HP 8150 laserjet smearing thick stripes on paper - what to do?

Question

Our printer is printing dirty big lines all over the page - see:

I've tried pulling all the detachable modules out and wiping toner dust from all the visibly dirty bits, but to no avail.

Also the lines don't appear in the same position on each printed page.

The HP support page doesn't provide any cleaning advise.

Any ideas on how to proceed?

Solution 1

I had a similar (although not 100% the same) problem on my Laserjet 1012. I solved it by replacing the toner cartridge - after doing that, everything worked perfectly.

Solution 2

That looks like a dirty paper roller. I suggest either having it professionaly cleaned or attempt it yourself if you are confortable with it. There is toner sitting somewhere in the printer on the roller and it looks like it is piled up on the edge. If the printer in general is clean, I would suggest taking a can of compressed air to it, but with CAUTION. You do not want to inhale toner. Make sure you are in very open space or maybe outside. WARNING though, if it is a very dirty printer, you might just blow toner everywhere and make everything dirty. That is when you might want to consider professional cleaning.

Also, try not to use cheap remanufactored toner cartridges. They have a much higher chance of leaking toner and can make a big mess.

Also, if you have already gone through and cleaned what you could see, try these laser printer cleaning sheets. They are worth a shot before you attempt anything more expensive. And whatever you buy, make sure it is made to work with a laser printer. They can get very hot and need to be used with the proper cleaning sheets.

http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/470251/Office-Depot-Brand-Laser-Printer-Cleaning/

EDIT:

Alternatively, you also might want to invest in the toner approved vacuum. These are designed to deal with toner and fine particles. I have personaly used this one at an old job. You do not want to use a standard vacuum. These come with a toner specific bag/filter.

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?edc=467195

Solution 3

Well, the first thing to try is to use a cleaning page — its in the printer menus. First, you select make a cleaning page, then once its printed the cleaning page you select process cleaning page, and follow the instructions printed on the page.

Also, since its apparently coming out on the pages, you could just try printing a bunch of blank pages.

Comments

[derobert]

Compressed air is going to send the toner /everywhere/ and make a huge mess which most vacuums can't clean up. Outside might be OK, except it'll still get all over you, and you'll surely inhale it, get it in your eyes, etc. unless you are wearing a very fine particulate dust mask.

[Joey]

Vacuum cleaners ususally can't cope with toner anyway because it jsut won't stay in the bag.

[Troggy]

Added some info about a toner approved vacuum.