HP 1600, 2600n, & 3600n printing "dirty" pages

[DRC]

I've been considering an inexpensive color laser for small jobs in my graphic design business, so checked out three HPs at Staples a couple days ago... the 1600, 2600n, and 3600n. I printed the 1600's sample page and the color and overall image quality looked pretty good, but the page displayed a strong black/gray marbling effect in the background. Odd. I did the same with the other two printers and saw the same thing. At first, I thought it may just be part of the files being printed since it actually looked like a marbled background, but then why would HP do this? I've never seen it before. So I went back to the 1600, searched through the menu and found the cleaning cycle command and ran it. No difference. I ran it five more times and saw that the marbling was disappearing but still there. Both the sample page and cleaning page looked dirty now. I ended up running the cleaning cycle 15 times on each of the three printers and never did get a clean page to emerge. They still looked slightly dirty. I was using paper designed for color lasers.

Since I've never owned a color laser, I'm not familiar with maintenance requirements. However, I did try two Okidatas here in my office, the c3400 and c5500, and neither did this. I just didn't like the color reproduction, which consistently produced a red/magenta cast in skin tones, grays, and whites with no adjustment on either printer to balance color. Anyway, I'm wondering if color lasers, HPs in particular, require cleaning cycle maintenance on a regular basis from the start to maintain print quality. It could be that these printers on display at Staples, even though the manager said they'd been on display only a month, have simply never been maintained using the cleaning cycle from the start. Maybe if it's let go too long, there's no going back...and you get the gray, dirty backgrounds? Or is it an HP thing that you're just going to eventually see this problem no matter what?

I've been reading a lot of posts on different forums, and have yet to see a post complaining about this problem (and there are many) with any other make of color laser. It's always HP.

Thanks,
DRC

[DRC]

Since I haven't received any replies about this, I decided to try it for myself. Staples had the 1600 at a nice after Christmas price, so bought one today. Actually, the print quality is quite good and better than expected...better than the Okidata 3400 and 5500 I had tried last week. Colors are more accurate, especially skin tones. Prints are sharp with good color. Text is excellent. Pages with backgrounds that are supposed to be white are pure white with no hint of graying or toner. Print quality isn't perfect, but will be very usable for some of my needs.

Regarding the gray backgrounds, as I was reading through the manual and going through the online Toolbox, in the Print Quality section under Optimize, I noticed a setting for "Background Toner", which is defaulted to OFF. A Background Toner setting?? Hmmmmm. :confused: I'm not sure what this is and couldn't find anything specific about it in the Toolbox documentation, but there's a section in the manual I downloaded from HP showing a gray background print with black text example in the "Print Problems" section, with accompanying text, "The amount of background toner becomes unacceptable". Does this mean the Background Toner on or off setting means actually allowing or not allowing toner to be placed in the backgrounds? It doesn't say anything about this. I'm not quite understanding the reason for this setting if that's the case. But I'm wondering if in some cases it's been inadvertently turned on, causing the gray background many are seeing. ?? I don't want to turn this setting ON because I don't want to start something:eek:

Also, I can understand how it can happen if you were to run previously printed sheets through again, or pre-printed sheets such as forms that aren't color laser compatible, etc. Also, labels that aren't compatible with color lasers could cause problems, as could any paper not compatible with a color laser, which could also damage the printer. I'm discovering that paper selection is very important, as well as regular cleaning cycles, and I plan to adhere to using the correct media.

We'll see what happens.

DRC

[MichaelTech]

Some printer have a "watermark" background on internal test pages.
Is this happening on files you send?
These are vertical in-line lasers, and if there is any PQ issue, I would look at the ETB assy. first, and check the fuser for any toner build-up.
Below the ETB, there are lowered areas on the feed assy, that can catch toner, and possibly contaminate the page, but this is doubtful.
Check the ETB contacts along the sides, ensure they are clean, and not smashed in.
Check the printer panel settings as well as the driver settings.
If all is well now, let us know!

[DRC]

Well, I gave it my best shot, and the first 50 or so pages looked great with no gray background, but as I kept printing, I began noticing page backgrounds looking slightly dull...the dreaded toner "grays" a lot of people are seeing in these printers. As soon as I saw it, I did the fuser clean and general cleaning utility a couple times, but didn't help. So I did them both again twice, and no change. I ended up printing about 100 pages, compared the last one to the first printed, and the last page printed looks a bit dirty in comparison. I also noticed a faint vertical line emerging on the later prints that I couldn't get rid of, one on each side of the paper positioned about 1/8" in from the edges, probably from the rollers.

I checked all the things MichaelTech suggested, but didn't see any problems. At HP's suggestion, I also experimented with the Print Quality settings in the Toolbox but nothing helped. This gray background thing seems to be the result of toner building up someplace that we can't get to. And even if it were cleanable, doing it every 50 pages doesn't sound productive to me. I feel I've done everything I can do, or better yet....willing to do. It appears this printer would be too high maintenance and frustrating to be worth hanging on to, even at the great price. So it's going back tonight. Too bad, because the basic print quality is quite good.

DRC