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Re-commissioning an old laser printer - toner tips ?

Not been used for more than 10, years and been stored in a UK garage. Although SMPS , powered up slowly via variac and the printer works fine. But damp must have got to the toner. It clings to the opc giving a dusty background rather than white. Removable opc and toner cartridge. Other than removing the bung from the toner hopper area and placing in a sealed bag with activated silica gel for a few weeks which I've done, then clean opc and adjascent roller , any other tips?

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Reply to
N_Cook
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The other possibility is that the drum has been exposed to light. Usually this happens quickly and noticably, you get black streaks on the are which have been damaged.

Since this has been in a garage for the last ten years, it may have been slowly exposed to difused light.

If it is worth working on may be another issue. I once got into an argument with someone who was very short on money and asked my advice about buying a transformer to operate a 12 year old 120 volt printer here.

I thought it was a waste of money, for 2/3 of the cost of a transformer she could buy a new printer that was faster, had more resultion, a year warranty and a cartridge good for 1000 pages.

IMHO it's got to be a really good printer to bother. While you are at it, plan on replacing all of the rubber, the fuser pad and if it's old enough to have an ozone filter, that too.

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm@mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM
Reply to
Geoffrey S. Mendelson

Toner cartridges have a finite life and can fail, even when not being used. This is almost certainly the problem.

If this is a high-quality printer -- such as an HP 4- or 5-series unit -- it's probably worth refurbishing. If not, I'd purchase a new one.

Reply to
William Sommerwerck

Or even a III if it's the si (as in IIIsi) series. If it's just an LJIV or LJ5 probabbly not and if it's the little guys (xxP or xL), not at all.

If it has a Postscript SIMM in it, that may be worth more than the printer.

Geoff.

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Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm@mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM
Reply to
Geoffrey S. Mendelson

There is no LJ IV -- it's the 4. And the 4 and 5 were exactly the printers I was suggesting were worth saving.

Reply to
William Sommerwerck

Oops, I've seen it both ways, but that does not mean it was correct. :-)

I'd also save a IIISi with the duplex option too.

Geoff.

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Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm@mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM
Reply to
Geoffrey S. Mendelson

Replacing the toner cartridge is probably the only reliable solution. Toner cartridges don't last forever, even if they've never been opened. The thing that seems to fail first is the rubber blade that is supposed to clean the excess toner off the drum. Andy Cuffe

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Reply to
Andy Cuffe

On 1/26/2009 10:06 PM Andy Cuffe spake thus:

I know this, yet my printer (HP LaserJet 2100M sitting next to me here) refuses to believe it. Bought it in 1999 (don't ask me how much I paid for it; it's embarassing!). It's cranked out thousands of pages; not as many as an office would put through it, but a lot nonetheless. It's still on the original toner cartridge.

The replacement cartridge, also 10 years old, is still sitting in its carton, unopened.

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Reply to
David Nebenzahl

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