installed 4MV maintenance it, printer smears

[rballister]

A couple of weeks ago I started to get a low toner light. I ordered an actual HP (not a clone) toner cartridge online and installed it. After I took the old one out I cleaned everything I could see inside the printer. I installed the cartridge and started to get long smears (both horizontal and vertical) on the prints. I wasn't sure if I messed something up while cleaning or if it was the fuser or something else. I ordered the full maintenance kit from you and installed it last night. I'm still getting smears. I noticed when I lifted the curved cover up and looked at the grey roller INSIDE the cartridge there was toner smeared all over it. I took a clean nonabrasive rag and carefully wiped it off that roller, but the printer still continued to print with smears. I think I've changed everything I could change inside the printer with the maintenance kit--this is really disappointing! I scanned a section of the 4MV output and then scanned a piece of white printer paper and combined the two scans. I've attached it as a PDF so you can see the problem. How can I fix this?
Thanks,
Ron B

[Big Al]

It sounds like you may have a bad toner cartridge. Sometimes some toner can get loose in the new cartridge during shipping. Try printing a bunch of pages and see if it clears up. Any chance you could try the old cartridge or borrow a known good cartridge?

Al

[rballister]

I printed about 20 pages in a row. The smearing actually gets worse, sort of a buildup. I just had a along discussion this morning with one of the techs. He thinks it's either the cartridge or the power supply. If it's the cartridge it's really depressing, as I bought two HP cartridges (not rebuilt clones) at $90 a pop. I tried both of them and get the same smearing problem (Unfortunately I threw out the old empty cartridge which didn't have this problem so I can't put it back in.) I noticed when I lifted the lid on the cartridge itself and looked at the shiny grey roller inside the cartridge there was a lot of toner buildup on it.
As a last ditch attempt to get it going I ordered one of the printertechs.com cartridges and will try that (cost as much as the actual HP ones I bought by the way). Between the full maintenance kit and all these cartridges I've already spent more than the actual worth of the printer (at least the ones PrinterTechs sell as rebuilt). If it turns out not to be the power supply I'm pretty much screwed--replacing the power supply is a bench procedure--that with the shipping from NYC would be prohibitively expensive. If anyone else has any ideas I'd like to hear about them. Is there any way to "tweak" in some way those two HP cartridges?

[Big Al]

If you can find someone to test those cartridges for you and they are bad HP will make it good. Should be able to take them back where you got them. A local HP shop may have a used cartridge in the pile being sent back to a recycler that they might loan you for testing. I do not recall this problem in years and years of working on HP printers so please let us know what you find.

Al

[ptjeff1]

I just want to point out that the 4v toners were discontinued in 2007, so if these are genuine HP cartridges the manufacture date could be several years ago. Generally cartridges will work just fine many years after the manufacture date but if these were sitting around for 10 years, who knows.

[prntrfxr]

I dont think its the power supply. I agree with others who suggested cartridge. You dont really have any thing to lose by trying this:

1. Clean entire toner cavity area
2. Dont touch the transfer roller with your fingers but you can blow it off with compressed air to remove any toner
3. Clean the metal contacts in the printer that touch the cartridge and the ones on the cartridge (probably not the problem, but cant hurt).

[rballister]

Howdy,
Thanks for all the replies! The cartridges are genuine HP cartridges. They were ordered from www.besttoners.com. I live in NYC and the web is the only place you can find them, as HP4MV cartridges are non-existant with retailers in the city. I doubt that I can get HP to take them back as they are officially discontinued and were purchased from a second party. My brother got me one for Christmas and I (apparently foolishly!) ordered a second myself as backup. I tried BOTH and got the same result. I completely cleaned the insides of the printer before I installed the full maintenance kit I purchased from printertechs.com. As a last ditch attempt to save the printer I ordered a clone cartridge from printertechs.com. (they said they would test it before they send it to me). If it does work I'll certainly call besttoners and try and get a refund. (I don't think my chances are too good on that)
If it doesn't work I'm completely stumped. I would have replaced everything (very expensively) I could possibly replace in the printer. The cartridge from printertechs. should arrive shortly. I'll report the results

[rballister]

I just spoke to besttoners. There is a possibility they might take them back. The phone person said something about a defective "wiper blade". Does anyone know about that?

[MichaelTech]

Seems that the toner is not turning. Check it's drive gears on inside right of printer. Does the toner slide in and out freely? Is the plastic finger on the right lifting when you close the front door? Time to upgrade!

[rballister]

The toner cartridge moves in and out of the printer easily. Took a look at the wheels (white) that appear to turn the cartridge. they turn freely. The black wheels on the right side also appear to be fine. (anything in particular to look for about the wheels?) There appears to be no discernible damage to the wheels. (and by the way in regard to an upgrade, tabloid B&W printers are still very, very expensive. The Xerox is a little under $2000. Considering I just spent a lot of money on upgrading this one there has got to be some way to get it going!) The UPS guy literally just showed up with the replacement clone cartridge from printertechs.com. I'll let you know what happens.

[rballister]

When you say plastic finger I'm assuming you mean the one that opens the door (cover) of the toner cartridge itself. It seems to work fine, opening the door and exposing the roller inside the cartridge (which has toner smear lines on it)

[rballister]

Just put in and tested the printerTechs.com cartridge. THE PROBLEM WAS THOSE TWO HP CARTRIDGES!!!. The printertechs.com cartridges are printing absolutely clean. Now I've gotta try and get my money back from besttoners.

[MichaelTech]

can't blame ya, these are workhorses. I keep two just for one customer.
jusr saw your last post, great! Go Printer Techs!