toner leakage on a 5si

[hampton01]

I have a client who is having a problem with toner leakage. The printer is a 5si. We are trying to diagnose what could be causing the leakage. It is coming from the gear side and ends up under the transfer roller. I am thinking that it is probably a gear train problem. Has anyone run into this problem before?

[hampton01]

I forgot to mention that the printer was using refurbished toners until recently when they started using Hp toners again because of toner leakage problems.

[redcow]

If you have a toner leakage problem. It has to be the cartridge.
If you were having a problem with leaky cartridges before you switched vendors, did you think to vacuum out the printer? Somewhere in the paperpath there is a mound of toner.

[hampton01]

That is what is so crazy. It was leaving a mound of toner under the transfer roller. I cleaned it all out and replaced the transfer roller and toner cartridge. I told the client to use hp toners and now the hp toner is leaking.

[ooojaya]

it's the cartridge. i have seen this happen numerous times on refilled cartridges. maybe you have a bad new cartridge too. or like the previous guy said, you have a mount of toner somewhere in the path. do a half test and see where it picks it up.

[seriously]

First I've to agree it's the toner cartridge. But being a genuin hp cartridge, I've to say either you're very unlucky, or something else is causing the problem.
First thing I can think of is perhaps the machine is sitting at an angle tilting towards the gear side. The leak could be caused by toner accumulated too much at the gear side of the cartridge. Secondly the cartridge could be stored sitting on the side of the box instead of horizontally. And customer did not shake the cartridge to level out the toner before inserting it. (this one is a bit far fetch though, I think). Third possibility, which is quite real, is that customer has a habit of shaking the cartridge violently thinking that's the right thing to do. And lastly, is the machine kind of vibrates badly when printing, which could then indicates that the cartridge is not driven properly by the machine, possibly damaging it.
Other possibilities involving the type of print jobs and media used. For instant, is the customer using normal printing paper, or some customised special paper that has perforation or pre-printed logo at the gear side etc. Or the print jobs always has thick black block of print down the gear side.
Of course I'm only guessing. Anyone else has other ideas?

seriously.

[hampton01]

Well believe it or not our tech changed the registration and the transfer roller and it seemed to do the trick. I knew that the transfer roller could have been full of toner but how the registration has anything to do with it I don't know. All I know is that it is not leaking now and everything seems to be all right.