vertical ragged intermittent line on P3015

[Frimton]

One of our P3015DN printers has started printing ragged vertical lines about 4mm wide and approx. 11cm long randomly down the page.

The lines are in the same horizontal position (about 6cm from the left edge)  but appear very randomly on some sheets but not on others.  They sometimes span across two sheets but sometimes appear anywhere on a sheet, yet other times not at all.

When there is a lot of text on page there are occasionally two vertical ragged lines, about 6mm apart.

We have replaced the fuser (twice) and tried a number of different, known good, toners.

The text print is sharp ond has good black definition.

The print count is about 127000 copies.

Any guidance would be most welcome. I have never seen this sort of pattern before!

[tonerspills]

Sounds like a tricky trouble shoot. First thing I would do, would be to try and isolate the problem- is it occuring during image formation or fusing? Thats what we need to figure out first.

 If you send a multipage print job, you can then force jam the printer by slightly opening the toner door once you hear the paper start feeding. Try to time it so that the paper is under the toner cartridge. If the mark is on the paper under the cartridge- then you know the fuser is probably good (sounds like youve already replaced several)

Since you've also tried several different cartridges and have the same results, if the mark is present under your current cartridge- it could be some deformation of the transfer roller (the spoungey roller under the cartridge) the problem could also be with the laser write unit, HVPS- or one of the boards responsible for image formation.

If the paper looks correct underneath the toner cartridge, clear the jam and let the paper feed further into the printer. You can then jam it again. watch for the paper to just begin exiting the fuser area- and you should have the paper stuck halfway in the fuser at this point. If the paper and text (toner not fused yet) looks correct in the part that has not run through the fuser, but the mark is present on the part of the paper that has exited the fuser, then your fuser roller is getting some type of contaminate on it from the paper or printer.

[Frimton]

Many thanks for your extremely fast response!

I had already tried your suggestion before posting.  The problem is its intermittency.  None of the pages trapped were affected (Sod's law!)

There is no rational pattern as to when the toner is applied.  I used 10 page prints with a single character on the page.

The line appeared on about a third of them, at random vertical positions, at least once spanning across two sheets.

The horizontal position was the same on each occurance.

[Imagenet_Tech]

Hello, almost sounds like it could possibly a voltage issue. Is it possible to upload an example of the issue?

[tonerspills]

Random wierdness- sounds like a voltage issue ot me too. Suspect parts would be-

Engine-control unit (ECU)

DC controller

Low-voltage power supply

High-voltage power supply

Laser Write Unit.

Did we already ask if you have this printer plugged directly into a wall outlet with known good voltage and a clean ground and not a multi port power strip or battery backup? If possible, you may want to move the printer to another wall outlet, just in case you have a bad ground.

swap out the printer power cord and network cable as well- i have seen power cables go bad and network cables with kinks in them cause some crazy things.

[Frimton]

Thanks.

I'll try some of these suggestions, but it looks as if the cost of the parts are going to be more than a replacement printer!

These are also not easy machines tom strip down for access to some of hese boards.

[Imagenet_Tech]

Hello, I would look more towards the high voltage board or the contacts going from that board to toner cartridge. I would definitely check and clean the contacts that go to the toner just to make sure they are making contact properly, as well as, clean.

[Frimton]

Thanks.  I have now brought the printer back to my workshop for further investigation.

I tend to agree that it is probably a bad High Voltage contact to the toner. I tested the toner cartridges on another printer and two were fine, but one gave similar marks. That makes me suspect the contact to the cartridge.