Laserjet iiiP grey background on page.

[diogenes10]

The saga continues.

Printer referenced in thread697-796303

Print was ok when the page did not jam.

Took it home, sat in garage for long time (covered).
Took it out a few weeks ago and opened it up to find out how to add memory. Blew out back parts with air hose.
Put back in garage.
Took out again last week to replace the top roller kit.

I had bought an HP quick reference service guide volume 1 on eBay.
Unfortuately the pages referencing service mode are missing so I was unable to figure out how to do the self test. I had to haul the printer around some more to get it to a computer and do print tests through windows.

The first test had a grey vertical band on the left 1/3 of the page and another strip almost to the right of the page.
The next and all subsequent ones were entirely grey in the background except for a small vertical strip at the right of the page.

I wiped off the drum, result did not change. There is a long rubbery type roller in the front door that is covered in toner, except for a small area on the left side (as I look down on the open door from the front of the printer). I assume this corresponds to the clear area on the right side of the page.

I assume this roller has gotten toner cover somehow and is transferring it to the cartridge drum. I do not know if I am supposed to try to clean the roller somehow or if there is another part in the printer that is supposed to do that that has gotten broken.

In short, somewhere in the process of moving, storing, blowing out and replacing the upper roller bar, I have done something to make this printer develop the new problem of grey background and I dont know what to do about it.

Any suggestions for me?

Thanks.

 

[edfair]

The test sheet will include a cleaning sheet. Might try running it through the printer and see if that helps.

Not too wise to blow anything when you have toner, but you know that now.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[diogenes10]

To try and describe this - I wanted to know about the memory cards, where they went, etc. After tons of searching I finally came up with something that showed me where to get into that. In that process I found 6 "lids" on the printer. (2 in the front, 1 each top, sides, and back)

The part on the front that drops down to insert paper and the next part that drops down where the roller repair was done. When those were down and I removed the plastic topping on the back I discovered that the top would lift up and the sides would come off. I removed them and put the front parts back up and then worked on blowing dust bunnies out of the back parts and the power supply fan. Unless that process got some air flow from the back part of the printer into that front chamber, there shouldn't have been any air/toner movement in that front chamber where the long rubber roller and the exposed toner drum are.

Does the printing process itself put toner on that roller?

 

[diogenes10]

Just studied a picture, I think the part I am talking about is the transfer roller. So I think my question is, are there parts that can malfuntion that would cause the transfer roller to get dirty with toner?

 

[edfair]

How about the possibility that the failure to feed paper caused the transfer roller to hold on to toner.

How about running a test sheet several times and using the cleaning sheet to pick it off?

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[diogenes10]

Ok
I'll go work out how to get the test page going and run it several times and see what happens. May be a little later in the week before I can do it and post back.

Thanks for both your input and your patience with my questions.

 

[1043]

When you blew it out you contaminated the transfer roller. Try printing a continuous test page and see if it clears.

 

[diogenes10]

Cleaning pages did not work. The problem got worse until the entire transfer roller and cartridge drum were covered with loose toner and it seemed to stay at that point.

Googling -- first recommendation most often was to replace cartridge. Was hesitant to try that because in many of those threads it didn't seem to do any good; however finally decided to try it because there are no corona wires, the cartridge electrical contacts looked ok, and I could see no other mechanism than the cartridge itself for cleaning the transfer roller.

New cartridge and 2 or 3 cleaning passes to remove "speckling" on the page and at the moment it is working. No toner rubs off the transfer roller on my fingers. Whether that is a permanent repair or it will fail after 30-40 pages I don't know yet.

I had a terrible time getting the cleaning runs done because it is now giving me an almost continual #13 paper jam for the sheets going into the printer. I guess I need to get the lower rollers and cork pad and try that fix too.
(Ed told me I should get them when I got the upper ones!)