Xante Accel-a-Writer 8200 Operating instructions

_____________________________________ Troubleshooting 10-1
Chapter 10 - Troubleshooting
Chapter Overview
Jams
Preventing Jams
Clearing Jams
Status Messages
Printer Status Messages
Printer Error Messages
Preliminary Troubleshooting
The General Checkup
Macintosh Environment Checkup
PC Environment Checkup
Miscellaneous Troubleshooting
Print Quality Troubleshooting
Calling for Technical Support
Troubleshooting Information

10-2 Troubleshootingbb____________________________________
Notes

_____________________________________ Troubleshooting 10-3
Introduction
Whether you are a new user of the Accel-a-Writer 8200 or an old
pro, this chapter can help you correct most problems encountered.
You will find as you go through this section that printing issues
usually derive from one of three areas: applications, host hardware,
or printer hardware.
This chapter covers printer hardware. It starts with printer jams,
followed by status messages and a preliminary troubleshooting
procedure. Then it goes over miscellaneous troubleshooting and
print quality issues. The final section provides specifics on XANTÉ
Technical Support and how to place a service call.
Jams
This section covers preventing and clearing media jams.
Preventing Jams
Many jams are the result of using the wrong consumables, either
toner or media, and handling the consumables incorrectly. The
following tips can help avoid these types of jams.
• Make sure all media meets the guidelines in “Media
Handling” in chapter 6.
• Make sure media is stored following the guidelines in
“Storing Media” in chapter 6.
• Make sure the correct size media is loaded in the selected
cassette or tray.
• When printing on various media, always follow the
guidelines in the corresponding sections of chapter 6
(“Printing Transparencies,” “Printing Envelopes,”
“Printing Labels,” or “Printing on Variable Sized Media”).

10-4 Troubleshootingbb____________________________________
• Make sure all media is in good condition—not torn,
wrinkled, curled, or damp.
• Never overfill cassettes or the fold down tray. The
cassettes hold approximately 250 sheets of plain or laser
paper. The fold down tray holds approximately 100 sheets
of laser or plain paper, 50 transparencies, or 40 label
sheets. Make sure stock does not exceed upper limit marks
on the cassette or tray.
• Always load the cassette media print-side up and the fold
down paper tray media print-side down.
• Make sure the paper stop on the output tray is adjusted for
the size media in use.
• Empty the output tray when it gets full to prevent the
media already in the tray from blocking media as it exits
the printer.
• Use XANTÉ supplied toner.
• Do not use refilled toner cartridges.
• Make sure to handle and store toner cartridges following
the guidelines in the “Handling and Replacing the Toner
Cartridge” section of chapter 6.
• Keep the printer clean. See “Cleaning the Printer” in
chapter 8 for details.

_____________________________________ Troubleshooting 10-5
Clearing Jams
Jams occur along the paper path in the areas illustrated in figure 10.1
Since media jams can occur in several areas at the same time, you
need to check the full paper path.
Lower Cassette Pick-up Roller
(Requires Installation of
Optional Paper Feeder )
Upper Cassette
Pick-up Roller
Fuser Unit Area Fold Down Tray
Pick-up Roller
Fuser Cover
Fig. 10.1 The Paper Path
To fix media jams
1. Open the fold down paper tray (fig. 9.6) if it is closed. If it is
open and has media in it, remove the media.
2. Open the front cover (fig. 9.7).
Warning! The fuser unit and print delivery guides can become
extremely hot during printing and can cause severe
burns. Do not touch these areas.

10-6 Troubleshootingbb____________________________________
3. Check the pick up roller area for a jam. If found, remove the
media by pulling it in the direction of the arrow in figure 10.2.
MANUAL
READY
ON LINE FORM
FEED RESET TEST ENTER MENU TRAY
SELECT
®
Fig. 10.2 Remove Media from the Roller Area
4. Check the fuser unit area for a jam. If found, use the following
procedure to remove the media.
a. If any part of the media comes out of the fusing unit on
the inside toward the printer, pull the media out in the
direction of the arrow in figure 10.3.
MANUAL
READY
ON LINE FORM
FEED RESET TEST ENTER MENU TRAY
SELECT
®
Fig. 10.3 Remove Media from the Fuser Area

_____________________________________ Troubleshooting 10-7
b. If the media has passed through the fuser unit and only
appears toward the outside of the printer, pull the media
in the opposite direction of the arrow in figure 10.3.
5. Check the output tray for a jam. If found, pull the media out
from the output tray (fig. 10.4).
MANUAL
READY
ON LINE FORM
FEED RESET TEST ENTER MENU TRAY
SELECT
®
Fig. 10.4 Remove Media from the Output Tray

