I’ve got an old workhorse laser printer (a LaserWriter II, which is essentially identical to other early-1990s-vintage Canon and HP printers). I performed a number of repairs on it recently and it seemed to be working perfectly.
But lately it has developed a new problem: dark smudgy, streaky areas on the page that should be white. Coincidentally, the TONER warning light has blinked on.
Is the TONER situation really causing the smudginess? I would think not. I mean, doesn’t the TONER warning light indicate that the toner is low, and wouldn’t that result in lighter, not dark, smudgy print-outs?
But if it’s not the toner cartridge, what can it be? Please help if you can. Thanks to all.
(FYI, I inherited the printer as a hand-me-down, so I don’t have the original troubleshooting manual. Sorry.)
Terminus Est, I don’t have a new cartridge on hand; before I spent the bux to get one I wanted to be assured that the problem was the old cartridge not the printer.
Oh yeah, I have serviced many many Laserjet II models, my back is stooped permanently from years of hauling bulky Laserjets and LaserWriters in and out of my trunk.
Your problem is with the Fuser wire. There’s a little wire that zig-zags across the center of the LJ engine, down in side the mechanism where you clear the paper path. That is the fuser wire, it is a nichrome wire that heats up to fuse the toner to the page. After much usage, it gets coated with carbon and does not heat efficiently. Look around near the end of the fuser wire assembly. HP has conveniently included a little cleaning tool, and there should be a little paragraph of instructions next to it. You can also clean the black crud off the surface of the fuser wires with a QTip and some isopropyl alcohol, but you must be VERY gentle, if you are clumsy and break this fragile wire, your printer is dead. If your fuser doesn’t heat up at all (and you have no way to check this except by printing a page) then the fuser is dead and has to be replaced. It used to be cheap to replace, and considered an expendable service part, but I don’t know how easy it is to get old LJ parts lately.
My friend has plenty of old LJ parts, Im pretty sure. Yeah, try cleaning the wire. Some of those printers have an extra wire stored somewhere inside but probably not this one. also, don’t let sunlight get into the printer when you do this. Sometimes the drum gets dirty & you can clean it.
First of all, I may need you to clairify your problem. many people use the word “smudge” to indicate marks on tha page that shouldn’t be there. Smudge to me means that the toner is not sticking to the page as it should, and is smudging.
Now, if you are indeed having marks on the page, are they at all regualar? Do the same marks appear on vevery page, or is it random?
Also, I am not familiar with that specifica model, but all laserjet type printers operate on the same pricipals. Does the toner cart just hold toner, or is the drum located on it at well?
It may be a drum problem, or a fuser problem. I do know that you can get old LJ 2 parts on exchange very cheap ($20-$30). Need a bit more info to narrow it down.
As sghoul said, it’s necessary to find out what you mean by smudge. And if they are at regular intervals, you can nail down the defective component.
The wire referred to by ChasE. is not the fuser wire, it’s the transfer wire. But he is correct in that a dirty transfer wire can cause dirty prints. The fuser is the green assembly toward the back of the open machine. It usually has a CAUTION: HOT warning on it. Lift the door, and remove the plastic wand with the felt strip. If the felt strip is warm, your fuser is probably working, although may not be reaching the correct tempurature.
I recommend a new cartridge first. This is always the first step in diagnosing a printer problem.
By “smudgy” I mean large swaths of gray on what should be clear (“white”) areas on the page. This “smudge” (and all the printing) is fused to the page; it is not just a dusting of loose toner powder.
There is also a half-the-width-of-the-page solid “smudge line” that sometimes appears too. It is about the thickness of a dull pencil line and is not very sharp. The line does not repeat down the page.
Hope this helps. And thanks for all the advice thusfar.
I sounds like your drum is bad/not being charged/cleaned/discarged properly. Assuming your toner cart contains the drum (most do, it’s usually a metal cylinder covered by a greenish colored material) you just need to replace this. If you bought the Cart, you may wish to try and return it as defective.
Yeah, that sounds more like a drum problem. Fortunately, this is a disposable item, inside the toner cart. If you buy recycled toner carts, sometimes you’ll get a bad drum that shouldn’t be in use. Buy a new toner cart.