor on it (the sensor is the same as c5503-6004 toner hoppers which we had lots). popped it in the machine and was up and running same day.

to this day have never seen that sensor fail in any other machine and it is fairly common. The only common denominator i was ever able to attribute to a possible cause was a drastic shift in temperature/humidity. 1st instance happened in winter when the temps dropped from 0C to -35C overnight. 2nd instance happened in summer when the temps rocketed from 10C to 35C and 100% humidity.