LJ 2600 not printing colors (mostly)

[Behemot]

This printer likely had several issues. I've started with cleaning the laser unit's mirrors, they were not that badly dusted, but still. Than just replaced cyan as that one was screwed and leaking toner immediatelly upon instering, so the transfer belt almost immeadiatelly got yellow/greenish layer on it. (Toner originally inserted from another unit which does not even beep, likely problem with power supply or something.)

Now I'm wondering if something else is screwed, I screwed it, or maybe the other toners are bad (either induced by that cyan problem, or something else). It only prints about 5 cm of black from the left, and than about 1/3 of the page (also from left) of both yellow and magenta. Toner cartridges usually last very long, but not indefinitelly, and with the cyan bad…plus I don't know how old they actually are, yet all besides black show very full state, which is likely bogus as they all weight much less than the new cyan (just by holding in the hand) so it may be they are already almost empty.

No cleaning or other stuff from the menu helped. So, any ideas what to check? Before buying three other new toners only to learn printer is bad, I could get cartridges from my 2600 which started printing shifted about 5cm to the left (likely bad controller screwing print geometry) and test with those. But that would be in about 2 weeks, I'm working on this on the other side of the country.

[Behemot]

So I've transplanted mainboard (formatter?) and the second (controller?) board with no change. Swapping formater into the second printer makes it print OK. Reason for not using the other one is that it is not visible with USB connected, which may have to to with a BAV99 dual-diode near the connector which seems to be bulgy, likely one diode burned.

So I will clean the second laser assembly, keep this formatter/controller, toners and stuff in that second printer and give it back to customer.

Than will try swapping that diode on the formatter from first printer, and try that in my 2600 series I have in me warehouse which started printing everything shifted very much to left side, with part of the print "outside" of paper. Learned that is likely formatter problem. We'll see if I can put together two working printers from three with different problems

[nabruxas]

It seems that the gears are not in correct position, so the timing is wrong.

[Behemot]

which of the problems you mean?

if with those colors, dunno, blue prints all over the paper, just the remaining colors don't

[nabruxas]

It only prints about 5 cm of black from the left, and than about 1/3 of the page (also from left) of both yellow and magenta

This problem.

[Behemot]

is it even possible? everything is quite tight there, besides, I'd expect smearing or something if it was putting toner on transfer belt in wrong moment, not that it is in correct position horizontally, just disappears vertically

[nabruxas]

Can you post a picture of the issue?

[Behemot]

unfortunately, don't have those papers with me right now, could do next week; in the meantime

Originally Posted by Behemot

Than will try swapping that diode on the formatter from first printer, and try that in my 2600 series I have in me warehouse which started printing everything shifted very much to left side, with part of the print "outside" of paper. Learned that is likely formatter problem. We'll see if I can put together two working printers from three with different problems

ignore that I've realised what I described there was problem with yet another (3500/3600 series); this 2600n of mine prints very very faint pages, especially on black and magenta, yet reports most cartridges at 40-50 %, any idea? laser assembly was cleaned not that long ago before it started doing this (besides, that's usualy problem with magenta, not key), in the meantime a new key cartridge was installed and printed to about half capacity and than it gradually started doing this to a state it is almost invisible

Attached how the 2600n printout looks like - almost invisible.

[Behemot]

Another update - short part:
- printer 1: not sure of state still
- printer 2: prints pretty much OK (not saying perfect, but OK)
- printer 3 (mine 2600n): needs cleaning magenta laser (again!!! damn this crappy printer; but yeah, I have dusty environment, with that wood/coal-fired stove I got in the working garage) and new cartridges

Long part: the old times when you could grab 10 years old HP toner and it would print just fine are long gone. Could do that 10 years ago maybe, not now. Anything but brand new (and I mean NEW, not "new old stock") cartridge could screw ya over, does not matter if 2 or 10 years old. ALL the ruber parts are now made shit, because majority is produced in china and them yellow devils just CANNOT PRODUCE PROPER RUBBER PARTS THAT LAST. Got one too many terrible experiences with ANYTHING rubber you can think off being utter shit. So what happened is this:

- in printer 1 or 2, cyan toner cleaning blade got screwed, spilling lots of toner onto transfer belt and everywhere
- I have slight suspicion yellow is starting doing the same (shows almost full cartridge still!! so if needed to be replaced in short future, customer will be wasting almost full cartridge!), gotta instruct customer to watch it
- cyan replaced with brand "new" printline brand cartridge, judging by the appearance (parts drilled away etc., so re-used cartridge body) this is renewed toner, this thing already shows signs of corrugated blade and already leaves several blue lines on the photoconductor and over the whole paper of course -> RMA
- key cartridge from printer 3, bought in 2018 as new-old-stock, printed last pages by the beginning of last year (before it got screwed), totaly bad, still shows enough toner left but leaves dark smudges on left side and does not print anything on right side; so it is only this bad cartridge (and, of course, dusty mirros in LAU) to make it stop printing propery - I repeat: with transfer belt printers, single bad toner could screw the whole print!
- suspected other cardridges also going bad (could be from how the printer fell over in my trunk as I've been transporting it on sunday though glad it still works at all), fortunately they are all almost empty so I will have to buy new set of four…

…or throw the thing to garbage and try to run another project as I have 3-4 LJ 3500/3600 series which could also work with switching parts between them (some with half-filled cartridges, but I do worry whether to risk using them, looking at how all the rubber parts go bad just by getting old, and it takes single bad cleaning blade and you are done printing). Cause new set of cartridges, even if some aftermarket (using that is risk of its own), costs well over 3000 CZK without VAT, that's not particularly cheap.

On the other hand, I don't even have anything decent to print invoices on at the moment. Tried several different Dell 1720dn's I do have as disposed-offs, despite them being just 20-50 thousand pages, they all print similar shit. Most likely fuser film bad. Should have kept 1710's instead, those have teflon-coated aluminium roller in the fuser and only start getting bad after 100k pages, these 1720dn's only have plastic film directly on the heating tube which endures much less. Also if anything, one of the rollers under the cartridge gets soaked in toner and also leaves marks on the paper. And their CPUs go bad if left running 24/7 so many of them have bad formatters. Already ordered new film so I'll replace and see if I can continue burning through photoconductor drums and cartridges which I got for free and keep at least one printer running.

But damn I thought it would just be I'd burn through printers I got for free, only switching easily replaceable consumables, having cheap print. Instead, I constantly have to replace stuff dug DEEP INSIDE the bloody machines and waste time and moneiz to keep those craps at least somewhat running