Anyone know about colour lazers?

[jimtherev]

I have a HP 3600 - in general very reliable & acceptable colour. Built like a brick karzi: think IBM PC. Only 31,000 prints, so a relatively underused machine. However,

I am now getting streaks on the cyan output. (The other 3 carts are fine.) This is the second cyan cartridge to exhibit this. I thought that the mechanism was that the toner was just deposited on the transfer belt with no intermediate step, thence to the paper - in fact, this seems to be the case on inspection of my beestie.

So have I just been unlucky with two consecutive dodgy cartridges, or am I missing something?

[cats_five]

Have you tried cleaning it as per the HP instructions? My guess is that's the place to start. If that doesn't fix the problem then I'd try the HP forums.

HP Officejet J3600 All-in-One Printer series- HP Officejet J3600 All-in-One Series - Cleaning the Outside of the All-in-One - c01123508 - HP Business Support Center

[Mike-Bracknell]

Whilst you're faffing about with the cleaning process, I can let you know that we have a 3600 at one of our customer sites, and it's perenially giving problems with paper feed. So if you're talking to any supplier about supplies for the 3600, stock up on a couple of paper feed rollers

[jimtherev]

Hi Mike; you depress me with your advice!!! - but thanks anyway; I'll bear the roller thing in mind. As I said, brick-karzi performance to date, except for the cyan cart.

And yes, it is the cartridge: I disabled the printer check, swopped the carts about, and still got streaks on the cyan. So that's that.

Reassuring to see you're still around: you've been a little silent of late...

And Cats: thanks for pointing me at the HP site - even though it kept trying to tell me about inkjets; I got to the right page eventually.

[mixture]

jimtherev,


Probably to do with your Imaging Unit / Fuser / Transfer Roller.

Can't remember off the top of my head which one of the three is most likely for streaking..... Google will have to be your friend.

I thought that the mechanism was that the toner was just deposited on the transfer belt with no intermediate step, thence to the paper - in fact, this seems to be the case on inspection of my beestie.

HowStuffWorks "How Laser Printers Work"

[jimtherev]

Yes, thanks Mixture. The setup in the '3600 is of four imaging units stacked one above each other (CMYK), then a transfer belt rather than drum, and then the fuser unit is at the top of the lot of 'em. (Actually, the 'imaging unit' is combined with the toner hopper, so quite compact really.)

By using HP's diags which involved swapping a couple of imaging units around (so that the cyan unit thought it was the yellow and vikkyversa) I've proved to my satisfaction that it is the imaging unit itself which is at fault. Just bad luck to have two successive cyan ones which were both less than perfect. Recycled ones rather than OEM - but at £30+ as against £100+... that's the way it must go.

And I've got an inkjet photo printer if quality really matters.

A bit of thread drift, but interesting...
While I was trawling through the printer menus I found 'Print RGB Samples' which proved to be 20 pages of printed samples, each with 72 different colour swatches on them. Colour matching has been a bit trial-and-error to date, since I couldn't find an algorithm to match screen colours with printer colours. Now at least I have a 1440-colour palate (?sp?) to choose from. May be useful some way down the pike...

[Mike-Bracknell]

Reassuring to see you're still around: you've been a little silent of late...

Recession? what recession?

[Bushfiva]

I don't know anything about HP laser engines, but is there possibly a corona wire somewhere that needs cleaning?

[jimtherev]

Originally Posted by Bushfiva

I don't know anything about HP laser engines, but is there possibly a corona wire somewhere that needs cleaning?

Yes, that or the developer drum. Whichever, it's the toner cartridge, since each has its own separate one.

Thanks everyone; it's been educational, and, hey- I've actually discovered that colour matching thing, so something good has come out of it.