Questions about Laserjet 4P

[Explodinghead75]

Hi I just bought a Laserjet 4P and the print looks very smudged; lots of ink where there's not supposed to be any. I'm hoping it just needs a tonger cartridge, but I thought I would check here before I go out and buy one. Also I could buy a toner refill kit, but I would assume the roller inside needs to be replaced as well; I'm really not sure so I thought I would ask for advice on what to do next. Also, the lady said it's slow because it's been sitting around and it tends to jam so I may need to do some other maintenance to it, which I could probably do myself, but this is my first laser printer so I'm pretty clueless.

Thanks!

Kevin

[raz]

if you take out the cartridge and open the drum shutter,is there any toner on the drum?could be leaking toner.sometimes the fuser can cause this issue.if you start a print and stop it before it gets to the fuser (usually when the trailing edge of the paper is just entering the machine), and take out the cartridge and look at the drum and/or paper underneath it,is the smudges there?this can help narrow down where the issue is.

defenitely not recommended to refill a laser cartridge without replacing any rollers or the drum,as these things are designed for only so much use.

rollers and fuser and transfer roller and such are usually part of a maintenance kit and should be changed periodically to maintain proper printer performance.when to change it varies from printer to printer,sometimes after a couple hundred thousand pages.i'm not certain on this printer though.

[Explodinghead75]

It's been a long time since I've opened a cartridge up. I took out the toner cartridge and opened the door on it (is that the shutter?) and I could see a blue roller, which had toner on it.

[raz]

if you do a stop test and stop the print and take out the cartridge and the paper is underneath it in the paper path,when you look at the drum,there should be some of the normal print on it,like the text or so;are there any smudges on it?or does the print on the drum look sharp and precise?if it is a blue chrome looking drum,then it sounds like it could be a remanned or third party cartridge?

i would assume it is the cartridge but this kind of issue can sometimes be caused by the fuser after the cartridge.thats why you look for the smudges on the drum to see if it's happening before the fuser.if you want.clean the drum off and shake the cartridge a bit and see if any toner leaks out onto the drum.

[Explodinghead75]

I haven't hooked up the printer yet because I just moved and I don't have enough outlets with grounds so I need to get a power strip. As soon as I get one I will try the stop test and see how it looks. Do you think I only buy HP cartridges? I haven't checked the prices yet.