HP1200 vertical line on printed page

[Mike]

I have a problem that has surfaced recently on my HP 1200 printer. A faint black vertical line on the left hand side, approx a third of the way from the left edge of the printed side of the page appears. It appeared after a toner cartridge change therefore I replaced the toner cartridge and still have the same problem. I ran the cleaning path function many times with both plain paper and cleaning sheets but it still does the same thing. The line appears on the page during the cleaning cycle function also. Does anyone have any idea what may be causing this and how to remedy?

[Brian]

Could be the fuser.
Try a half-test (stop the printer before the page has come out of the printer), look at the page to see if the line is on the print before it goes into the fuser.

[Mike]

I'm not exactly sure how to stop the page as it runs though the printer with the exception of perhaps unplugging the printer...however let me add that one other thing I have noticed is that if I print a blank page, the same faint black line shows up in the exact spot along the vertical length of the page. Does this make any sense?

[Brian]

To do a half-test you can simply open the top cover while the page is half way through the printer.
If you've always got the line and if it's alwayd the same, it could be the drum (in the cartridge), but you say you've tried another cartridge, so that isn't logical.

[Servitech]

I believe that I may have a cause. If you take a sample of the envelope that you use the most, lay it long way on the middle of the page and line it up on the defect line on the page, you will probably find that it is perfectly centered on the page.

This is the problem that I am fighting at one of my customers that is a law firm. They use a large number of envelopes and I am finding that the top edge of the envelope is causing excessive wear to the heat film roller on the fuser. It appears that the top edge of the envelope is damaging the non-stick surface of the roller so that it picks up toner from one part of the page and deposits it on another so it appears as a non-distinct line, usually on the center-left side of the page.

Right now, the only repair is the replacement of the fuser assembly, since the heat film roll is not available separately (or is it?).

Does anyone know of an aftermarket film roller assy. that is more resistant to this kind of wear? (such as the blackstone rollers replaced the OEM HPLJ II teflon coated heat rolls?)

Rich

[Mike]

Thanks Rich,
You may be onto something here. We do use a lot of similar sized envelopes that we run though the printer which may, in fact, line up with the "pain in the ***" line that I've been describing. I haven't run the test yet but I'll bet you're right about it. I guess my question now is, "is it time for a new printer, or is replacing the fuser assembly worth a try?"
Thanks for all your help.
Mike