Any idea what's up with this printer?

[sidewinder]

Got an HP Colour Laserjet M551 which has been playing up in various ways but this is a new one. Whenever anything colour is printed, a load of magenta lines are printed on the left hand side, and a portion of the top left of the page is printed in magenta lines in the bottom right (see attachment)

 

My first thought was a driver issue but it happens even when I print a demo page from the printer itself. It's not residue on the fuser or anything like that, there is no mess and it's definitely deliberately printed lines.

 

Any ideas?

 

[SteveB_NI]

Seen something similar before - I believe it was a faulty colour toner ( in this case magenta).

 

I would change the magenta cartridge as a check - if it's the same as my scenario there was absolutely no tell tale residue signs on the fuser unit or toner cartridge rollers.

[speckytecky]

Had something similar on a Brother. that turned out to be it needed the Drum unit replacing.

[dry]

From memory the drum is combined with the toner on HP M551s. I'd replace the Magenta toner to see if the issue is fixed. If it is, ask your toner supplier for a foc replacement (depending on toner age/usage).

 

If it's still printing like this with a new Magenta, download the M551 service manual and deep within it (be warned, it's about 400 pages!) there's a troubleshooting guide with specific print quality issue examples to help troubleshoot it further.

[Narwhal]

It is almost definitely the toner cartridge. HP printers have the drum as part of the cartridge (unlike Brother printers where it is seperate) so a change of cartridge will also give you a clean drum.

[sidewinder]

Ahhh why didn't I think of changing the toner! Will try that, thanks

[sidewinder]

Changed it, still happens

 

Not really sure where to go from here

[Narwhal]

Have you checked to see whether the previous toner has leaked all over the inside of the printer?

[sidewinder]

I'll check again but almost certain it hasn't - there is no mess whatsoever. Also if the toner had leaked would it not print in solid sections rather than in lines?

[Narwhal]

looking at your picture it appears to have printed the page landscape with the toner being deposited on the leading edge and then dragged across the page. If it was a leakage I would expect to see the effect diminishing as more pages were fed through though.

[sidewinder]

Yeah thats what I mean, it's a consistent pattern that never fades. It's really bizarre.

[Joanne]

send a blank page from word through it.... what does it look like then?

[sidewinder]

OK, so after me insisting there wasn't, there was leaked toner on the transfer belt and roller which I spent a lot of time cleaning, but the effect is the same, it isn't diminishing and there are even a few lines of cyan in there now too.

 

@Joanne if I print blank pages, they come out perfectly blank

[rad]

What happens if you print a word document with just one word at the top in black ink?

[Joanne]

it sounds like when the toner cartridge is giving toner to the drum it may be putting too much on. If there was anything on the transfer belt it would have gone onto the blank page.

 

Perhaps you do have a faulty batch of carts? Are they originals? I've had endless issues in the past with compatible cartridges and stay well away from them in colour printers.