Laser Printer Questions

S

Symom

Member
I purchased a couple of the wrong cartridges for my printer! It's old, HP LaserJet 4L, but works like a charm.
No returning them...
After an extended time I found a printer that fit these cartridges and figured I had it made in the shade. Wrong. The printer came with a cartridge but when I printed something it came out with a shadowed background. No problem put in one of the new cartridges, it had been opened but the strip hadn't been pulled. First page printed great. Again the print looks like it is on a gray page when it prints. What I read indicates “bad cartridge” so; I tried a second new one. Same bad shaded pages after the first sheet prints. Any suggestions? HP LaserJet III
 
GWguy

GWguy

*
Symom said:
I purchased a couple of the wrong cartridges for my printer! It's old, HP LaserJet 4L, but works like a charm.
No returning them...
After an extended time I found a printer that fit these cartridges and figured I had it made in the shade. Wrong. The printer came with a cartridge but when I printed something it came out with a shadowed background. No problem put in one of the new cartridges, it had been opened but the strip hadn't been pulled. First page printed great. Again the print looks like it is on a gray page when it prints. What I read indicates “bad cartridge” so; I tried a second new one. Same bad shaded pages after the first sheet prints. Any suggestions? HP LaserJet III
Click to expand...

Did you change the drivers from LJ 4 to LJ 3 ? Not the same driver set.
 
clevalley

clevalley

...
Best guess is the Corona Wire - this is a wire on a removable plate. Check to see if it is dirty - you can clean it using a q-tip VERY gently, do not use any cleaners on it. Reinsert and see if this fixes the problem. It could very well be you need a new one.

What the corona wire does is "erase" the electrical charge from the Organophotoconductor (OPC) belt/drum (belt in your case) The laser writes the letters/patterns on the OPC belt, the belt spins and the electrical charge placed on the belt by the laser attracts toner. The belt spins in conjunction with the paper coming in, and the toner gets transferred to the paper. The paper goes into the fusing unit (hot rollers) which melts the toner and presses it in the paper.

Once the transfer of toner takes place, the empty belt still has the electrical charge - the corona wire more or less erases the charge... if the electrical current running through this wire is not high enough, it can leave enough of a charge to attract a small amount of toner to create the gray you see.
 
S

Symom

Member
From what I'm reading it appears that the IIIp does not have a corona wire. I sure liked your response but it doesn't seem to exist. The cleaning process on this printer is to print a page and then turn it upside own and print again and this paper cleans. Actually the problem makes the pages appear like cleaning pages.
 
clevalley

clevalley

...
Symom said:
From what I'm reading it appears that the IIIp does not have a corona wire. I sure liked your response but it doesn't seem to exist. The cleaning process on this printer is to print a page and then turn it upside own and print again and this paper cleans. Actually the problem makes the pages appear like cleaning pages.
Click to expand...

There has to be something on there that re-biases the OPC belt... not sure of what it could be if it does not have a corona wire though... :ohwell:
 
clevalley

clevalley

...
There is a Corona / Charge / Transfer Roller which takes place of the corona wire...

The HP LaserJet IIIP was way ahead of the pack between 1989 and 1991 when it came out, and many of the advanced technologies that made these printers special then have become standard features since that time. When they were introduced they were smaller, faster, and lighter than anything else on the market. They were the first to make use of a charged roller system instead of corona wires. This was the technology that eliminated the need for ozone filters, because the new system did not produce harmful ozone gases. You can still benefit from owning one of these printers, like new but for a fraction of the original cost.
The LaserJet IIIP moved on to PCL Level 5, with serial and parallel I/O, and the 16 MHz CPU.
Click to expand...

Here is a pic of the roller - HP LaserJet IIIP Corona / Charge / Transfer

You might want to research and get your hands on a maintenance kit for the printer which contains the transfer roller, which does the job of the corona wire - plus it replaces all the other stuff which transfers the image to the paper (like the fusing unit);

HP LaserJet IIIp Printer#-# HP Monochrome LaserJet Series Printers - Maintenance Kits, a Quick Reference Guide - bpl03523 - HP Business Support Center
 
vanbells

vanbells

Pookieboo!!!
Tranfer roller if usually right before the toner cartridge. You also might want to check the fuser. Check inside. There's probably a lot of toner in there.

You can also try a LJ4 or LJ4si driver. It works wonders for HP older printers.
 
S

Symom

Member
I think it's going to have to move and leave no forwarding address. Enough already. The room is a wreck and nothing I do seems to make it print on a clean sheet of paper. Maybe it should become a geocache! I'm still smiling. Thank you all for your words of wisdom, I really do appreciate your trying to help.
 
Penn

Penn

Dancing Up A Storm
You do know it's illegal to attempt to reprint $50.00 bills? I'm just saying...
 
jazz lady

jazz lady

~*~ Rara Avis ~*~
PREMO Member
Symom said:
I purchased a couple of the wrong cartridges for my printer! It's old, HP LaserJet 4L, but works like a charm.
No returning them...
Click to expand...
If you still have the 4L, I have a brand new cartridge for it - free for the taking else it's going to the great big toner cartridge heaven in the sky. :smile:
 
S

Symom

Member
I've sent you a PM. That is an offer I cannot pass up. Anyone have a use for these HP75A's I've just attempted to use? Free for the asking.
 
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