HOW TO: Obtain Free Copies and Do Other Fun Stuff to Copiers

By omghax in Technology Fri May 28, 2004 at 11:39:59 PM EST Tags: Focus On... (all tags) This article will give insight into the inner workings of Canon copiers, and show you how to exploit a curious oversight that allows for free copies. The material in this article is restricted to Canon copiers only, as I have had the most experience in them; however, this is not as narrow as you might imagine. Generally, Canon copiers are seen second in quality only to Xerox in the market; thus, many big-time copy shops and corporations use Canon copiers. This article will not analyze the philosophical questions of doing anything it demonstrates. Obviously, everything outlined is of dubious morality; if you are not that type of person, see this as an educational article demonstrating how the inner-workings of a copier works. I take absolutely no responsibility for anything anyone does with this information. (Remember: information wants to be free [as in beer]) First, I will examine how to get free copies, and afterwards I will demonstrate how to completely destroy a copier or reduce its effectiveness. Getting In Everything in this article will require getting into the "control panel." The control panel is where service men and installation men go to configure a copier, fix its problems, examine firmware, and look through error and jam logs. It offers complete control over the copier and its attachments. You may think that it would be difficult to get into the control panel, or that it is password protected, but curiously this is not the case. Every Canon copier has an Additional Features or a "Guide" button - it has a asterisk on it, similar to that on the phone. To get into the control panel, in rapid succession, push the asterisk key, the 2 and 8 keys simultaneously, and the asterisk key again. If you did this correctly, you will see something like: Service Mode

Copier Feeder

Sorter (if its attached) (other attachments, like edit pads) There are lots of fun things you can do in the Feeder Service Mode, such as configure it to jam every time a customer or employee puts a piece of paper in. This is for another time, and another place. Hit the "Copier" button on the touchscreen. On the top of the screen, you see: Display I/O Adjust Function Option Test Counter These are similar to "tabs" in a modern OS GUI; pushing one of them will bring up a series of push buttons below it, a menu from which you can access various parts of the

copier. You are, by default, in the "Display" menu. You will likely see a variety of nonsensical abbreviations and other meaningless garbage; since buttons have a 6 character limit, abbreviations have to be taken. Any copier serviceman who is worth his weight will be know nearly instinctively what each of these buttons mean; to us, it is just nonsense. Getting Free Copies The copy machines you are using are configured in a certain way to use a coin operated slot, key card, or service key (such as those that Kinkos has). Through an interesting "feature" in the firmware, if the copy machine is configured to accept coins or keys, and no machine is hooked up for this, it will give copies for free. Unfortunately, this isn't as helpful as it sounds; anyone with a remedial amount of intelligence who wants to get free copies will try unplugging the instrument first and foremost. As such, it is often impossible without a service key to unplug the apparatus. Fortunately, there is a work-around. Go into "Service Mode" (using star-2 and 8-star), and push the "Option" tab. Underneath it, push "Acc". A new menu will pop up. Hit the "Coin" button, and enter "0" on the keypad. Once you are done, hit "Enter" or "Apply" (you MUST do this after you change any field; otherwise it will reset the next button you push). Once you are done, hit reset until you are on the main screen. Voila - free copies! How to Absolutely Destroy Any Canon Copier Get into Service Mode (star-2 and 8-star), click on Function, and click on Clear. You will see a list of various things you can clear: Err - Sometimes, when you turn on a copier, it gives you a wrench, a cryptic error code, and information to turn off the machine and contact support. If you star-2 and 8-star, go to this menu, and clear the Error, it "solves" the problem. Service - Removes the "Call For Maintenance" or "Call For Service" message that happens every 3,000 copies (or 3 months) (oil change joke, it is usually a large number of copies before it requests service). Jam History - Every copier records the time and jam location for the last 255 jams. Err-History - Same as Jam History, except for error messages. E354-Clr and E355-Clr - I'm not sure what these do. So far, its pretty boring. Now the fun stuff: DC Con and R-Con - I'm not sure what DC and R actually stand for (they make an appearance in the Display and I/O menus as well), but pushing on these, hitting clear, and confirms it badly messes up the copier. How bad? It requires a serviceman to come out on-site and reload internal software/firmware. This is analogous to doing something to a computer that requires a factory restore (format c: for example). It also resets the hardware settings. If you really hate a copy center, but want to do something a little drastic, try these: Laser Adjustment The laser is the thing that scans each document. Like everything else in the copier, it is adjustable. In the service menu (star-2 and 8-star), go into the "Adjust" tab. Once there, hit the button on the screenpad that says "Laser." The first three entries are Delay, Pwr-A and Pwr-B.

