My Brother multi-function laser-printer smudges every page after the first. It can print one page well enough, but until it has cooled any further pages are smudged. Can anything be done about that? The ink cartridge has plenty. A replacement for the whole print mechanism, if it is still available, costs more than a new printer.
My main reason for wanting to preserve it is that it interacts well with the answering machine. When the answering machine answers, it hears the fax tone, if any, responds and this turns the answering machine off and we get the fax.
It could be anything from the fuser to the drum assembly. Re lasers I have found you can get older lasers for almost nothing on ebay. It might be worth picking up another entire working unit for a few bucks vs paying for a repair.
Sounds like the fuser assembly. A drum would cause smudges that a good fuser would then “bake” into the page. If it rubs off with your fingers, it is a fuser assembly…
How many copies has the printer done? Both the fuser roller and the drum kit have expected lifespans. Typically 50K for the fuser roller and 10K for the drum kit, the latter depending upon the coverage.
It’s interesting that you mention the need to cool down, because the fuser can only work when it’s up to temperature.
Right, but there is a thermistor on the fuser unit which keeps it at the proper temperature. On an initial warmup, it does several cycles. The intermediate cycle is where the thermistor is most important as it regulates the “rewarming”.
What the OP is describing as a cool down time is really a lapse which causes the fuser to do another initial warmup of several cycles.
Bottom line is: If it rubs off, it is the fusing unit.
I buy paper in boxes of 5000 and I have probably gone through 3 in the time I have owned that printer, so 50K is unlikely. I have replaced the cartridge assembly just once, so that seems likelier.
The ink on the copies does not rub off. The drum kit costs about what a new printer does.