HPLJ 4L printing too light, other questions

[DoreenB]

About 6 months after the purchase of a NEW HP toner cartridge for my 4L, it began printing too light. The first page is barely passable; any page after that is uniformly very pale light gray. I primarily use my printer for light home text use. This is only the 3rd printer cartridge I have had to purchase for this printer.

Also, my 4L has been almost trouble free for these past 14 years. Should I continue to hold onto it or purchase a new model? To tell you the truth, I love the ease of use and reliability of my 4L.

Finally, are the HP toner cartridges for models this old really new and able to provide as many pages of print as the earlier cartridges? How can I tell if I am getting a "new" cartridge which has been sitting on the shelf too long?

[Big Al]

HI:
I had one of those and wore it out because I did a lot of printing. Most toner cartridges will last a very long time on the shelf unless they are ecposed to extreme heat. The boxes usually have a date on them somewhere.

If shaking the cartridge does not help then you may have another problem. If I recall correctly those cartridges put a blank band down the middle of the page when the cartridge is low. Buying a new cartridge may not help. Is it possible for you to borrow a known good cartridge to test with?

You can find an HP5n for about $100 now. The only thing they usually need is the upper and lower feed rollers which are in the back of the printer and are easy to change. The cartridge is about $80 but it prints many thousand pages.

Al

[cs_steve]

This LaserJet 4L model has quite a following :-)

If you want to stay in the same family, but need a printer, we do sell these 4L printers refurbished:
http://www.printertechs.com/printer/refurbished-hp-laserjet-4l.php