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850 DX w/ noise & very messy printouts

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StevePortland

Technical User
Feb 1, 2005
5
US
After printing several dozen pages today, a noise could be heard during parts of the print cycle -- rhythmic and whirring. Usually it began at the start of print job, but not always. It seemed to always be present when the paper was pulled back into the printer for the final pass. The prints still appeared okay...

But then a one-sided print showed small ink speckles on its reverse side. And then white streaks appeared down the pages, with more irregular, seemingly-splattered or smeared ink marks. Some text and line rules became illegible due to missing ink.

The last diagnostic page shows...
-- white lines: the largest being in magenta and cyan, plus a very thin one in black.
-- dark, muddy lines: one in every color, the darkest being in magenta and cyan, and one is apparent in black.
-- dark speckles and smears in the yellow.
-- the text and line numbers are marred by white streaks and irregular spots where ink is not present. Many line numbers are illegible as a result.
-- the red & blue logo-footer is marred by dark muddy-looking vertical lines or smears. And a yellow vertical line intersects the red graphic bar; a purple vertical line appears on the blue box behind the Tektronix logotype.

In short, the prints are a mess.

Please note that this is the first print session in a couple days. The last time it was used, a new Y-encoder kit had been installed to fix an O5 error. At that time, a diagnostic page was printed, and it only showed one light cyan line when examined very closely.

By the way, when the noise first occurred, I removed the right panel but I saw nothing obviously be causing the noise. The noise seemed like it might be coming from the center of the machine.

The maintenance tray is not old, though I cannot imagine how such a thing could cause this problem anyway.

But I'm no expert, which is why I'm writing to ask for help from those of you who are experts, or those of you who might have experienced something similar.

Any input would be much-appreciated. Thanks.

Sincerely,
Steve K.
Portland OR
 
if the sound is comming from the center of the printer is might be the drum bearings going bad. Replacing the drum is not something i would try on my own. Without seeing a sample of the print defect i could not say for sure.
 
With the y axis encoder just being replaced I suspect that there may be an issue with the positioning of the disk that rides on the drum shaft. I have seen some very odd print quality problems related to the encoder. If the disk is rubbing against either side of the sensor that reads it it can create all sorts of problems. Without a spacer tool I would try and eye-ball the position of the disk so that it rides in the middle of the sensor.
 
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