What would cause my printer to print pages that look like...

[Gigantopithecus]

...this?

Thanks!

 

[Zepper]

Well, that's a self-test page. You press a certain combination of buttons on the printer to produce it, and sometimes there is a code that can be sent from the PC to do it as well or you can select from a menu on the on-board LCD (usually laser printers).

If you mean the shifted, light image, perhaps the drum isn't getting cleaned between images. Do you have very low humidity there?

.bh.

 

[Gigantopithecus]

Oops, sorry, I should've specified I meant to print a self-test page. Yeah, I was referring to the shifted/light/ghosted image. I'll try to clean the drum. As for low humidity, well, I live in central Indiana... It's really humid here! I did, however, leave the printer inactive for about a month before today though because I hadn't printed anything with it. Thanks for the advice!

Edit: cleaned up the drum, working as good as new now. Appreciate your tip!

 

[Zepper]

YW

High humidity can do it too if it's cold enough there to get condensing humidity (or you turned on the AC after the room was already good and humid causing condensing. Condensed water on the drum can cause the image to stick. If you run across those humid conditions, print some really blank-white images before printing something that will actually use toner. That will evaporate the condensed water off the drum so your real image won't stick.

I think both the dry and the wet conditions that can cause toner sticking (or incomplete release of excess) are explained in the troubleshooting sections of most laser printer manuals.

.bh.

 

[corkyg]

Humidity yes - and a dirty drum and possibly rollers and fuser. Go to Office Depot or Staples and pick up a package of laser cleaner sheets. Run one or two through until it comes out clean.

Also, open it up and do all the required cleaning and maintenance that is supposed to take place with every cartridge change - corona wire, etc.

 

[Peter]

Shadow images repeating themselves every drum rotation typically are caused by a worn drum. If that printer is using drum/cartridge combos, then you might have a bad cartridge - if it's a higher-spec model with separate drum, then it'll be time for a new drum.

The other possibility is dust on the drum eraser (a line of LEDs typically).