Brother HL-2040 black spot

[E Z Peaces]

I have a Brother HL-2040 laser printer. It has begun printing a black
spot at the center of the page every 75mm, starting 70mm from the top.

Before that, for some time it had a white spot at the center of the page
every 75mm, starting 8mm from the top.

Can I fix this by cleaning?

 

[Don Phillipson]

I have a Brother HL-2040 laser printer. It has begun printing a black
spot at the center of the page every 75mm, starting 70mm from the top.

Before that, for some time it had a white spot at the center of the page
every 75mm, starting 8mm from the top.

Can I fix this by cleaning?

Well, cleaning costs almost nothing while a DR 350
drum will probably cost you more than $100. But
peace of mind is always worth N dollars.

 

[E Z Peaces]

This looks like the exposure drum (part of the drum unit)
The circumferences of the rollers nearest to 75mm are as follows

Exposure Drum 75.3 mm

Heat Roller 78.5 mm
Pressure Roller 78.5 mm

The last two are part of the fuser but if you have measured accurately the drum
is at fault and it is most unlikely that you will fix it by cleaning. A new
drum unit is required.
If you look at the drum with the toner cartridge removed from it you will
probably be able to see a blemish on it in the appropriate position, you may
need to rotate the drum to see it.

You can get a printout of the life that should be left in the drum by pressing
the GO button 3 times within 2 seconds.



Tony

Thanks. It the printout says it's 94% full after 828 pages.

I did what I should have done long ago. I created a gray page to test.
Besides the black spot, it has several white spots at the center and
about the same place on the circumference. The spacing is very close to
75mm. On three prints, the first dot appeared at different distances
from the top of the page.

I've discovered where the user's guide tells what to do about white or
black spots every 75mm. Clean the drum with a dry q-tip. That seems to
have made the white spots slightly smaller. On one drum revolution,
there was no black spot, so I think the black is toner one of the spots
can pick up from the cleaning roller.

How about a solvent for my q-tip? I have contact cleaner that's not
supposed to harm plastics or leave residue. It's Hexane, ethanol,
aliphatic hydrocarbons, and propane.

 

[Arthur Entlich]

My guess is the print drum is either damaged in that area or has an area
that is coated with something that can be gently removed.

The lack of printing of that area indicates the drum photosensitive area
is either damaged or had something covering it, or had the area lose its
photo conductive surface there. It could be a bit from an adhesive label
or other source got on it. It could be that it flaked or bubbled, or
got abraded. Over time, the area begins to pick up toner or not clean
properly (there is a rubber wiper that cleans the drum with each
rotation to remove excess toner) but if the are has become rough and is
always picking up toner now, or is not getting wiped clean now, or some
toner melted or stuck onto it, or it got contaminated with adhesive or
grease and is now picking up toner, it may leave a black spot where it
before left a white area.

You need to look at the drum and see if you can gently clean the area of
whatever has disturbed the surface. You can gently buff it with a very
soft cloth dry or very slightly dampened with water. Be gentle because
scratches will permanently damage the drum, and keep the drum out of
direct light, only expose it to low room lighting for short periods of time.

Art





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[Arthur Entlich]

DO NOT use that cleaner, it will probably dissolve or damage the surface
of the drum.

Test using either a bit of water or test an area where it will not show
on the print and try some isopropyl alcohol. The drum surface can be
dissolved with a number of solvents and several of the ones you mention
will probably damage it.

Art


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[Arthur Entlich]

I cannot suggest you use that cleaner again. It may well cause further
clouding. It has likely disrupted the photo conductive surface. Again,
try gently cleaning with isopropyl alcohol at best.

Art

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[E Z Peaces]

I cannot suggest you use that cleaner again. It may well cause further
clouding. It has likely disrupted the photo conductive surface. Again,
try gently cleaning with isopropyl alcohol at best.

Art

The clouding is gone now.

 

[E Z Peaces]

DO NOT use that cleaner, it will probably dissolve or damage the surface
of the drum.

Test using either a bit of water or test an area where it will not show
on the print and try some isopropyl alcohol. The drum surface can be
dissolved with a number of solvents and several of the ones you mention
will probably damage it.

Art

As propane is a propellant, I mentioned only three solvents. Which
several will probably damage it?

 

[E Z Peaces]

DO NOT use that cleaner, it will probably dissolve or damage the surface
of the drum.

Test using either a bit of water or test an area where it will not show
on the print and try some isopropyl alcohol. The drum surface can be
dissolved with a number of solvents and several of the ones you mention
will probably damage it.

As far as I can tell, contact cleaner worked fine. The cloudy paleness
appeared on my gray print not wherever I'd used the solvent, but only
around where the two worst deposits had been. That's why I thought it
was residue, and now it has cleared up.

Is water safe? I considered it before using the contact cleaner. One
reason I didn't try isopropyl alcohol is that it contains water.

I haven't figured out where the deposits came from. Besides plain
paper, I have printed an occasional lick-to-seal envelope, but it seems
I printed my last envelope long before the defect appeared.

When I print my gray page in the toner-saver mode, there's a pale
vertical stripe about 6mm wide down the middle of the page. I wonder if
all HL-2040s do that. All but two of my deposits were in that area.

