streaky printing? - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

22 Jan 2006

der Mouse <mouse at Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA> wrote:

...
  I have an HP LaserJet IIISi. (...) The second page
exhibits a few 
 grey vertical streaks, worse towards the bottom of the page - not
 clean vertical lines; it looks as though toner is getting into the
 paper path where it shouldn't, and rubbing off on the page before
 it hits the fuser.  Printing more pages works fine, but they get 
 worse and worse.  I've never had the streaks get so dark that I 
 can't read printing for them, but the printing definitely becomes
 black-on-grey instead of black-on-white. 
ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote:
...
  It would be interesting to know what went wrong with
the old cartridge. 
 Is it that the drum is damaged in some way and doesn't discharge 
 properly usder the erasing lamps? Or is it that the wiper blade doesn't 
 clean the surface of the drum properly? Or what? 
Hmm, sounds a bit familiar. I had such problems with an HP LaserJet 4 
and a Brother HL-1260 (which uses the same toner/drum unit) up to now.
However, I didn't notice them being less streaky after being turned
off for a while, so it might really be a problem with the erasing
lamp or something similar in your case. You might want to test that
by swapping another drum unit in.

With me, the problem always was the drum wiper. You have to disassemble
the drum/toner/waste toner cartridge a bit to get there (there's two
plastic brackets fastened with screws on the top side with springs
hidden underneath; remove those and the toner reservoir separates,
then unscrew the right drum bearing - a metal part with a pin 
extending into the drum, two screws -, remove the drum and stick it 
in a dark bag or closet. I always worked in a darkened room up to 
here. Behind the drum, there is a black rubber roller that snaps out 
of two spring-loaded bearings, and a metal plate which holds the drum
wiper (two screws). Remove that plate and while you're at it, empty 
the waste toner chamber behind it into a plastic bag. Then comes the 
tricky part - readjusting the wiper. It's a near-transparent elastic
profile. Firstly clean it with a paper towel - there will be some
toner on it. You may see it's a bit out of shape when the streaks 
have a characteristic distribution across the page; try to straighten
the edge a bit. You can use bits of paper with holes punched under the areas
where the metal is screwed to the plastic casing to bring the
wiper towards the drum axis or to modify the angle under which it 
touches the drum surface when you reassemble the unit; it sometimes
takes two or three attempts to get it right.)

Of course, that only makes sense if there is still a substantial
amount of toner in the cartridge; if not, changing it is perhaps
better. 

-- 
Arno Kletzander
Stud. Hilfskraft Informatik Sammlung Erlangen
www.iser.uni-erlangen.de

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