Laserjet 1100 - drum wearing out?

[CR Optiker]

A few days ago I ran a 24 page print job containing both text and grayscale
images on my Laserjet 1100. When I compared the print to one I had printed
several years ago on the same printer - same MS Word document file, same
paper, etc. - the new print was washed out. Graphics were poor, and text
had less contrast.

I also printed a page on my Canon Pixma iP5200 in grayscale mode for
comparison, and other than some banding, the print was comparable to the
old Laserjet print.

The Laserjet has a page count of 25,002 printed pages. Needless to say,
this is probably past the normal lifetime of a drum, and given that the
printer is long since obsolete, is probably not worth a drum replacement.

Question: is the washed out, poor contrast performance an indicator of the
drum dying, or is there some other explanation? The fact that the Canon
print was comparable to teh old Laserjet print suggests that it is a
printer problem, not the file itself.

Thoughts, please?

Thanks!
Optiker

 

[Tony]

A few days ago I ran a 24 page print job containing both text and grayscale
images on my Laserjet 1100. When I compared the print to one I had printed
several years ago on the same printer - same MS Word document file, same
paper, etc. - the new print was washed out. Graphics were poor, and text
had less contrast.

I also printed a page on my Canon Pixma iP5200 in grayscale mode for
comparison, and other than some banding, the print was comparable to the
old Laserjet print.

The Laserjet has a page count of 25,002 printed pages. Needless to say,
this is probably past the normal lifetime of a drum, and given that the
printer is long since obsolete, is probably not worth a drum replacement.

Question: is the washed out, poor contrast performance an indicator of the
drum dying, or is there some other explanation? The fact that the Canon
print was comparable to teh old Laserjet print suggests that it is a
printer problem, not the file itself.

Thoughts, please?

Thanks!
Optiker

If your toner cartridge (which contains the drum in this case) is several years
old then that is the likely cause of light print. 25,000 pages is not high for
this printer but is way past the toner and drum life expectancy. There are
other parts in the printer that can cause light print but the cartridge is by
far the most likely.
Tony
MS MVP Printing/Imaging

 

[CR Optiker]

If your toner cartridge (which contains the drum in this case) is several years
old then that is the likely cause of light print. 25,000 pages is not high for
this printer but is way past the toner and drum life expectancy. There are
other parts in the printer that can cause light print but the cartridge is by
far the most likely.
Tony
MS MVP Printing/Imaging

Tony...

Thanks! The symptoms aren't the same as when the toner was running low, but
I will try rotating the toner cartridge as I would normally do to stretch
the last bit out of it and see if it makes a difference.

Are you saying the drum is integrated into the cartridge? I didn't know
that!

Thanks again!
Optiker

 

[Tony]

Tony...

Thanks! The symptoms aren't the same as when the toner was running low, but
I will try rotating the toner cartridge as I would normally do to stretch
the last bit out of it and see if it makes a difference.

Are you saying the drum is integrated into the cartridge? I didn't know
that!

Thanks again!
Optiker

Yes the drum is in the toner cartridge for this and all HP monochrome lasers.
Tony
MS MVP Printing/Imaging

 

[M.H.]

A few days ago I ran a 24 page print job containing both text and grayscale
images on my Laserjet 1100. When I compared the print to one I had printed
several years ago on the same printer - same MS Word document file, same
paper, etc. - the new print was washed out. Graphics were poor, and text
had less contrast.

I also printed a page on my Canon Pixma iP5200 in grayscale mode for
comparison, and other than some banding, the print was comparable to the
old Laserjet print.

The Laserjet has a page count of 25,002 printed pages. Needless to say,
this is probably past the normal lifetime of a drum, and given that the
printer is long since obsolete, is probably not worth a drum replacement.

Question: is the washed out, poor contrast performance an indicator of the
drum dying, or is there some other explanation? The fact that the Canon
print was comparable to teh old Laserjet print suggests that it is a
printer problem, not the file itself.

Thoughts, please?

Thanks!
Optiker

The LaserJet 1100 is hardly that old, only 9 years. I've seen HP
LaserJets from the 80s soldiering on with nary a complaint. Unless you
need a feature that isn't present in the 1100, I'd replace the
consumables as they wear out, probably with compatibles to save money.
See
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsuppor...Id=18972&prodSeriesId=25470&objectID=bpl04071
for HP recommendations on how to troubleshoot print quality problems.

 

[Arthur Entlich]

There is a slim possibility that if you changed the printer driver
(software) or software program you are printing through, that some
adjustments within the driver may need to be changed to optimize the
print quality this time around. However, there are also potential
hardware issues to consider.