 

[E Z Peaces]

In a different post you mentioned that the drum was more than 90%. The status
printout for some printers can be confusing, are you sure it is more than 90%
full or empty??
One way to check is to look at the page count, IIRC the page count per drum for
this printer is 12,000 after which it will ask you to replace the drum.

The page count was 828. I've had the printer about 1300 days. No
expense except fairly cheap paper, no mess, and very little trouble: I'm
doing much better than I've done with inkjets.

Traces of water will not hurt.

Thanks. If I'd known that, I would have tried water first.

My only problem now is an unevenness of gray, a sort of horizontal
streaking. I think I observed it when the printer was new. It wouldn't
matter unless I wanted to print the nicest possible grayscale pictures.

Somewhere I've read in some situations it helps to wipe the whole drum,
I think with alcohol. Would that be harmful with alcohol? With water?

If the drum unit is nearing end of life, pale stripes are quite likely to show
on a gray page but will probably not show up with normal printing.

The deposits could have come from anywhere, I have seen a dead moth stuck to a
drum. I assume you used envelopes that are rated for use with a laser printer,
if not it is essentail that you do, normal emvelopes can melt onto the fuser
resulting in a dead printer (at this end of the range).
Tony

Thanks. For many years I printed envelopes on an Apple Laserwriter from
the 1980s. I don't remember anything about laser printers on the
envelope boxes. It worked fine.

It didn't work so well with my HL-2040 because envelopes tended to stick
shut. I don't think I've tried any since the printer was new. Maybe
I'd have better luck with envelopes made for laser printing.

 

[Arthur Entlich]

Good to hear, I still would not suggest a solvent of that type on a
photo conductive drum. The surface can be dissolved.

Art


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[Arthur Entlich]

I cannot give you an exact list, since each drum composition is
different. I've seen half a dozen surfaces for photo-conductive drums.

I would be wary of hexane and the related compounds in that group
(aliphatic hydrocarbons). The ethanol probably is safe, although some
alcohols are safer than others. Hexane is a petroleum based solvent,
and some may soften the surface of these drums.

I had one drum damaged beyond repair with acetone.

As a safety precaution, I suggest keeping to solvents which tend to be
safest in not damaging polymers, such as isopropyl alcohol, which is
relatively non-reactive with most non-water based resins.

Its caveat emptor when one steps into use of other solvents and best to
test in an area that will not harm the image surface.

Art


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[Arthur Entlich]

I usually use 99% isopropyl, but I have used water without issue as long
as it is given adequate time to dry before using the printer.

I'm glad you didn't have any long term issues with the contact cleaner,
but, as I stated, I have seen drums ruined with the wrong solvents.

As I previously mentioned the cause of white or black spots can be a
defect in the drum, an abrasion cased by mechanical wear, adhesive
contamination, strong light, other mechanical issues which can leave
toner residue, an overheated drum due to heat transfer from the fuser
area causing the toner to fuse on the drum, I have even seen damages
caused by paper jams when the paper is attempted to be removed from the
printer, often from the front end. If you reuse paper that has been used
on one side, and there is glue on it, staples which weren't removed,
etc, that can damage the drum.

Lastly, the drums don't last forever, so in some cases the drum just
wears out. Without seeing your printer and how it is designed it is
difficult to say what may have caused your drum to perform that way.

Art

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[Arthur Entlich]

I've seen many a laser printer have poor grays with banding. It can be
due to the imaging system, the firmware in the printer and the mechanics
of how the toner transfers.

I wouldn't bath the drum. The drum maintains a thin layer of toner to
lubricate the wiper and to keep the paper from sticking to its surface.

Art


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[E Z Peaces]

I cannot give you an exact list, since each drum composition is
different. I've seen half a dozen surfaces for photo-conductive drums.

I would be wary of hexane and the related compounds in that group
(aliphatic hydrocarbons). The ethanol probably is safe, although some
alcohols are safer than others. Hexane is a petroleum based solvent,
and some may soften the surface of these drums.

I had one drum damaged beyond repair with acetone.

As a safety precaution, I suggest keeping to solvents which tend to be
safest in not damaging polymers, such as isopropyl alcohol, which is
relatively non-reactive with most non-water based resins.

Its caveat emptor when one steps into use of other solvents and best to
test in an area that will not harm the image surface.

Thanks.

Acetone dissolves many plastics.

Isopropyl alcohol will damage various plastics and rubbers. It will
damage a vinyl record and may damage a computer screen.

A lab may use hexane to try to determine what damaged a plastic because
hexane is inert to many plastics. I don't know if it's harmless to all
plastics.

I'd love to get some 99% isopropyl alcohol to clean where I don't want
any water. I think normal distillation produces 87% propanol, but much
of it is watered down to make it clean skin better.

If I'd known water was safe I would have tried it first, partly because
I wondered if the contaminant was water soluble.

 

[E Z Peaces]

I've seen many a laser printer have poor grays with banding. It can be
due to the imaging system, the firmware in the printer and the mechanics
of how the toner transfers.

I wouldn't bath the drum. The drum maintains a thin layer of toner to
lubricate the wiper and to keep the paper from sticking to its surface.

Art

I would have thought a layer of toner on the drum would smudge the
paper. Maybe I'll grasp it if I read more.

 

[Arthur Entlich]

The layer is extremely thin, almost not visible, unless you were to rub
it down with a white cloth, for instance. It is not enough to make an
obvious visible coating on the paper.

Art


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