Problem with HP 5L

[Howard R. Silverstein]

I am having a problem with my HP 5L. It prints OK except on the reverse
side I am getting small spots of toner. Does anyone know how to resolve
this problem ? Should I just replace the cartridge ? Thanks in advance
for your help.

~Howard

 

[Peter R. Fletcher]

If you have a 5L that is still working at all, you are to be
congratulated. That model was very far from being a star in HP's
crown. I would try turning the printer off, taking the cartridge out,
and cleaning everything in sight with a lint-free cloth. The most
likely problem is spille dtoner somewhere on the paper path.

I am having a problem with my HP 5L. It prints OK except on the reverse
side I am getting small spots of toner. Does anyone know how to resolve
this problem ? Should I just replace the cartridge ? Thanks in advance
for your help.

~Howard

Please respond to the Newsgroup, so that others may benefit from the exchange.
Peter R. Fletcher

 

[Howard R. Silverstein]

PETER:
Thank you for your suggestion.
Oh it still runs. I will give it cleaning this weekend and report back on how it
went. Do you think a NEW cartridge would also help ?

~Howard

 

[magpie]

I am having a problem with my HP 5L. It prints OK except on the reverse
side I am getting small spots of toner. Does anyone know how to resolve
this problem ? Should I just replace the cartridge ? Thanks in advance
for your help.

~Howard

Your problem is with the pressure roller in the fuser. It is more than
likely pretty much coated with burned on toner. Remove the cover of
the printer, remove a the small black plastic cartridge guide on the
upper right side of the body (there is a small tab you need to push in
from the outside), remove the long black plastic cover on the lower
right side that covers the wires to the fuser. Disconnect the power
wires that are under that cover. Disconnect the small pair of wires on
the lower left side running to the fuser. There are 2 screws you need
to remove that hold the fuser cover on. Remove the heat roller. Then
remove the pressure roller. This can be cleaned with alcohol and a lot
of elbow grease. BTW, I still have an HP-5L, a 6L and an 1100 that
are all still running just fine. My kids and wife use them for their
homework and printing recipes. Fair amount of home use. Years of
trouble free operation if maintained properly. Never had the problems
everyone complains about with the multiple paper feeds.

Frank

 

[Melissa]

I have the same printer and the same problem. A search on Google brought up
many comments about the same issue. When you are printing on the back side
of paper that has already been printed on, heat causes the toner to rub off
of the paper onto the rollers, and then it smudges on the flip side. From
what I've read, there is really no solution to this. Cleaning the rollers
will help, but as soon as you have printed a couple more times, the problem
reoccurs.

I recently did a rather large print job (for me), 200 copies of info for
wedding guests. Almost all of the copies had some smudging on the edge of
the second side. I solved the problem by using a papercutter and cutting off
about ½ inch of the paper where the smudges were worse.

Melissa

 

[Howard R. Silverstein]

I removed the old cartridge and cleaned everything I could see without taking
anything apart. I ran some test pages and the first few were OK but then the
problem returned. I cleaned everything again and tried some pages again.
The same thing happened; first pages were OK and then the rest weren't. I
replaced the cartridge and the probelm disappeared ! I think the old
cartridge was permitting some toner to escape in the printer. Thanks to all
for your help and suggestions.

~Howard