I destroyed a printer so you don't have to.

[paolo.bertolo]

While consulting the printer service manual, I noticed that the document appendix is truncated at page A-4 and some key pages are missing.

Does anyone know if there's the faintest chance to retrieve them?

[paolo.bertolo]

For those (apparently, not many...) who are following this thread, I have recapped the main DC board.
Now the printer is giving some sign of life, but it's still unable to start a printing job.
PP still giving hardware failure message, the printer monitor is complaining there's no paper in the tray or that the printer cover is open, even if it's not.
I need to check the other boards...

[paolo.bertolo]

So, I could finally get the first (and so far sole and last) page printed.
After recapping all the boards, the unit came back to life (still something weird going on, though...).
It's hooked to a Cube 030.
During the booting sequence, at the very end, just before the login prompt, the unit is powered up, the main motor spins for 1 second (making sometimes very clunky and scary noises, which is not a good sign...).
Once you are logged in, the printer takes some 2 minutes to warm up. At that point, I can send something to print, means the printer status is "ready", which means that the fuser is at the right temperature.
First issue: the default state of the printer is "paused", and it doesn't wake up unless I open the Print Manager and push the button "Continue". Shouldn't be like that, I assume there's still something wrong... (Note: if I boot from MO with NS 1.0, the default status of the printer is NOT paused, so it could be some software thing...)
Anyhow, after sending something to the printer, it takes some time before the job is ready.
Once it's ready, the printer tries to load the paper. If it fails (in my case, it's 100% of the cases), it throws the dreary "Paper jam" error (which is triggered when there's too much delay from the start of the print job and the moment the paper is reaching the exit sensor) and from there on it's impossible to recover the situation, I have to restart the whole machine. Every time. Which surely is not normal either...

Main issue: the pick up roller. Or, better, in my case the combination of pick up roller and paper tray.
I have to say I'm not sure my printer is indeed 100% in original conditions, as the previous owner mentioned some attempts he made for fixing the faulty paper feed section.
So it could be that the pick up roller is no longer original.
Anyhow, I dismantled it, the rubber roller is in fact a chunky plastic roller sheathed by some 3 mm thick rubber sleeve.
To my eyes and to the touch, I would say the rubber sleeve is still sufficiently grippy. Anyhow, I removed the sheath, cleaned carefully with slightly abrasive "magic eraser", then remounted rotated some 90 deg compared to original position.
Better, but still unable to load the paper.
My attention then moved to the paper tray, which in turn is not exactly in pristine condition.
I could see that there's a pad in the front of the tray that has been replaced by something grippy and not at the right level, but my understanding is that - on contrary - it should be as frictionless as possible.

So, bottom line, by playing with the pad and by manually pushing a sheet through, I could get - by sheer chance - at least one page printed.
Sufficient for having confirmation that the rest of the printer is somehow healthy, which is already something...

Anyhow, I would appreciate if someone could share pictures of the original roller and the front pad in the paper tray.
Thanks!

[paolo.bertolo]

I could get more pages printed, the output quality is not bad, the pages are still a little dirty, but the more I print, the cleaner they get.

Anyhow, the major issue I still have is that the paper is getting jammed 98% of the times, I guess the pick up roller needs to be replaced.

I have seen that spare part RA1-3851-0000 is suggested, but the roller I have in my unit is definitely different, it has a plastic core and a rubber sheath, similar to the one appearing in the service manual. The shape of the cam also looks somehow different.
Is it confirmed that RA1-3851 is fully compatible?

Second point for which I would need some help: is there a pragmatic way to recover from paper jam error? So far the only way I could figure out is to reboot the main unit.

Thanks in advance for support!

[paolo.bertolo]

So, eventually I managed to bring back to life my Laser Printer, it now works like a charm, without missing a beat.
The wiper blade in the cartridge is probably deteriorated, so there are still two thin horizontal lines in the printouts, but it's more than acceptable.
Concerning the pick up roller, I replaced the rubber sleeve (probably not original) with some ultra cheap silicone rubber bands.
They are extremely grippy, durable and temperature resistant.
Paper feeding works flawlessly, both from the cassette and from the manual feeder.

 

[paolo.bertolo]

Nothing new or particularly exciting, but - just in case - here's a short video showing the printer at work.

[paolo.bertolo]

Simple question (or maybe): is there any possibility to print alternate pages (even/odd) in such a way to get a front / back print in two passes?

Is there any specific printing utility a little more flexible than the default one?

Thanks in advance for feedback