Phaser 850 sudenly cleaning on every warm up 1

[PanamonC]

I have an 850DX that initiates a full cleaning cycle every time I send it a job that brings it out of standby.

It wakes up, quickly gets to around 50% warm then invariably (and unavoidably) goes into cleaning mode. I keep it on at all times and have it connected to its own UPS. It is set to time out and go into standby after 3 hours of idle time, but it's NEVER turned off to prevent these very same compulsory cleaning cycles that waste so much ink on power ups.

I have probably wasted more ink over the past month than I would normally lose in a year due to unwanted cleanings.

I have tried resetting the printer via the front panel, powering it down then unplugging it overnight before restarting it, making sure the waste tray is empty, making sure that "Energy Star" mode is disabled. Thing is I've changed no options for what seems like an eternity, the thing just seems to just have started this behavior on its own.

I love this printer and have had it for years. It prints flawlessly, no streaking or dead jets. In the past when a jet has begun to show signs of clogging, "head wipe" or similar little gems in the hidden trouble shooting menu have always managed to resolve the issue. Only on the rarest occasions have I ever had to initiate cleaning cycles on purpose.

Could there be a sensor or something internal that's become fouled or some part that when worn forces cleaning cycles?

Any help or advice would be great.

Thanks,
Joe.

 

[go2printgreen]

PanamonC -

Did you find an answer your question? Sounds like the logic board has gone. The Phaser 850 is a very old unit and it sounds like you are ready to get a new printer

Helping people get the most from their printers and copiers
Ryan Perry, Owner
go2printgreen.com

 

[PanamonC]

Looks like it could be a fan that was blowing in the vicinity of the printer. Fan was never pointed directly at printer as far as I can tell.

Suddenly the behavior stopped. The only thing that had changed, that was obvious, was that the fan was no longer being used as much since the weather turned cool.

I tried to recreate the problem by turning the fan back on and sometimes cleaning cycles did occur. But not every time as before.

I have not noticed cleaning cycles with the fan off.

Strange thing is fan has been there for a few years and I never had this problem. Perhaps the heaters in the printer are not what they used to be and allow the printer to get too cool with the fan too close. Or the fan just got nudged into the perfect spot causing this to happen.

So that is the likely suspect. I will post if cleaning cycles begin again.

Still welcome any thoughts on the subject.

 

[Michael52x]

Wow! That makes sense, as the printer senses temperatures to control it's rediness. This problem is usuall from the lamps in the pre-heater going bad. If never changed, may be burning through the contacts, and causeing it to not get to correct temp. Good work on the fan!

"Impatience will reward you with dissatisfaction" RMS Cosmics'97

 

[Michael52x]

Remove the printer from the UPS! Now!
Sorry I missed that in the first post.
When the UPS cycles, so will the printer.

"Impatience will reward you with dissatisfaction" RMS Cosmics'97

 

[PanamonC]

The printer for years has always been on its own APC1400 ups.
It is connected to a ups for that very reason to prevent resets if power goes out.
The problem is not that it restarts and invokes a cleaning cycle it's that on warm ups from standby it cleans much more than it ever had before.

Thanks.

 

[PanamonC]

Well, maybe it is not the fan so much after all.
It is doing it again with no air-flow past it.

It cleaned a lot less for a while but now we are back to every time it warms up.

The weather got colder here in Las Vegas, so I am again thinking that there are heaters that are failing to keep its temp up while in standby.

I am not getting any front panel errors though.
Any ideas if or which heaters could be at fault and is there a way to test them?

Thanks,
Joe.

 

[Michael52x]

The pre-heater lamps come out at the front.
The p-head heaters are within it, and the ink melt is in that assy. As to the # of cleanings, how much are you printing? The diagnostic for this unit can only be done with a laptop and special cable, with Xerox program.
You can get into the Hidden service menu. Go to Troubleshooting, and select. Press and hold left arrow, pres select. You can do head adjust, head/drum adjust and reset NVRAM.

"Impatience will reward you with dissatisfaction" RMS Cosmics'97

 

[PanamonC]

Michael52x
Thanks for sticking with this problem. I really appreciate your input.

The lamps are good. They come on brightly when coming out of standby and decrease in intensity as the printer warms up. You can tell they have heated the drum sufficiently because the cooling fan begins to blow through the drum even before it gets to initiating the cleaning cycle.

I do not have any recent heater errors visible in the hidden service menu faults list.

Something new I think I have noticed is that when the warm up counter goes slow, counts by 1%, it is going to clean.

When counter goes faster, counting by 2%, I can tell it will not clean.

I am going to open it up this weekend and see if there is any muck or dust that could be causing problems. Give me something to look for while I am in there or some tests to run.

Thanks,
Joe.

 

[PanamonC]

The Printer finally tipped its hand.
After disassembling it and finding nothing unusual, I put it all back together and it now began to give me a 13001.40 error (The thermistor in the left jet stack appears to be open...)
So I took it apart again and checked if for myself with an ohm meter and confusingly both the right and the left thermistors read the same at room temp and also rose and fell if similarly when heat was applied to the head with a soldering iron.
So I put it back together and it warmed up all the way without the error, I put it into standby and it came out of it without the cleaning cycle.
Problem solved right? Wrong.
To make a very long story short it turns out that the thermistor is intermittently bad.
Sometimes it works then I suddenly get the 13001.40 error. I checked it many times and sure enough sometimes it is open.
Manipulating the area of the printhead close to where the thermistor is located induces the fault, so I have ruled out a cabling problem, could be a pcb problem though.
The thermistors for the jet stacks are located behind the printhead itself and it is necessary to disassemble the head completely to access them. Not a project for the faint of heart. I figued I had nothing to lose so in I went. The printhead seem shot anyhow. BTW, I am now a pro at disassembling and reassembling a printhead.
I eventually figured out that the thermistors are embedded into the printhead from behind and are covered in brown epoxy, and also figured out where on the ribbon cable the readings emerged.
I will now start a new thread asking if anyone has ever attempted a repair of one of these thermistors.

Thanks for your help here.

Joe.

 

[Michael52x]

Joe, I just posted above this one. It could be the issue.

"Impatience will reward you with dissatisfaction" RMS Cosmics'97