10-8 Troubleshootingbb____________________________________
6. Check the paper cassette area for a jam. If found, use the
following procedure to remove the jam.
a. Remove the cassette currently selected.
b. If you find a jam, remove the media (fig. 10.5) from the
cassette slot. If you use two cassettes and cannot remove
a jam from the lower cassette slot, remove it through the
upper cassette slot.
Fig. 10.5 Remove Media from the Cassette Area
7. Close the front cover; then, open the fuser cover and check that
area for a jam. If found, remove the jam by pulling the media
out in the direction of the arrow in figure 10.6.
FORM
FEED
ON LINE RESET TEST ENTER TRAY
SELECT
Innovations In Output
MENU
Fig. 10.6 Remove Media from the Fuser Cover Area

_____________________________________ Troubleshooting 10-9
8. Close the fuser cover and, if you are not going to use the fold
down tray, close it. Then, resume printing from your application.
Note: Your printer has an automatic jam recovery feature. This
means if the feature is enabled and a multiple page job jams,
as long as you do not turn off the printer to remove the jam,
the printer reprints the jammed page and the rest of the job.
See “The Jam Recovery Menu” in chapter 5 for more details.
Status Messages
Often, you can solve questions by checking the display window on
your printer’s front panel for printer status or service messages.
Printer Status Messages
The following messages alert you to the general status of your printer
or to situations which you can solve easily without a long
troubleshooting process or a service call.
Accel-a-Writer Power to the printer has been turned
on and the printer is coming up to full
power before beginning to initialize.
FEED <PAGE SIZE> Manual feed is selected. <PAGE SIZE>
is replaced by the size of the selected
media, such as letter.
FIRST JOB The printer is checking to see if there is
an initializing file (such as
STARTPAGE) which needs to be run.
INITIALIZING The printer is warming up, performing
setup routines, and getting ready to go
on line.
NO EP-CART The toner cartridge is either not in the
printer or not seated in place. Install a
toner cartridge or reseat the current one.

10-10 Troubleshootingbb____________________________________
OFFLINE The printer is off line which means it is
not ready to receive and process data.
PAPER JAM A media jam has occurred along the
paper path. Clear the jam using the
procedure in “Clearing Jams” earlier in
this chapter.
PAPER OUT Either the cassette is pulled out, the
selected media source is out of paper, or
trays have different size media loaded
when tray chaining is selected. Push the
cassette in, fill the current media
cassette or tray, or make sure the same
size media is in both cassettes when
chaining.
PRINTER OPEN The printer is not closed completely.
Make sure the front cover and
output tray are closed completely.
PROCESSING The printer is processing a job, getting it
ready to print.
READY/IDLE The printer is on line and ready to
accept a print job.
READY/PRINTING The printer is completing a print job and
ready to accept a new job to begin
processing.
RESET TO STOP The printer has been taken off line
during an active job.
RESETTING JOB The printer is resetting after the Reset ↑
key has been pressed and an active job
has been cancelled.
TEST PRINT The printer is printing a test page when
the printer is off line and not working
within the menu structure.

_____________________________________ Troubleshooting 10-11
TONER LOW The toner is running low. Try
redistributing toner in the current
cartridge or install a new toner cartridge.
WAITING The printer is waiting to receive more
data on a job before printing.
WARMING UP The printer is warming up and the fuser
unit has not reached optimum
temperature yet. Wait until READY/
IDLE appears in the display window
before sending a job to the printer.
Printer Service Messages
You may see one of the following messages occasionally which
indicates a mechanical issue requiring a service call. Be sure to make
a note of the message before calling.
SERVICE A The fuser unit needs attention.
SERVICE B The laser diode, scanning mirror, or
scanning motor needs attention.
SERVICE E An engine part other than one covered
by SERVICE A or B needs attention.
Preliminary Troubleshooting
Preliminary troubleshooting covers both a general once over of the
printer and then specific checks depending on the environment,
Macintosh, PC, or Ethernet. Also, Ethernet troubleshooting is
covered in the Ethernet upgrade documentation.

10-12 Troubleshootingbb____________________________________
The General Checkup
If you experience problems printing, the following quick checkup
may provide an easy, fast solution regardless of your printing
environment.
• Make sure the power cord is plugged into the printer and
the power source.
• Make sure the power source is working.
• Make sure all cables are connected and seated properly.
Depending on your working environment, either go to the next
section, “Macintosh Environment Checkup” or skip to “PC
Environment Checkup” later in this chapter.
Macintosh Environment Checkup
In a Macintosh environment, if you experience printing problems,
other than quality ones, the following quick checkup may provide an
easy, fast solution.
• Make sure all LocalTalk cabling and transformer boxes are
connected correctly. If there are any open sockets, close
them with terminating resistors. See “Connecting in a
Macintosh Environment” in chapter 2 for details.
• Make sure you select the correct LaserWriter icon and
your printer, and verify that LocalTalk is active in the
Chooser.
• Make sure the correct LaserWriter file is in your System
Folder.
• Make sure you install screen fonts to match the printer
fonts you use.
• If you have an Ethernet setup, make sure all Ethernet
cabling is connected correctly. See your network
documentation for details.

