Xante Illumina Question - Spotty Black Ink Coverage
- Thread starter jbvanness
- Start date
Re: Xante Illumina Question - Spotty Black Ink Coverage
The Xante or really OKI laser may have toner adhered to the drum or fuser if you're experiencing spots or marks. If you are describing patchy coverage, take out the toner/drum unit and give it a wee shake from side to side to evenly disribute what's left of the toner. Doing this will also give you quite a lot of extra prints even when the cartridge reports that it is empty. Unfortunately with my experience of your machine's predecessor, (the CL30, ) image quality degrades quite remarkably as the toner cartridges report their near empty status. Colour becomes lighter and colour matching becomes impossible.
Incedentally I found the Xante CL30 to be the worst laser printer that I've ever used. Xante are rebadging OKI machines, throwing in their own circuit boards and heavier fusers and running them way past their spec. If these machines were designed to consistently print on such a heavy card stock, wouldn't OKI have marketed this with their own machines? I traded mine in for a Konica Minolta and wow what a difference!
There is a small cleaning brush in the machine lid too that if you read the manual will describe how to use it.
Thanks
Colin
The Xante or really OKI laser may have toner adhered to the drum or fuser if you're experiencing spots or marks. If you are describing patchy coverage, take out the toner/drum unit and give it a wee shake from side to side to evenly disribute what's left of the toner. Doing this will also give you quite a lot of extra prints even when the cartridge reports that it is empty. Unfortunately with my experience of your machine's predecessor, (the CL30, ) image quality degrades quite remarkably as the toner cartridges report their near empty status. Colour becomes lighter and colour matching becomes impossible.
Incedentally I found the Xante CL30 to be the worst laser printer that I've ever used. Xante are rebadging OKI machines, throwing in their own circuit boards and heavier fusers and running them way past their spec. If these machines were designed to consistently print on such a heavy card stock, wouldn't OKI have marketed this with their own machines? I traded mine in for a Konica Minolta and wow what a difference!
There is a small cleaning brush in the machine lid too that if you read the manual will describe how to use it.
Thanks
Colin
Re: Xante Illumina Question - Spotty Black Ink Coverage
It is most likely the drum. A drum with 50 percent of life left gives you an image that is half as good as an image created with a new drum. Taking it a step further, a drum with 10 percent left...well, you get the (crappy) picture.
It could also be the stock--the Xante seems extremely particular about the paper it eats. Sometimes a stock will work fine, other times, well... And don't get us started on glossy stock.
And forget trying to print a large solid with anything less that a 80+ percent drum. This also seems to be dependent on what colors you are trying to print,. It seems that blues and blacks can print OK, but we have had problems with greens and reds. We had a 10-up business card file (letter size) that had a solid green back that wouldn't print cleanly on 80lb uncoated. We sent the file to two other Xante owners that we know and they had the same bad results.
We are now on our 2nd Illumina -- the first one crapped out after 5 months (and three services calls--on the first call, the tech received parts that were broken in transit, on the return call they did not send all of the needed parts). It got so bad that we took our beefs to the president of Xante and they finally agreed to give us a new machine which we have now had for a year (one service call--we sucked a piece right out of the machine with the vacuum cleaner). We have found them physically unreliable (we have to continually monitor output sheet by sheet) and inconsistant with color to the point where color shifts were noticable (unacceptable) when we went from printing letterhead to printing the matching envelopes (one after the other, same stock).
I totally agree with Colin that these are some of the worst machines made. They seem to do an acceptable job if you do not have a lot of solids (or large screened areas) and print on uncoated paper. Also, tech support in the field is weak--we actually blamed one of the techs for screwing up the first machine.
Our bottom line--stay away from toner-based machines if you want consistant quality and reliability.
Edited by: uncle leo on Jan 23, 2008 8:29 AM
It is most likely the drum. A drum with 50 percent of life left gives you an image that is half as good as an image created with a new drum. Taking it a step further, a drum with 10 percent left...well, you get the (crappy) picture.
It could also be the stock--the Xante seems extremely particular about the paper it eats. Sometimes a stock will work fine, other times, well... And don't get us started on glossy stock.
And forget trying to print a large solid with anything less that a 80+ percent drum. This also seems to be dependent on what colors you are trying to print,. It seems that blues and blacks can print OK, but we have had problems with greens and reds. We had a 10-up business card file (letter size) that had a solid green back that wouldn't print cleanly on 80lb uncoated. We sent the file to two other Xante owners that we know and they had the same bad results.
We are now on our 2nd Illumina -- the first one crapped out after 5 months (and three services calls--on the first call, the tech received parts that were broken in transit, on the return call they did not send all of the needed parts). It got so bad that we took our beefs to the president of Xante and they finally agreed to give us a new machine which we have now had for a year (one service call--we sucked a piece right out of the machine with the vacuum cleaner). We have found them physically unreliable (we have to continually monitor output sheet by sheet) and inconsistant with color to the point where color shifts were noticable (unacceptable) when we went from printing letterhead to printing the matching envelopes (one after the other, same stock).
