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1320c Printing all Black as Grey, after toner change
Hello,
Some time ago, I was told that the toner cartridges of our 1320c were changed, but now the text that was supposed to be black, prints out as grey, including windows test page and printer's own test page. Colors are also quite light, but no very pastel. The text is pretty uniform, and the printer monitor reports about 90% of cyan, magenta and black, but maybe 70% of yellow.
I've heard about the PHD 8 tapes isssue, but don't want to mess with that yet (consumer induced damage fears). also I don't know how the installation of the printer has been done (i'm quite new at the job).
May there are other issues tha can cause this behavior? I want to discard all possible things before messing with the PHD.
Thank you all in advance.
UPDATE: Finally, I removed the PHD. Still had 4 of the 8 tapes left. Took them out. Tried to print again, but still grey. do I have to print 10-20 pages before getting normal printouts, or it was supposed to be instantaneous? I don't really want to waste paper and precious ink.
llynster
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May 8th, 2008 01:00
The issue is most likely the result of 4 of the PHD's 8 tapes were NOT removed and now, the developer units have been depleted. This happened because whoever initially setup the printer did not follow the installation instructions. The PHD is most likely ruined.
Open the front cover and turn each of the PHD latches 90degrees CCW. Pull the PHD straight out using the grey handles on the top left and right. Set the PHD on a flat stable surface and examine the right side. Do you see 4 short yellow-orange ribbons hanging out? If so, that's the problem. Pull each ribbon straight out in one continuous motion. Put the PHD back in and close the front cover. Print about 20-30 pages. If the problem has not cleared up...... you need to call Dell and have the PHD replaced.
UPDATE: Sorry.... I didn't see your update before posting my reply. But the net result is the same.... the 4 short ribbons were not removed. Like I said in my reply, you'll need to print 20-30 pages to see if the printer will recover. Most times they don't and the PHD will need to be replaced. In any case, the life of the PHD was shortened because of this.
Pietro_GP
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May 8th, 2008 14:00
Well, lynster, thank you for the timely response. :smileywink:
I printed about a dozen pages so far, despite our "print-only-what-is-absolutely-neccesary" policy. I've noted some progress, at first the pages came out in a shade of grey, let's say 20% of the black it was supposed, it was so clear that it was difficult to read; Now we're getting about 50% black, after that 12 pages, increasing slowly.
I can't say now that the problem is totally fixed, but there are good feelings, even if I know the PHD life is severely shortened (I'll hang whoever first installed the printer), but at last we haven't had to order a replacement unit (for now).
A little piece of advice to all fellows that have the problem:
1. Isolate the printer, don't let anyone to send documents to it.
2. Print ONLY ONE instance of test pages, just to check
3. Check the PHD __carefully__ and look for the ribbons.
4. If any ribbons are still there, __don't__ remove them unless you're really comitted to it, and willing to assume any costs from customer induced damage. If you're still under warranty, I recommend asking for Dell's assistance in situ, whenever possible.
5. While waiting for assistance, shut down the printer.
Why I recommend waiting for assistance, when we can do the job easily? Liability issues, mainly. Most of us won't be willing to assume extra charge for replacing units that everything points__we__ damaged, even if the blame is on whoever installed the printer the first time. Got my point?
llynster
1.7K Posts
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May 8th, 2008 15:00
Interesting read.... glad it seems to be improving.
Just to clarify...... The 1320c is intended to be installed and setup by the customer.
So..... if you don't remove the ribbons, the problem will only get worse. If you wait for assistance..... you'll be waiting for a long time.
In other words, all 8 ribbons are supposed to be removed by the customer during initial installation and setup.
And if you do call Dell for PHD replacement, they seem to have a fairly liberal warranty policy on this issue.... I've not heard of anyone being charged for this problem, and, the PHD is covered by Warranty as long as you carry a service contract on the machine.