_____________________________________ Troubleshooting 10-13
• If you have an Ethernet setup, open the Control Panel,
click Network, and make sure EtherTalk is selected.
PC Environment Checkup
In a PC environment, if you experience printing problems, other than
quality ones, the following quick checkup may provide an easy, fast
solution.
• Make sure your application, printer, and host
communications settings all match. You can check and
change printer settings through the front panel (see “The
Configuration Menu Structure” in chapter 5). See your
application and host documentation for checking and
changing those respective settings.
• Try sending an end-of-job marker using the XANTÉ
Utilities D.PS file. If the previous job lacked this marker,
the printer expects more data and will not print until it
receives the end-of-job. See “PS Directory” in chapter 4
for details.
Miscellaneous Troubleshooting
This section covers miscellaneous troubleshooting except for print
quality. Print quality troubleshooting is covered in the next section.
§ The printer powers on, but no start-up page prints (the start-up
page is the page that prints when the printer is turned on).
∞Possible Solutions:
• The start-up page option may not be enabled. To
check this, press the Menu →key until
SETUP:MISC appears in the display window.
Press the Enter ↓key to enter the SETUP:MISC
menu. Then, if necessary, press the Menu →key

10-14 Troubleshootingbb____________________________________
until MISC:STRTUP PAGE appears in the display
window and press the Enter ↓key.
If STRTUP PAGE:YES is capitalized, this feature
is already enabled; if so, press the On Line key
and skip to the next bullet item in this list. If not,
press the Enter ↓key to select this option, and
then press the On Line key. Turn the printer off
and back on; the start-up page should print.
• Check the display window on the front panel for
messages.
• Make sure the toner cartridge is installed.
• Make sure that the source cassette or tray is
selected and it has media loaded. If you use a
cassette, make sure it is seated firmly in the
printer.
• Remove the paper cassette from the printer. If
there is no front panel activity or engine light
activity, replace the paper cassette, turn the printer
off and try to start it again.
§ The printer powers up, but I cannot print from my application.
∞Possible Solutions:
• Make sure all cables are connected and seated
properly.
• Make sure the printer is on line. The On Line key
LED should be lit and the display window should
read READY/IDLE or READY/PRINTING. If
not, press the On Line key once to put the printer
on line.
• If you work in a Macintosh environment, make
sure the printer is selected in the Chooser.

_____________________________________ Troubleshooting 10-15
• Remove the paper cassette from the printer. If
there is no front panel activity or engine light
activity, replace the paper cassette, turn the printer
off, and start the printer again.
§ All the lights on the printer are staying on.
∞Possible Solution:
• Be patient. Each time you turn your printer on, a
RAM test is performed. For the printers with large
RAM sizes, this test can take a little longer.
§ When I print a legal size document, the text is chopped off for
a letter size page.
∞Possible Solutions:
• If you try to print legal size documents from the
fold down tray, you have to select legal paper size
and manual feed within your application.
• If you have a legal tray installed, you have to
select legal paper size within your application.
§ When printing a legal size page, the printer jams on the output
tray.
∞Possible Solutions:
• The printer does not see the paper size as legal
paper. Make sure that a legal size paper tray is in
the printer and that legal size paper is chosen
within your application. Then, try printing the file
again.
• Select legal paper size and manual feed within
your application. Then, print from the fold down
tray.
• Make sure the paper stop on the output tray is
adjusted for legal, not letter size output.

10-16 Troubleshootingbb____________________________________
§ When I send a file to be printed, page after page of text prints
and the type looks like a program listing.
∞Possible Solutions:
• Make sure the printer and application settings are
the same. If you are printing a PostScript
document, the printer needs to be in PostScript or
AIS mode. If you are printing a PCL 5 document,
the printer needs to be in PCL5 or AIS mode. If
you are printing an HP-GL document, the printer
needs to be in HP–GL mode.
• If the file is a PostScript file and the printer is set
to AIS put the printer in PostScript mode and send
the PostScript document again.
• Send a copy of the file that is giving you trouble to
XANTÉ’s Technical Support with a brief
description of the problems. See “Calling for
Technical Support” later in this chapter for details.
§ When downloading a font or PostScript file using System 7, the
Macintosh displays the message, “Looking for LaserWriter...”
and then “Cannot find printer on chooser.”
∞Possible Solutions:
• Open the System Folder and view by icon.
• Open the Extensions folder and view by icon.
• Drag the LaserWriter driver out of the Extensions
folder and into the System Folder.
• Remove any LaserPrep files from the System and
Extensions folders.
• Turn both your Macintosh and printer off and then
back on again.

