HP 2605dn All Colors Weak

[gregcgt]

I am having trouble finding a source of general diagnostics for a laser printer problem - no help from the HP Service Manual or HP Web Training. Hopefully, someone out there can offer experienced advice or a source of advice.

My HP 2605dn is a few years old and had operated like a champ. Then I was having problems with the magenta being weak. Research indicated that dust had settled on the mirrors in the scanner (we were doing some drywall work just prior to the problem). Per instructions found on the web, the machine was disassembled, mirrors cleaned, reassembled - and Presto! - the problem was fixed. All colors were now bright and rich!

That was 3 months ago. Then, about a week ago, I noticed the print had faded. I thought it was a low toner problem, as the colors were indicated to be below 10%. Today I replaced all toners with original HP cartridges - but the problem persists. Comparison of the Self Test / Configuration Page to the one saved from 3 months ago shows ALL four CMYK colors are only about 25% of the previous intensity. Even the black text is much weaker. Seems like something blew out on a board.

Initial research indicated that perhaps a Master Reset or NVRAM init might fix the problem. This was done, but no change resulted.

I am thinking perhaps the DC High Voltage Board went bad, and is not supplying enough voltage for the toner to be picked up on the drum, or maybe not transferred to the paper?

I am willing to purchase and install a new board, but only if I can be assured that this is the real problem. HP says "do not repair if it takes more than 30 minutes or more than one part." I'm not a lawyer making $300/hr, so a few hours of my time would be well spent versus an outlay of $500+ for a new printer.

Any help out there for diagnosing this problem? Thanks, Greg

[redcow]

Before you spend the monies...someone (sorry I can't remember who)mentioned in another topic somewhere in this forum about doing three full calibrations to get the colours correct.

Give it a try.

[cs_steve]

Did you clean the same scanners again?

[redcow]

If you are running XP or Vista open HP Toolbox FX. Check the device settings. You mentioned that you did a few resets.

Make sure Print Quality, Print Density, and Paper Type are correct.

Do that 1st in case the settings are incorrect

[MichaelTech]

A DC cont. will cause this. Re send the firmware file even if same.

[gregcgt]

Thank you to all responders. As it turns out, the scanner was clouded over - again!

I tried the triple calibration, reinstall firmware, checked settings - all with no success.

Convinced that there was a control board that went out, I purchased a refurbished 2605dn on eBay that had been damaged in shipping to the seller (price $48 + $20 shipping). I'm sure you think I'm nuts, but I had $200 of toner and like this printer and have become experienced at disassembly.

I started changing out boards, one by one, and tested the machine after each hardware change. By the time I had the damaged frame stripped down to the bones - the LAST thing I checked was the original scanner.

The large, long lenses of the scanner were clouded over and streaky. This was after 3 months of use since cleaning. They had been cleaned with dry cotton swabs and closely inspected. Don't know why they were clouded over, perhaps from cleaning the office over Christmas and maybe furniture polish was sucked into the vents, don't know. This time I cleaned the scanner with cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol (after testing for possible damage to plastic components). This worked well, and was followed up with dry swabs to remove all residue.

Reassembled the unit and Voila! it works great.

Anyone need spare parts, cheap, let me know. I stripped out all major replaceable components.