Laserjet 8000 Image Problem

[Marek Williams]

This is a Laserjet 8000 with 1.2 million impressions. For the last
25,000 impressions I have been getting a fuzzy background around solid
objects. Looks a little like a drop shadow. Sort of a halo effect.
Also getting blotchy darker patches in gray objects.

It was just about due for maintenance, so I installed a maintenance
kit. (New fuser, rollers, transfer roller.) No change.

The toner cartridge (a Lexmark) was still good, but I replaced it
anyway with a new HP. Again, no change.

I suspect there is crud somewhere inside, Maybe some stray toner got
glopped onto something. A few hundred thousand copies ago I had a
leaky reman cartridge. I cleaned it all up and everything has been
fine until just now. Nevertheless, I know there was some toner in
there. Maybe it finally gravitated onto something important.

I can install maintenance kits, but otherwise I'm kind of a klutz with
mechanical stuff. Any ideas what I can do to fix it?

 

[Timothy Lee]

This is a Laserjet 8000 with 1.2 million impressions. For the last
25,000 impressions I have been getting a fuzzy background around solid
objects. Looks a little like a drop shadow. Sort of a halo effect.
Also getting blotchy darker patches in gray objects.

It was just about due for maintenance, so I installed a maintenance
kit. (New fuser, rollers, transfer roller.) No change.

Is there an OPC drum kit as well?

 

[Quadrajet1]

Is there an OPC drum kit as well?

The OPC is part of the toner cartridge.

Sure acts like a transfer roller problem.

Raymond

 

[Marek Williams]

The OPC is part of the toner cartridge.
Sure acts like a transfer roller problem.

Thanks for the suggestion.

First, it seems I lied. I said I installed a maintenance kit, and I
did, but when I went back to look there was the brand new transfer
roller still in the box. Duh!

So I installed the new transfer roller. When I removed the old one I
noticed there was quite a bit of toner and debris (paper dust, etc.)
in the area where the transfer roller goes. So I got out the big
vacuum cleaner and sucked it clean, and everything else in the
immediate area. Then I installed the new transfer roller.

Unfortunately, the problem persists. It's better, but the image is not
as it should be. The halo-dropshadow around solid black objects is all
but gone, but I'm still getting blotchy looking solid gray objects. I
turned the toner density all the way down to 1, and that helped some
more, but I can tell it's still not right. Plus, there are lighter and
darker areas on the page (more noticeable on the low toner density
setting). And the image is definitely a bit lighter on the bottom of
the page (left side, looking at the toner cartridge as installed).
This is also the area where the blotchiness and drop shadow effect is
most pronounced.

So far I have installed:

New fuser
New transfer roller
New toner cartridge

All they did was improve things. My sense of it is that there is an
underlying cause that has not been remedied yet. And it appears that
it is on the left side of the paper path, about the bottom 3 to 4
inches or so of a letter size sheet. There is not a sudden line
demarcating the lighter area on the bottom of the page; it slowly
shades into being lighter.

I print short-run textbooks and this printer is my main workhorse. I
need to get it back up to par. Before I resort to calling in a
($hudder) HP technician, any other ideas what might be wrong?