_____________________________________ Troubleshooting 10-17
• Select the Chooser from the Apple menu, make
sure LocalTalk is active, and select the
Accel-a-Writer 8200 printer.
• If you have an Ethernet setup, select Control
Panels from the Apple menu; then select Network
and make sure EtherTalk is selected.
• Continue printing as usual.
§ The Accel-a-Writer 8200 does not show up on the Chooser.
∞Possible Solutions:
• Check for proper termination on all LocalTalk
cables and boxes. See “Connecting in a Macintosh
Environment” in chapter 2 for details.
• If you have an Ethernet setup, make sure all
Ethernet cabling is connected correctly. See your
network documentation for details.
• Make sure the interface is enabled.
• Disable all background printing and print spoolers.
• Try a new cable between your Macintosh host and
printer.
• Reboot the printer and your host. Try selecting the
Accel-a-Writer 8200 from the Chooser again.
Print Quality Troubleshooting
This section covers print quality troubleshooting. For other general
troubleshooting matters, see the previous section “Miscellaneous
Troubleshooting.”

10-18 Troubleshootingbb____________________________________
§ The solid black print is washed out.
∞Possible Solutions:
• Clean the printer. See “Cleaning the Printer” in
chapter 8 for details.
• Remove the toner cartridge and redistribute the
toner. See “Redistributing Toner” in chapter 6 for
details.
• Set the toner density to a heavier setting. See
“Adjusting the Density Dial” in chapter 6 for
details.
• Use laser quality media and make sure it meets all
the requirements in the “Media Handling” section
of chapter 6.
• Install a new toner cartridge. See “Handling and
Replacing the Toner Cartridge” in chapter 6 for
details.
§ Scanned images are dark and the details are lost.
∞Possible Solutions:
• Check the original image to see if it is dark. If not,
rescan the image and try to print it again.
• Try increasing the gamma corrections setting on
your printer. Even if the original image which you
scanned is too dark, the gamma feature on your
printer allows you to adjust midrange grayscale
values without altering the black shadow or white
highlight values. This can bring out details in the
midranges. See “Making Gamma Corrections” in
chapter 7 for details.

_____________________________________ Troubleshooting 10-19
§ Horizontal banding on images occurs when printing.
∞Possible Solutions:
• Use a new toner cartridge, not a refilled toner
cartridge.
• Clean the printer. See chapter 8, “Maintenance,”
for details.
• Remove the toner cartridge and redistribute the
toner. See “Redistributing Toner” in chapter 6 for
details.
• Install a new toner cartridge. Remember, a new
cartridge may need a short break-in run of several
copies since toner can settle during storage. See
“Handling and Replacing the Toner Cartridge” in
chapter 6 for details.
• Adjust the toner density to a lighter setting. See
“Adjusting the Density Dial” in chapter 6 for
details.
• Replace the media with new media, making sure it
meets all the requirements in the “Media
Handling” section of chapter 6.
• Adjust the screen frequency for the images within
the applications. The printer default screen
frequency is 85 lpi. Also, see chapter 7,
“Advanced Imaging,” for more details on screen
frequency.
• Set the printer for a resolution higher than 600 dpi
if one is available. See “The Configuration Menu
Structure” section in chapter 5 for details.

10-20 Troubleshootingbb____________________________________
§ Vertical white lines occur on the page.
∞Possible Solutions:
• Clean the printer. See “Cleaning the Printer” in
chapter 8 for details.
• Remove the toner cartridge and redistribute the
toner. See “Redistributing Toner” in chapter 6 for
details.
• Install a new toner cartridge. Remember, a new
cartridge may need a short break-in run of several
copies since toner can settle during storage. See
“Handling and Replacing the Toner Cartridge” in
chapter 6 for details.
• Replace the media with new media, making sure it
meets all the requirements in the “Media
Handling” section of chapter 6.
§ Marks on the page occur in the same horizontal location but
staggered in the vertical direction.
∞Possible Solutions:
• Clean the printer. See “Cleaning the Printer” in
chapter 8 for details.
• Remove the toner cartridge and redistribute the
toner. See “Redistributing Toner” in chapter 6 for
details.
• Install a new toner cartridge. Remember, a new
cartridge may need a short break-in run of several
copies since toner can settle during storage. See
“Handling and Replacing the Toner Cartridge” in
chapter 6 for details.