Just ordered a clone toner. $49 plus $6 shipping. No tax.

Since the toner was coming onto the green roller in a stripe - even out of the machine, I'm hoping that will be the reason for the grey striping. One waits with baited breath.

My skills as a diagnostician have become depleted lately. With current luck, the new one will probably explode and paint the room black.

Goodness! That brings back a vivid memory of coming home to find a squirrel had come down the chimney. About the only things that weren't black, were his eyes when he blinked at us.

"Since the toner was coming onto the green roller in a stripe"

The green roller is the selenium transfer drum which holds the charge - and the image
Its worn out
You mentioned in a previous post that you cleaned it - thats probably damaged the roller even further. Just touching those things damages them. Believe me I've been there and tried it

From memory I think the transfer drum and fuser unit are integral on these, though I suggest you call one of the specialist spares suppliers. From checking the web it looks as it new units are no longer in production - you're faced with buying reconditioned one

for instance, try calling this company (you'll find many others)
HP Fuser for LaserJet 4+ & 4M+, and LaserJet 5, 5M, 5N

Twas only the one in the cartridge. Brother, for example, have a separate unit. About $100 part, so the lad in Staples told me yesterday.

My lint-free cloth experiment was based on trying to revive what was already a dead duck. What's so odd is that it was so good for two sheets.

It seems there is a scraping strip that wipes this roller and dumps the residue in a waste bin in the cartridge. I never knew that.

It seems some people clean the sensitive surface, but what I was surprised about is that it needs to be kept in a low light level to avoid permanent damage. So much for my Anglepoise fluro and spotlight combo. :ooh:

What's naggin' at me now is whether the supplier of my $50 part will change the roller. I doubt they can at that price.

Milo, that link certainly is of use to me. I had no idea the 4 Plus was still being sold by refurbishing companies as the RR of Lasers. I may well need a primary ink thingie. The full roller kit is $39.

I've no doubt you know, but the little green hook/brush is to get that roller out.

The Samsung ML-3310ND is a solid little printer - had mine for a while now and it just chugs on.

Easy to set up and administer - all OSes seem to handle it without problems.

Mac

If it's just a B & W laser you want, look for a HP 4000 or 4050. The son of the 4 and 4+. The last of the 'good' HP lasers. No longer in production, but refurbs can be bought reasonably priced. Add a network card (the 4000N & 4050N come supplied with one) and away you go.

Printer Data Sheet - HP LaserJet 4000 Series

Printers are very "random" these days.

In the old days (20 years ago) an HP Laserjet would go for ever - until the developer drum wore out and then you binned it, but you would get years out of it.

I have run a Kyocera laser (something-1800) for maybe 10 years now, maybe 20k-30k pages, and it has been fine. The toner refills are cheap.

On inkjets, avoid Lexmark (ripoff ink) and I no longer use Epson. I use Canon and they seem to last well. Several i850s have run for 5-7 years, with one going in the bin recently.

BTW Canon cartridges are chipped nowadays. But the RSA private key was leaked and the Ebay ones are 1/4 of the price and work superbly, with great colours, in my new Pixma ip4950 duplexing inkjet. The Ebay # for the ink is 250965964429. This seems to be a very good inkjet.

If you look on Ebay you see the old Canon inkjets which take the 3E cartridges fetch more than new prices. For a good reason too. But the print heads eventually clog up and if the special reset sequence doesn't work (it rarely does) it has to go in the bin.

I also have a duplexing HP colour laser, 2605dtn, which is the biggest pile of crap ever. It never makes more than a few dozen pages before jamming, crashes on many "complex" pages (forcing a time wasting sequence of cancelling the job on the PC, waiting for the queue to empty, then power cycling the printer, and then reprinting the job on the Canon inkjet ;) ). The printer was £450, the refills are £250! The Ebay ones are £90 but deliver rubbish colours (which is OK on a laser as the colours are rubbish anyway) and not many pages (probably not such good value then). The cost per colour page is outrageous.

Now I think a fast duplexing inkjet, and an old mono laser, is the best way to go if you want everything i.e. reliability, low b+w costs, and reasonable colour costs, and top notch quality for photo printing.

I am 100% sure the Canon 4950 costs much less per page than the HP laser - assuming Ebay inks for both.

I wonder if anybody can recommend a really solid mono duplexing laser?

If you don't mind buying a used printer on eBay I'd suggest a Lexmark "workgroup" grade laser. Very reliable and designed to print a serious number of pages. The downside is they aren't small. The duplexer is an optional extra but is often included so look for it.

I've had a T522 for a number of years (plus several bought for friends and family) and have printed 60,000 pages - it had already printed 100,000 and is still going strong. They're designed to print 250,000 between services. The cartridges do 20,000 pages and can be had very cheaply if you're lucky - there are some going on UK eBay right now £19.95 +£6.95

Newer models are T640, T642, T644 and T646.

I'd suggest looking for one that has done 100,000 pages or less.