Although some brands and types of laser printers were made with separate
image drums, toner and developer units, the HP Laserjet line, to my
knowledge, never did so. That means that the same cartridge that is
replaced when the toner runs out also contains the drum.

When you speak about having used this printer for a large number of
prints, do you mean that you have been using (and refilling) the same
toner cartridge over and over again? That would certainly explain the
problem, as there is a limit to how many copies one drum will produce
before requiring replacement. However, if you have been replacing the
toner cartridge fairly regularly with a new one, or even with a rebuilt
one, that should not be the problem.

Things that could cause this kind of loss of image quality include:

As mentioned an old, heavily light exposed, or over used drum. (If you
are buying rebuilt or refilled cartridges, this open may just have a bad
drum in it)

Incorrect type of toner: Again refill or rebuild cartridges may not
necessarily be providing the correct type of toner. There are literally
hundreds of toner formulations on the market and often a generic toner
is used in refills. Sometimes it is not the correct type for your printer.

An otherwise defective cartridge. The cartridge may be running low of
toner.

The fuser drum (the heated drum that melts the toner onto the paper) is
a part that remains within the printer. If it is not working well, the
toner may not adhere properly or may blur or other side degrade the image.

It is possible the laser itself is failing, or the mirrors or ports have
become dirty, so the drum is not being written to correctly. A careful
cleaning of the interior of the printer (with the cartridge removed) may
help.

If you have a previous cartridge around, that has even a small amount of
toner within it, try rocking it back and forth to make sure the toner is
well distributed, and install that cartridge in the printer, and try to
print a copy of the file and see if the image is improved. If is is,
then you probably just have a bad cartridge. Many cartridge
manufacturers and remanufacturers will exchange a bad cartridge free of
charge.

The good thing about laser printers which have a complete cartridge unit
is that by replacing it you also replace the majority of the printer's
print engine. The bad news is that they are usually more costly that
just replacing a toner cartridge, which is why people refill them. Done
properly, several refills are usually possible before you will see major
loss of image quality.

Art

 

[CR Optiker]

Yes the drum is in the toner cartridge for this and all HP monochrome lasers.
Tony
MS MVP Printing/Imaging

I never kenw that! I was sure that at some time in the past at work I could
see the chrome-like surface of a drum - it may have been the LJ-II that
preceeded the 1100 (at work, not this one). Whatever laser printer, it was
starting to fail...ie, chrome-like coating starting to flake off in a few
places. I used it to print docs with graphics, so was pretty sensitive to
quality in the graphics. I remember seeing that shiny cylinder and thought
it was the drum, and remember seeing small flaked-off places that
corresponded with glitches in the images.

Oh well...my memory sure could fail me. I'll take your word for it.
Probably my age showing...senior moment!

I tried just rotating the cartridge back and forth like you do before
installing a new one to fully distribute the toner in the cartridge, but
saw no change.

I also changed settings in the "Advanced..." settings menu, and nothing
seemed to have any effect. There was a very small - almost undetecxtable
without a mangifier - increase in image density with one change, but it was
useless, so I don't even remember what that was. Probably goin from teh
defaults to "Darker" in the ReT setting or turning off EconoMode.

I hesitate to spend $60-70 on a new cartridge without having some assurance
that the cartridge is the problem, so will do more testing first. If I
still had my 1100 at work, I'd take the doc there and test it, but alas,
it's been retired for a few years now.

Thanks for your replies.
Optiker

 

[CR Optiker]

A few days ago I ran a 24 page print job containing both text and grayscale
images on my Laserjet 1100. When I compared the print to one I had printed
several years ago on the same printer - same MS Word document file, same
paper, etc. - the new print was washed out. Graphics were poor, and text
had less contrast.

[snip]

Question: is the washed out, poor contrast performance an indicator of the
drum dying, or is there some other explanation? The fact that the Canon
print was comparable to teh old Laserjet print suggests that it is a
printer problem, not the file itself.

Thoughts, please?

Thanks!
Optiker

The LaserJet 1100 is hardly that old, only 9 years. I've seen HP
LaserJets from the 80s soldiering on with nary a complaint. Unless you
need a feature that isn't present in the 1100, I'd replace the
consumables as they wear out, probably with compatibles to save money.
See
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsuppor...Id=18972&prodSeriesId=25470&objectID=bpl04071
for HP recommendations on how to troubleshoot print quality problems.

M.H....only 9 nears? How time flies! Of course, in the computer
tech area, that's equivalent to forever! It's true...the earlier ones were
amazingly well built. This one has been through the one fix for paper
pickup problems, but nothing else. Somebody on this group kindly provided
fix kits from among his spares when I was unable to get one. He even paid
shipping and didn't charge me for them. I passed one on to somebody else
under the same terms,and used one each on this and my 1100 at work.
Otherwise, it's been very reliable.