I totally agree with Colin that these are some of the worst machines made. They seem to do an acceptable job if you do not have a lot of solids (or large screened areas) and print on uncoated paper. Also, tech support in the field is weak--we actually blamed one of the techs for screwing up the first machine.
Our bottom line--stay away from toner-based machines if you want consistant quality and reliability.
Edited by: uncle leo on Jan 23, 2008 8:29 AM
Re: Xante Illumina Question - Spotty Black Ink Coverage
We have 3 xante's where I work . None of them are ever running for more then a week without a service call. The thing I hate Most is when ever we have a problem Xante always blame it on our stock. If these machines were not meant to print on heavier stock maybe they should not be pushing this as a selling point.
We have 3 xante's where I work . None of them are ever running for more then a week without a service call. The thing I hate Most is when ever we have a problem Xante always blame it on our stock. If these machines were not meant to print on heavier stock maybe they should not be pushing this as a selling point.
inky
Well-known member
Re: Xante Illumina Question - Spotty Black Ink Coverage
I have always wondered what xante actually do to their printers to call them heavy stock enabled, I have an oki a friend has the xante and we can't really spot a difference apart from the price.
Has anyone tried compatible toners?
I have always wondered what xante actually do to their printers to call them heavy stock enabled, I have an oki a friend has the xante and we can't really spot a difference apart from the price.
Has anyone tried compatible toners?
Blair Wolfe
Active member
Re: Xante Illumina Question - Spotty Black Ink Coverage
You can refill to toners with the correct type of color toner, but the drums can only be OEM, and most quality issues are from drum problems.
You can refill to toners with the correct type of color toner, but the drums can only be OEM, and most quality issues are from drum problems.
Fatboysmart
Well-known member
Re: Xante Illumina Question - Spotty Black Ink Coverage
I have a Xante Illumina, and use the OKI 9600 drums... they are identical. Toners don't work, they are chipped. Only thing you have to do is adjust the plastic nodges on the drum otherwise the toners don't fit (10 second job). The transfer belt and waiste toner cartridge from an OKI 9600 also work fine.
I have a Xante Illumina, and use the OKI 9600 drums... they are identical. Toners don't work, they are chipped. Only thing you have to do is adjust the plastic nodges on the drum otherwise the toners don't fit (10 second job). The transfer belt and waiste toner cartridge from an OKI 9600 also work fine.
inky
Well-known member
Re: Xante Illumina Question - Spotty Black Ink Coverage
I have seen the toner in a refill kit on ebay which is a third of the price of an OKI ranbow pack, I'm just curious if it'll work before I ruin a set of drums.
Guess I'll just have to try, if I really want to find out. The sellers assure me it's the same toner, but I can't see them saying otherwise.
I have seen the toner in a refill kit on ebay which is a third of the price of an OKI ranbow pack, I'm just curious if it'll work before I ruin a set of drums.
Guess I'll just have to try, if I really want to find out. The sellers assure me it's the same toner, but I can't see them saying otherwise.
Blair Wolfe
Active member
Re: Xante Illumina Question - Spotty Black Ink Coverage
We have run with compatible toner for years with no toner issues, on a CL30, but we didn't buy it from the ebay vendor. We get it directly from Hong Kong.
We have run with compatible toner for years with no toner issues, on a CL30, but we didn't buy it from the ebay vendor. We get it directly from Hong Kong.
Re: Xante Illumina Question - Spotty Black Ink Coverage
Hello all,
Summit Technologies now has supplies to reman the Xante Ilumina and Oki cartridges including the reset chip. Please contact me for more information.
Paul Infantolino
Account Executive
UI Supplies, Inc.
http://www.uninetimaging.com
Hello all,
Summit Technologies now has supplies to reman the Xante Ilumina and Oki cartridges including the reset chip. Please contact me for more information.
Paul Infantolino
Account Executive
UI Supplies, Inc.
http://www.uninetimaging.com
dpxcross
dpxcross
My first question would be what kind of stock are you running. I tried job lot and it didn't work very well. I also don't let my stock sit around, I keep it wrapped and covered in the box. I also learned how to control the temperature of the fuser. If it is set too hot or cold it will cause problems. Finally, in the quality box is it set for draft(lowest) or photo(highest)? I've tried both, and there is a big difference. I leave mine set for photo. Hope this helps.
dpxcross
My first question would be what kind of stock are you running. I tried job lot and it didn't work very well. I also don't let my stock sit around, I keep it wrapped and covered in the box. I also learned how to control the temperature of the fuser. If it is set too hot or cold it will cause problems. Finally, in the quality box is it set for draft(lowest) or photo(highest)? I've tried both, and there is a big difference. I leave mine set for photo. Hope this helps.
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