[lug] question on fading color on laser printer...

[stimits at comcast.net]

Toner is really a thermal plastic...can be melted...and held to the paper with static before being melted in with the fuser. Hit it with the laser to generate static, pass it over a toner powder and get it stuck there...then roll it over a very hot roller. Fusers are not unlimited life. If the failure is along a particular location left/right as it rolls, likely the fuser needs replacement. If it is just the one color of toner, then it would be "something else". Is the issue all magenta in all locations? Or does it follow a physical pattern of streaking as it rolls through the printer? If the failure is a streak as it rolls, I'd try a new fuser.

----- Original Message -----
From: Bear Giles 
To: Boulder (Colorado) Linux Users Group -- General Mailing List 
Sent: Wed, 31 Jul 2013 00:12:30 -0000 (UTC)
Subject: [lug] question on fading color on laser printer...

A question for the hardware types - I have an HP Color Laserjet 1600 (so it's 5? years old) and it looks like it's losing magenta. I just put in a new cartridge but the supplies page still shows it fading to the left and all prints look off. I've shaken the cartridge, hit the printer with compressed air, etc. No joy.


Any ideas? E.g., is it probably something in the printer fading, e.g., a heating or electrostatic element? Or is it something that should be easy to fix?


If the printer is dying is anyone interested in buying some HP 1600/2600/3600 cartridges?  The magenta is new, the black cartridge is at 80%, and the other two cartridges are around 50%. I already had a new printer in mind but the cartridges are incompatible.


Bear

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