As for features, there are none that are essential that would make me
upgrade if I wasn't having problems causing me to shop around. However,
having shopped around yesterday, and found the Brother HL-5240 as a best
buy in a PC World article at $249 (and with a $50 rebate from Staples),
suddenly I thought Imight have a need for a new one! 2 MB in my
1100, 32 MB in the Brother. The Borther is network-ready, and has built-in
duplexing. These three things make it very tempting. However, I would hate
to spend a couple of hundred, and when it comes in, find that it also gives
low density graphics, so that it is clearly a problem other then the
printer.

I'll check the link and see if I can't resolve it. I tested by changing
some of the "Advanced..." settings, and in one case, saw an almost
undetectable density increase, but don't recall which setting did that -
ReT or EconoMode maybe.

I'll do more testing first...hate to spend $60-70 on a cartridge,or $200+
without some assurance that it will make a diffrence.

Thanks!
Optiker

 

[CR Optiker]

On Sun, 14 Jan 2007 05:18:18 GMT, Arthur Entlich wrote:

Arthur...thanks for the extensive reply! Please see imbedded comments.

There is a slim possibility that if you changed the printer driver
(software) or software program you are printing through, that some
adjustments within the driver may need to be changed to optimize the
print quality this time around. However, there are also potential
hardware issues to consider.

Not recently...at least not that I recall since having gotten good quality
prints.

Although some brands and types of laser printers were made with separate
image drums, toner and developer units, the HP Laserjet line, to my
knowledge, never did so. That means that the same cartridge that is
replaced when the toner runs out also contains the drum.

Understand...same point as made in reply by Tony. Interesting...I didn't
know that, but with your metion of the fuser drum in a later paragraph, it
is possible that in my ignorance, I was confusing the toner drum with the
fuser drum. I'll comment on that below.

When you speak about having used this printer for a large number of
prints, do you mean that you have been using (and refilling) the same
toner cartridge over and over again? That would certainly explain the
problem, as there is a limit to how many copies one drum will produce
before requiring replacement. However, if you have been replacing the
toner cartridge fairly regularly with a new one, or even with a rebuilt
one, that should not be the problem.

I almost always replace with a new as they run out of toner. I send the
empty cartridge back to HP per their recycle program. I have just recenly
been considering using refilled cartridges. Thus, since I have been using
new HP cartridges, I've cut some of your following paragraphs as not
relevant.

As mentioned an old, heavily light exposed, or over used drum. (If you
are buying rebuilt or refilled cartridges, this open may just have a bad
drum in it)

I haven't noticed and image degradation until now witih one exception, but
have honestly not been doing any jobs that were critical enough to examine
as carefully as this one. The exception - and it's a big one - is that the
previous printing of this job - it was actually a couple of years ago and
so might well have been with a previous toner cartridge - was having a
problem with toner not sticking. On regular paper, it seemed OK, but with
the 90 lb cover stock, it was not sticking, and got worse as the printer
warmed up witih multiple consecutive printings. This then, relates to your
following paragraph.

The fuser drum (the heated drum that melts the toner onto the paper) is
a part that remains within the printer. If it is not working well, the
toner may not adhere properly or may blur or other side degrade the image.

It is possible the laser itself is failing, or the mirrors or ports have
become dirty, so the drum is not being written to correctly. A careful
cleaning of the interior of the printer (with the cartridge removed) may
help.

I can try cleaning. We live in an area that has significant spring and fall
winds, and a location where thoe winds can kick up a lot of dust. So, while
I open up my computer and dust a couple or three tiems a year, I haven't
done that with my printers. Iwill try a cleaning.

If you have a previous cartridge around, that has even a small amount of
toner within it, try rocking it back and forth to make sure the toner is
well distributed, and install that cartridge in the printer, and try to
print a copy of the file and see if the image is improved. If is is,
then you probably just have a bad cartridge. Many cartridge
manufacturers and remanufacturers will exchange a bad cartridge free of
charge.

As mentioned above, this cartridge ahs been in for some time and has been
working - though uncertain of graphics. The low print density is uniform in
graphics. To the eye, I don't see a decrease in density of characters even
under a 7X magnifier. And, the failure is not at all similar to what I've
observed when previous cartridges were running low on toner.

Thanks again for teh detailed and extensive reply. There are a few things I
can check, but it's looking more and more like I have a hardware problem of
some kind. That Brother HL-5240 that I mentioned in my reply to M.H. is
looking pretty good!

Optiker