My trusty HP 2100M printer is now printing with a definite light band in one spot on each page. The cartridge is old (bought new with the printer back in 19-ought-99) but doesn't have that many pages on it (couple thousand). Turning the cartridge to redistribute the toner doesn't fix the problem.
Diagnosis? I'm hoping a certain regular here who lives in "Surf City" might answer ...
-- You were wrong, and I'm man enough to admit it. - a Usenet "apology"
You're going WAY too far with this frugality thing. Try a new toner cartridge. I think you got your money's worth on the last one.
G=B2
Light band in which direction? Lengthwise or widthwise on the paper? Most likely, you need a new cartridge. Even on the shelf in a box, the carts deteriorate. If you can't borrow a cartridge for testing, then just buy a new one. However, if the line is lengthwise, it might be something else, such as a piece of crud stuck in the laser scanner, a burned out transfer film in the fuser, dirty scrubber in the fuser, gouged toner drum, gouged fuser drum, etc. If you're not sure, tear it apart and clean out the dust, dirt, and loose toner.
Also see:
-- Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
On 2/21/2010 8:05 PM Jeff Liebermann spake thus:
Thanks. I shoulda said which direction: it's lengthwise, down the page as it's printed. And it's not a sharply-defined light spot but a light area, about 2 inches from the left edge and maybe 3/4" wide or so. It prints in that area, but noticeably lighter.
So how much of the image-producing stuff is actually in the printer and not in the cart?
I'll check out that DIY link now.
-- You were wrong, and I'm man enough to admit it. - a Usenet "apology"
If there were something blocking the light path, it would appear darker, so that's not it. Try rubbing off the toner in that area. If it comes off, you have a problem in the fuser roller assembly.
In general, light printing would be cause by something causing the toner to NOT stick to the selenium drum. That means low power supply voltage, grease on the drum, light leakage, or more likely an old cartridge. 10 years is a long time. Borrow or buy a new cart, but also check for filth in the fuser anyway.
About 1/4th in the cart. The key parts in the cartridge are the selenium drum and possibly a rubber scrubber blade. Before the drum is the laser scanner and optics. Under the drum is the transfer roller, which will produce some really disgusting effects if you let it get dirty. After the drum is the fuser, which melts the plastic dust to the paper.
Moe is the owner. He knows his stuff. However, I can guess what he'll suggest. Buy a new cartridge, but also buy a rebuild kit. Something like this:
Also see:
for parts.
-- Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
Get into the iron filings and redistibute along the drum, they've got too packed in the one spot so not allowing toner to pass at that point. Requires more than just shaking the cartridge as a filings thing rather than toner thing
On 2/22/2010 12:40 AM N_Cook spake thus:
So you're saying there are iron filings in the toner cartridge?
I know copiers use iron filings, I seem to remember in the "developer". I remember my repair guy replacing them in my big honkin' Kodak copier once.
So what do I do, just shake the cartridge really hard?
-- You were wrong, and I'm man enough to admit it. - a Usenet "apology"
in
printer
too
Requires
toner
once.
Hold a magnetic compass nearby, should attract more than magnetised iron, at some point between toner hopper and OPC drum I'm asuming there is a spring loaded cover to the toner that drops in place on removing. Hopefully there is an exposed pulley somewhere and turn it back and forth while holding the cartridge vertically and inverting as well, just one revolution each way may be enough. If not enough repeat more times
cog not pulley
On 2/22/2010 12:58 AM N_Cook spake thus:
Interesting. Wouldn't mind a second opinion on this. What do you think, Jeff?
-- You were wrong, and I'm man enough to admit it. - a Usenet "apology"
I've never seen this but it's worth a try. We used to just shake them.
I just spun my 96A cartridge both ways. No toner was visible on the selenium drum. Oddly, this is the first time I haven't seen any visible toner. It usually dumps quite a bit everywhere. I have no idea what's going on. Looking inside the cart at:
I don't see anything that might cause this. Weird.
Well, I really don't know. So, I did the experiment. I grabbed a 96A cartridge off the shelf, and waved a compass at the cartridge. The needle did deflect towards the toner cartridge, but very weakly. I then took a small bar magnet and tried to pickup some refill toner I dumped on a piece of paper. Nothing. I then held the magnet to the selenium drum. Nothing, which makes sense because the drum is mostly aluminum.
However, I know that there's a magnetic pickup roller inside. If you look at the above rebuilding PDF, at step 17, they refer to a "mag roller" which is really a waste toner scrubber. It's one of these:
I have one ripped apart from a different cartridge. The magnetic attraction is VERY weak, but present. However, there's no magnetic particles in the toner that I can see, so I have no idea what they're doing. Maybe it's for MICR toner, which is magnetic.
I would make a video clip except that it's 10AM, I'm dead tired, and I have at least 2 hours more work to do. Maybe tomorrow.
-- # Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060 # 831-336-2558 # http://802.11junk.com jeffl@cruzio.com # http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS
I shake them outside. I've had more than one toner cart dump a black dust on the rug or bench. My office vacuum cleaner doesn't have the right filter, so the dust cloud goes right through the filter bag. I also hit a newly arrived printer with my air compressor to blow out the toner, dust, dirt, and crud before I drag it into the office. That really cuts down on the mess inside.
-- # Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060 # 831-336-2558 # http://802.11junk.com jeffl@cruzio.com # http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS
On 2/22/2010 10:27 PM Jeff Liebermann spake thus:
[snip]While this discussion is getting interesting, and I hope it continues, I'd like to report that I took my cartridge out and gave it a good talking to. Spun it around (in several axes), slapped it upside its little head a few times, spun it some more, then put it back in and printed some pages. Whatever the problem was is now gone, so we can safely conclude that the light band was caused by something inside the cart. Maybe some toner clumped together?
-- You were wrong, and I'm man enough to admit it. - a Usenet "apology"
iron, at
place
it back
well, just
You can send toner cartridges by ordinary post so they must be able to take all sorts of rattling in all attitudes without spillage.
For some reason , unknown to me, the iron filings are called "developer" in the photocopier world, much the same mechanical process after latent image generation as laser printer, except voltages are different. Nothing ever beat the rotating magnet and filings for toner distribution AFAIK.
my page on this sort of stuff
-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on
Yeah I've seen plenty of secretaries with toner on their blouses.
A lot of network printers I worked with were in industrial/manufacturing environments. One notably a steel processing plant using CNC plasma and acetylene cutters. So much EMI we had to run fiber to a node back by the CNC machines and plant shipping offices. The front offices were constructed using steel studs in the walls and steel and iron particles in the air stuck to the stud frame through the drywall laying out their pattern on the paint. It was almost impossible to keep their printers going without cleaning for more than a week or so. Even atthat they had a high failure rate.
This is Usenet. Such discussions never really end.
Yes and congrats. I thought you had already shaken the cart. With a
10 year old cartridge and a rarely used printer, my guess(tm) is that the cart has absorbed some moisture, causing the toner to clump together. The solution is to simply leave the printer turned on for a day, thus cooking the toner cart. A few more lengthwise shakes and some test prints will make sure that things are evenly dried out. However, the bad news is that it usually only happens on nearly empty cartridges. Laser printers are nice about such things as they will print perfectly until the very last page, where it will run out of toner in the middle of a very important document. They don't fade away like ink sprayers. Anyways, you'll probably be buying a new cartridge soon.-- Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
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