Laser printer output problem

[Lobster]

I've got an old HP LaserJet 5 which has given me faithful service for years. I keep it supplied with (long obsolete) original HP toner cartridges from ebay which cost me about a fiver for about 18 months' use - what's not to like, really?!

Anyway, I swapped in a new toner cart a few weeks ago, and almost immediately started getting awful print quality - grey splodges everywhere. Tried the "half-test" where you print a sheet of paper but kill the power when the sheet is half-way through the machine; the problems were visible on the paper immediately after the toner cart, which presumably puts the blame on the cart rather than later in the process (fuser etc) - right?

I swapped in another cartridge but am still having the same problems (IIRC it may have improved slightly immediately but then rapidly deteriorated?). Question - am I right that it will still definitely be a toner cartridge issue?

- Against: both cartridges were original HP, in sealed bags with the plastic pull-tabs intact; it's happened with two cartridges consecutively.

- For: the cartridges came from the same seller (ie same production batch; same storage conditions since new); the cartridges are long obsolete and past their sell-by date whatever that may have been); I noticed some toner spillage from the side of one cart while handling it (cleaned up, but never seen that before).

Do carts/toner age in a manner which could cause this to happen? I don't know whether it's worth obtaining another cart and swapping that in (haven't got any more now), or whether I should be looking for another fault.

Thanks David

[michael adams]

I still use a HP IIIP occasionally. A few years back I bought a job lot of three sealed original HP carts for around £25 on ebay. Same as yours sealed in boxes, sealed in bags. When I came to use one about 2 years later there was a black streak. Same on all three carts but obviously too late to complain. So despite the fact that being powder, toner carts shouldn't deteriorate to the same extent as liquid it appears there can be problems with the drum/roller. Although the boxes didn't show obvious signs of damage possibly these were in the middle of a palette that was dropped. Anyway spending another £30 or so on 2 more cart from a private seller closing up an office solved the problem.

michael adams

...

[Nightjar]

For that price, it sounds as though the cartridge has simply been refilled. The better recyclers re-manufacture the cartridge, which involves stripping it to its component parts, testing the important ones, particularly the drum, replacing anything that doesn't work, rebuilding the cartridge, then testing it to the original specifications. For obvious reasons, refilled cartridges are more likely to have faults than re-manufactured ones, but they are also a lot cheaper.

Colin Bignell

[jgharston]

I second the usefulness of the LJ5. I rescued mine from work a few years ago as it was being thrown out to be replaced by a flat-bed inkjet jobby that et ink like there was no tomorrow.

JGH

[Huge]

And I third it. I have a 5m which cost about £35 (IIRC) on eBay and has served me well for years.

[Scion]

Nightjar spake thus:

It is possible to get new HP cartridges for very much less than list price, sometimes as little as 20%; the problem is, determining which ones on eBay, Amazon etc. are new and which ones are refills. Seller feedback is important here.

To the OP, clean the corona wire, check the fuser drum for contamination (although it sounds like you've ruled this out) and make sure the paper isn't damp. Also if you've switched off half way through a print then whip out the toner cart and lift the flap so you can see the drum, if the cart is bad and depositing toner where it shouldn't then you may be able to see it here.

[Geo]

Similar thing happened to the 5L my wife uses. Vertical background grey streaks. I swapped toner cartridges (a couple of times) between the 5L and my 6L and the fault followed the toner. From memory it was also bought from Ebay.

[GB]

I stopped using my LJ5 last year and swapped over to a LJ2200, which is much faster. Toner is about the same price, and the LJ2200 is saving me loads in electricity - it uses about 80w less power consumption on standby, which is nearly all the time as it's on 24/7. That's about 20p less electricity a day = £73 a year.

I've had the LJ5 since 1995, but I just keep it for spare now. Obviously, if you switch your printer off when not in use, the economics will be different.

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[Huge]

My LJ5 is only switched on a couple of hours a week. But I wouldn't mind something more modern (faster) that does Postscript.

[Tim Watts]

Native or emulated?

[Huge]

Oh, I could install Ghostscript as a printer filter, but who can be arsed with that? My views about CUPS coincide with Eric Raymond's.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I've got a spare postscript cartridge for a 6P somewhere..

I only use that if I have a big run to print..

[Mike Barnes]

I had one for years but I became dissatisfied with the colour reproduction. :-)

[Bob Eager]

I have a couple of LJ4M+ machines, with duplexers and large trays. Got both for a song and have about 5 spares stashed away.

They both do PostScript and have bags of memory each. I have them on remote mains switches so I can easily turn them on and off without leaving my chaor - and the powersave set to the shortest time.

[Bob Eager]

[Tim Watts]

Raymond's points about the crappy UI might be valid, but who can forget the horror of trying to maintain an lpd based system with funky mopiers that could print and finish a job with dozens of permuted options from duplexing to stapling (any corner or side) to hole punching.

CUPS is an *infinite* inprovement over everything that went before.

[The Natural Philosopher]

And recent incarnations have 'just worked' for me - especially with the HPlips stuff.

[Huge]

Oh, indeed, but it's still horrible. Which rather shows just how vile what came before was.

[Tim Watts]

Printing always has been the work of the devil...

[The Natural Philosopher]

well yes.

Its like X windows. Utter nightmare. It COULD do almost anything. It

*did* almost nothing and took REAMS of code to make it do it. Then people built window managers things got a little better. Then they built desktops and toolkits, and things got a lot better.

LPR/LPD was limited. Lpa SysV stle was a 'this is how rto make a general model of a pruinter programmed by 3726 command line arguments, maost of which have never been tested and even more of which will nevber be used'

Then CUPS did the next bit ;'here's a selection of ways to set up a few printers rather badly'

But cups itself has applications built on top - you dint HAVE to use the raw cups interface. Various widgetyappy things will do that for you these days.

AND by and large it all works.