Photocopier expert out there ?

[frank rabbets]

I've had a canon PC120 photocopier for about 12 years. It's always produced feint copies and now I've decided to get some help. The manual settings are on full contrast. Is there anything else, like inside adjustment, that I can do ?

 

[Dave2000]

Often found a couple of causes of feint copies Frank.

First is the 'use greyscale' box is ticked?

The other is a software conflict if being run through your PC, the dedicated copier software falling out with Windows own inbuilt program.

So the 'greyscale' could be ticked in either, or the simple contrast setting is high in copier software and low in Windows.

A classic example would be you viewing say YouTube, the youtube software on full volume and Windows on say half.

Regards

Dave

 

[Trevor]

I don't know this particular one but on some older machines, they had a transfer wire or foam transfer roller immediately underneath the toner cartridge. This produces a charge which pulls the toner onto the paper before going through the fuser unit (a hot roller) to fix the toner to the paper, if the charge is weak then that would cause a faint image as less toner was being transferred.

The transfer wire could be cleaned using alcohol and cotton bud, the foam roller type would need to be replaced, if that didn't fix it then things get more complex.

 

[Towpack]

If all the settings are correct then try a machine generated print (a list of setup parameters or maybe a test print) and see how it comes out. If it's OK then the problem is on the scanning side, maybe a fogged or hazy scanning glass or mirrors if it has them, or sensor lens. If the machine prints are faint then it's the printing side of the copier that's at fault, possible excess toner where it should't be or it's the cartridge itself.

 

[frank rabbets]

I've just fitted a new genuine Canon cartridge to replace the original genuine one which came with the machine. Copies really well now on just the middle settings. Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll report back if I get problems again but it looks like it was a new faulty cartridge. No it was not a Milners one.

 

[lc 120]

Frank, I think you did well to even get a copy after 12 years with the same cartridges in, but good to hear you have solved the problem...