Issues with Canon Color LaserJet color output

Hey there.

So, we’ve got a Canon Color LaserJet 2605 dn running at the office. When we first picked it up, the color quality was honestly top-tier. But ever since we swapped out the toner for the first time, everything has gone downhill fast. The colors look terrible now, and I’m noticing the red specifically is just completely off. We aren't cutting corners here—we exclusively use genuine OEM toners, and nothing else has been touched on this machine. It’s clocked about 14,000 color pages so far (maybe 20,000 total). Just to be clear, the quality tanked immediately after that first toner swap.

Any idea what might be causing this mess?

shadowlynx16 said:Hey there.

We’ve got a Canon Color LaserJet 2605 dn at my office. When we first picked it up, the color quality was killer. But ever since we swapped out the toner for the first time, the colors have gone downhill fast. The red, specifically, looks terrible. We always stick strictly to original cartridges—nothing else, ever. This thing has clocked about 14,000 color pages (20,000 total). Just a heads up, the quality dropped immediately after that first toner swap.

What do you think is going on?

It’s an internal calibration issue.

And calibration is tied directly to those chips.

If the system decides you’ve popped in a non-genuine cartridge, HP says NO NO and won't run a proper calibration.

Here's the kicker: if you pull an original toner from one printer and toss it into the machine next to it, the HP Firmware flags it as NP NO Replacement toner. Then, when you try to put that same toner back into the original printer—after testing it in the other one—you're stuck.

Now you've got two printers both dealing with NO NO HP replacement toners.

HP no no == no no calibration

The fix: Swap all four toners for ones with HP Yes Yes calibration. If even one is flagged as NO NO, they all basically become NO NO. Since you'll never catch all of them at once, you'll just be stuck with NO NO calibration forever.
Makes sense?

The issue lies with the laser itself, not the toners.

The red toner sits at the very bottom of the printer—which means the red laser optics are also positioned right at the bottom. Because of basic gravity, dust and grime naturally settle right onto those red laser optics, causing the intensity to drop and making the red output look terrible.