Pwr-A and Pwr-B: This simply indicates how much energy from the capacitor to dump into the laser. It requires a number from 0 to 255. Putting both settings to 0 will give you a white copy (that is, blank sheet), no matter what. A setting of 255 will give you a (nearly) black copy. Note that this is completely independent of the lightening/darkening and print density settings that customers mess around with in the main (non-service) menu. The best thing about this is that most customer's and employees will assume that they are doing something wrong, and spend a lot of time trying to troubleshoot it first. Delay - This tells the laser when to "fire" when using a feeder. Setting it to 0 will scan even before the document feeder takes the page into the glass. Other Laser Adjustments The X and Y direction offset can be modified too. The offset just tells the laser where to "start" and "stop" scanning. Go into the Service Menu -> Copier -> Adjust -> AdjXY menu. It requires a number from 0-2970 for each X and Y direction (in some, there are an YS and S direction - I'm not sure what these do, and it wasn't readily apparent from experimentation). Setting both of these to 2970 makes the copier virtually unusable. User Account Fun The Canon's have an odd feature that most people don't use related to User Management (its part of their "Mailbox" system, which is hardly ever used). If there is only one user (that is, it doesn't ask for a username or password before copying), you can have fun with everyone that uses the copier. Go to the Service Menu -> Copier -> Option -> User. You will see a 5-screen long list of things you can change. There are two worth mentioning: Copy-Lim - This limits the number of copy sets the user can do. It typically takes a value of 1-999 or 1-9999. Setting it to 1 will prevent anyone doing multiple copies of an original - this is very annoying. Copy-Tot - This limits the toal number of copies a user can do. Usually, this is turned off by default. Setting this to an arbitrary number, say, 500, will have the copy suddenly freeze, stop copying, and informing the customer or employee that s/he can no longer do any copies. Again, this is very annoying. Getting Out Once you are done with the copy machine, simply hit the "Reset" or "Clear" button until you are at the main menu again. As long as you hit "Apply" or "Enter" and confirmed for all fields in the control panel, your settings will be saved. If you got free copies, don't forget to change the settings back once you are done! Conclusion The Service Menu contains many legitimate and user tools that allow servicemen and knowledgeable employees to troubleshoot and fix problems with a copy machine. I didn't discuss any of them. It also contains a portal to laughter, and millions of dollars of lost profits. And free copies! I encourage you to use the techniques outlined in this article wisely and sparingly. Full discussion: http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/5/28/13714/7587

How to fix SC 542 error on ricoh ap400 and ap600

I found out how to get into the service menu (after buying a fuser), and do a software reset on the 'how to' to remind me next time. Procedure for resetting the fusor error on a Richo Printer: Hold down Online and Escape Turn on power Scroll to Option 2 Engine Mainte <enter> Scroll to SP5810 - Fusing err clr <enter> Option execute? <enter> ;Confirmation Notice; <escape> <escape> Scroll to Option 3 End <enter> Cycle printer power Worked on 2 pritners so far. fuser flag. So I wrote up a little

Should be all set after that.

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Ricoh FT3213

Copier Help Q & A Forum Index -> Photocopier faults & problems. View previous topic :: View next topic Author sfb Message Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2004 9:47 pm Post subject: Ricoh FT3213 I am trying to clear an E70 code which I understand means that the waster toner must be emptied. Could someone please tell me where this disposal site is and how it is removed? I thought this would be pretty uncomplicated since I often emptied other disposals from other machines, but it isn't! Steve Back to top Jomama Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2004 10:44 pm Post subject: The waste overflow is the module on the left side. Remove one screw, squeese the drum blade lever to hold it away from the drum while you draw the unit out. Pop the lid and vac out the box. Reset into he machine. Code 70 can be reset with code 83. Press 71 then press and hold the clear/stop until a dot appears on the display. Release Press Clear stop again, press Lighter, then 83 then AID, then 1, then AID. Turn the mch off then on again. AID= AutoImageDensity. HTH

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RICOH FT3213 RESET ERROR CODE 70

Copier Help Q & A Forum Index -> Photocopier faults & problems. View previous topic :: View next topic Author JOE LADRIE Guest Message Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2003 8:16 pm Post subject: RICOH FT3213 RESET ERROR CODE 70 I EMPTIED OUT TONER DISPOSAL, BUT I STILL HAVE ERROR E-70. WOULD SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME HOW TO CLEAR THIS. THANKS.

Back to top Barry Guest Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2003 10:43 pm Post subject: Resetting E-70 code Take the back cover off of the machine and on the main board there are two dipswitches. One of them is for copier free run and the other one is to access service modes. I believe the second dipswitch is for service program mode which is to reset the E-70 code. If youre in service mode the display will start blinking. Key in the number 80 and push auto image key to enter the counter to be cleared. key in the the number 1 and push auto image again to reset the counter and turn the machine off and back on again.

Back to top catalin Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2004 9:09 am Post subject: i HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM ON rEX-ROTARY 8613 Thanks, this will resolve my problem on Rex-Rotary!!!

Joined: 21 Jun 2004 Posts: 10 Back to top Display posts from previous: Copier Help Q & A Forum Index -> Photocopier faults & problems.
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