HP 4550: confused about supply status

[Patrick L. Nolan]

We have an HP Color Laserjet 4550dn. It helpfully provides
information about how much life is left in its toner cartridges
and other replaceable components. Unfortunately there's more
than one way to get the information, and they don't agree.
One way is to use the front-panel buttons to make it print a
page with the information. Two other methods make use of its
built-in web server. The "Home" and "Supplies Status" web
pages should give the same information.

Mostly they agree, but they seem confused about the status of
the Transfer Kit and the Fuser Kit. Currently our printed
page says that the Transfer Kit has 4% of its life left
and the Fuser Kit has 44%. The Home web page says Transfer
44%, Fuser 4%, which is exactly the opposite. The Supplies
Status says 4% for both. Also the front-panel display has
been telling me that it's nearly time to replace the Transfer
Kit.

I wonder if this is a known issue. Does anyone know which
of these numbers I can believe?

Of course I will have to replace the Transfer Kit whenever
the printer tells me to, whether it's really necessary or
not.

 

[whatcartridge.com]

We have an HP Color Laserjet 4550dn. It helpfully provides
information about how much life is left in its toner cartridges
and other replaceable components. Unfortunately there's more
than one way to get the information, and they don't agree.
One way is to use the front-panel buttons to make it print a
page with the information. Two other methods make use of its
built-in web server. The "Home" and "Supplies Status" web
pages should give the same information.

Mostly they agree, but they seem confused about the status of
the Transfer Kit and the Fuser Kit. Currently our printed
page says that the Transfer Kit has 4% of its life left
and the Fuser Kit has 44%. The Home web page says Transfer
44%, Fuser 4%, which is exactly the opposite. The Supplies
Status says 4% for both. Also the front-panel display has
been telling me that it's nearly time to replace the Transfer
Kit.

I wonder if this is a known issue. Does anyone know which
of these numbers I can believe?

Of course I will have to replace the Transfer Kit whenever
the printer tells me to, whether it's really necessary or
not.

Hi Patrick, this must be frustrating for you. Personally I would be
more inclined to believe the printed page's information. I am guessing
that you print mainly in color, as there are suggested yields for the
fuser and transfer unit and these yields depend on whether color or
black pages are printed.

I'm also guessing you haven't replaced these particular consumables
before. If I'm wrong then we may need another way to work this out.

The fuser unit prints approximately 100,000 black pages, or 50,000
color pages.
The transfer unit prints 100,000 pages in black, or 25,000 pages in
color.

Based on those yields, if you have printed around 30,000 pages, some
black but most color, this correlates with the remaining life for those
2 consumables shown on the printed page (44% for the fuser and 4% for
the transfer unit). Hope this helps.

James Sodor
www.whatcartridge.com