Laser Printer Toner Question

[TwoBallScrewBall]

I have a Brother Laser printer. I got it second hand. When I got it, everything I printed came out with a faded grey background over the entire printed area. Even a blank sheet would come out with a light grey over the entire area. <br /><br />I replaced the toner (it came with a brand new spare) and the problem stopped. <br /><br />The original toner feels pretty full and seeing the price of these things I'd hate to waste it. Anyone know why the one toner cartridge does this? Any way to stop it?<br /><br />Thanks!

 

[Twidget]

Re: Laser Printer Toner Question

Its toast. The developer in the cartridge is overtoned. <br />You may be able to run a bunch of black background stuff to get the gray to lessen, but it will probably never go completely away.<br /><br />If on the other hand you are getting a 'ghost' image (repeating what was at the top of the page, in the middle for example) the cleaning blade has flipped and you would have to disassemble and replace the blade.

 

[TwoBallScrewBall]

Re: Laser Printer Toner Question

Thanks. I'll try that, nothing to lose. <br /><br />It's not ghosting, it's just a solid light grey block the size of the printable area of the sheet. It's a little grainy but there's no image in it. <br /><br />As long as it's definitely the toner and not the priner I'm happy. Being as it was all f-r-e-e I'm not complaining.<br /><br />Thanks again!

 

[Twidget]

Re: Laser Printer Toner Question

If it went away when you changed the cartridge, its not the printer. <br /><br />You might try looking on the side of the cartridge with the gear drive. The toner unit is the part that is the highest. If there is an armature you can disconnect, do that and run dark copies until the problem goes away, then reconnect the armature.<br /><br />Failing that, a couple dozen of the darkest pictures you can find. What you will be doing is taking toner out faster than it can be refilled. <br /><br />Good luck with it.

 

[TwoBallScrewBall]

Re: Laser Printer Toner Question

No problem on the dark print. <br /><br />My buddy created the "Death Fax". He was tired of people spamming his fax machine and wasting his toner/paper, so whenever he could determine the incoming call number he would send the 'death fax' back to them. It's a full black sheet of paper. He'd send like 20 pages of this back to the originating fax machine. Sometimes it was pointless because the fax originated from a PC not a fax machine, but he got a few calls back begging him to make it stop. <br /><br /><br />Thanks again for the help. I have a feeling that the previous owner thought the printer was shot because of this problem. Bad for them, good for me!

 

[TwoBallScrewBall]

Re: Laser Printer Toner Question

I had a thought, what do you think of this:<br /><br />When I went and got the new toner it wa in my truck. Frozen. under freezing overnight here. When it was that cold the printer printed very lightly. After I let it get to room temp it printed perfect.<br /><br />You think (since there is no way to dixconnect the gear) if I froze the bad one then ran off some prints it would help?

 

[Boomyal]

Re: Laser Printer Toner Question

Originally posted by Stiff Nibbles:<br /> I had a thought, what do you think of this:<br /><br />When I went and got the new toner it wa in my truck. Frozen. under freezing overnight here. When it was that cold the printer printed very lightly. After I let it get to room temp it printed perfect.<br /><br />You think (since there is no way to dixconnect the gear) if I froze the bad one then ran off some prints it would help?

Give her a try, SN. Just make sure the gears are not frozen up. If freezing slows the addition of addl toner, then it might work.

 

[TwoBallScrewBall]

Re: Laser Printer Toner Question

Going to try it. I want to hook up a hidden camera in the freezer to catch my wife's reaction when she notices the toner cartridge in the freezer. <br /><br />Thanks guys.

 

[Twidget]

Re: Laser Printer Toner Question

LOL, my wife would throw everything in the freezer away for that. <br /><br />The freezer may work. Toner is basically plastic, so you wont hurt it.

 

[funpilot]

Re: Laser Printer Toner Question

I'm not sure about your Brother laser printer, but most laser printer toner cartridges have the OPC drum built into them. The OPC drum is sensitve and accepts the toner which gets positioned on the paper. It sounds like that cartridge's OPC drum is toast.<br /><br />fp

 

[TwoBallScrewBall]

Re: Laser Printer Toner Question

The drum is a separate part. The toner is toner only. The drum is $177 so I hope that's OK.

 

[rwidman]

Re: Laser Printer Toner Question

Originally posted by Stiff Nibbles:<br /> Thanks. I'll try that, nothing to lose. <br />

If you try to disassemble the cartridge to fix it you do have something to loose. I used to be responsible for hundreds of computers and dozens of printers at a school. Someone decided that we could save money by buying "remanufactured" toner cartridges. Have you ever seen what happens to a printer when a defective cartridge leaks toner into the printer? Not a pretty sight, and not easy or cheap to repair.<br /><br />I changed the rule to only brand new OEM cartridges and all the problems went away. At $.015 or so per page it's not worth it to use anything else. If you need to save money, don't print anything that you don't really need to print.