HP LaserJet 4L toner sticks to OPC

[Jeroni Paul]

I have an HP LaserJet 4L that has sit unused for five years, when last used it printed pefectly. Now I get this:

http://imgur.com/a/a51D0

I tested to open the printer door halfway in the process to see the print before the fuser and the mess is there, so not a fuser problem. In this test I noticed very little toner transferred to the paper, the part of the OPC that had already passed over the paper had the printed image sharp and clean on it, and the toner transferred to the paper was very faint. Could that point to some missing voltage that should have caused the toner to be attracted into the paper?

[N_Cook]

Damp paper ?, try drying some before using

[mike]

Storage conditions?
Must be DRY.

Clean the 3 contacts on the bottom of the toner and their mates
in the printer. The printer contacts are spring loaded and should
depress and release easily. Clean around the contact areas.

If that doesn't help, remove the metal ramp and transfer roller.
Clean the roller and all the nooks and crannies under it.

This is all based on your statement that the image on the OPC was
pristine and assumes the printer and paper are DRY, DRY, DRY.
They won't be if you stored it in a damp place.

I can't come up with a way to get your linked picture when the OPC is
clean. You've got background toner everywhere.
That can't happen if your OPC is clean and the fuser is clean.
From the picture, I'd guess that the wipers inside the toner are
not working, but that would leave background toner on the OPC.

I just had a similar problem, but there was background toner
on my OPC. First "new" 20-year-old toner cart was worse. Second one
worked.

[Jon Elson]

Classic malfunction of the 4 and 5 models, due to failed wiper blade (or at
least, that's what it looks like in the pic.)

You can get a replacement wiper blade from eBay sellers, although most want
to sell a 10-pack. You have to remove 2 pins from the ends of the cartridge
to split the toner drum from the photoconductor drum. Remove two large pin-
plates on ends of photoconductor drum (they are the axle) and remove the
drum. Then, the wiper blade is held to the photoconductor side with 2
screws. First time will be a real hassle, then it is a 10 minute job next
time. If you buy a NOS replacement cartridge, the wiper will fail within
4-5 pages, so you have to do this again, even on a "new" cartridge. But,
other than this problem and a solenoid that has a soft stop when the
armature releases that can go bad, this printer model is built like a tank.

Jon

[Jeroni Paul]

Thanks for all the replies.
The storage room is quite stable in humidity around 50% relative humidity.
Here is the drum and paper after another stop-in-the-middle print test:

http://imgur.com/97Fc62n

As you can see there is some background toner, that could be due to a failed wiper blade, still the black text does not seem to transfer to the paper. The text "HP Explorer" and "Information" has already passed over the paper and most toner remains in the drum, so the text in the paper is almost indistinguishable.

There may be two different problems, a failed wiper blade and something else and I'm not sure if they are related. I would not mind some gray background as long as the text was readable, so I am more interested in fixing the second problem than the first.

The printer and cartridge contacts are clean and all three posts in the printer have a working spring pushing them against the cartridge contacts.

[Jeroni Paul]

Here is the drum and the paper:

http://imgur.com/a/5O5xi

[Jon Elson]

Jeroni Paul wrote:

> Thanks for all the replies.
> The storage room is quite stable in humidity around 50% relative humidity.
> Here is the drum and paper after another stop-in-the-middle print test:
>
> http://imgur.com/97Fc62n
>
> As you can see there is some background toner, that could be due to a
> failed wiper blade, still the black text does not seem to transfer to the
> paper. The text "HP Explorer" and "Information" has already passed over
> the paper and most toner remains in the drum, so the text in the paper is
> almost indistinguishable.
>

OK, as some of the image seems to be from several revolutions of the drum
past, that does seem to indicate the wiper blade is not working. There
should only be ONE part of the image on the drum. The corona wire that
charges the drum can only work properly on a CLEAN drum! So, once the drum
has a whole bunch of toner all over it, it will not charge properly, and
thus the opposite charge on the paper will not work as effectively to pull
the toner OFF the drum onto the paper.

I have had VERY similar results, and replacing the wiper blade made the
printer work like brand new.

Jon