Toner Cartridge Tips

Print problems can be caused by two things: a printer malfunction or a cartridge

malfunction. As trained service technicians are taught-"always blame the toner cartridge first." When in doubt swap it out -with a known working cartridge before calling for service.

The all in one toner cartridges house about 90% of the printers imaging components.

Critical components can be damaged if the user touches them or by simple paper jams and labels! Always use the recommended paper stock and be careful running those labels. The high heat of a fuser unit can cause labels to slip onto the drum and render the cartridge  useless. Never try to clean the photoconductive drum.

When handling a toner cartridge-never touch the drum surface and always protect it from light. Place your empty cartridge back in the protective foil bag.

Common Problems

The HP Laserjet II/III model has a habit of vibrating the inside screws to the point that they will fall off into the cartridge. If you've ever seen a horizontal white line in the center of the page-it's probably a loose screw in the cartridge shutter!

Small black dots on the page can be due to a nick in the drum or PCR roller. Foreign objects in the printer or paper dust can scratch the drum. There is no fix for this as the drum is ruined-change the cartridge.

Thin black lines that seem to move from page to page could be a piece of hair in the cartridge. Thicker black lines that look like someone splashed ink on the page and has a "dripping" effect is probably due to static electricity. This is common in the winter months on the HP Laserjet II/III and the IBM 4019 as they use corona wire technology. Newer models use PCR rollers which eliminate this problem. Clean the corona wire in the cartridge using the machine tool in the Laserjet II/III. In the IBM 4019 simply pull the blue tab on the cartridge.

Have you ever put a "new" cartridge in the machine and the low toner light goes on. You may have mistakenly put an empty cartridge in the machine. If your office is like most, the toner cartridges are usually stacked near the printer. Mark your boxes as empty to avoid the frustration of running out of toner when you have to get that

document printed! 

About Cartridge Yields

Think of the cartridge as the gas tank of your laser printer. You fill it up and drive (or print) If you drive the same distance to work everyday (and only to work), then your gas will probably last a week or more. Now apply this to a toner cartridge. If you print standard business letters and never use graphics, then you can probably predict how long that cartridge will last based on your usage history. But, if you print your usual letters and then a few graphic presentations you will use more toner. If your last cartridge lasted 6 months and you are out of toner in 4 months time-look at what you've printed. If you usually drive only to work and then take a trip across the country-you will use more gas!