Issues with my HP 1015...

Hey everyone, hope you're all having a great start to the New Year!

So, here’s the headache I'm dealing with. Every time I finish a print job, this orange light next to the exclamation point starts blinking at me—and the print quality is just... messy. To be more specific, the top half of the page looks totally fine, but the bottom half? It's an absolute disaster.

To give you a better idea of what I'm talking about, I've attached a photo of the test page below.

I'd really appreciate any ideas or suggestions you might have. Thanks!

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/855/dsc03651in.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4BJ-0A029M

It’s not exactly breaking the bank, so I figure it’s worth a shot.

You’re probably thinking it’s just a bad drum or maybe we're running low on toner, right?
The weird thing is—this "smudging" issue always hits the exact same spot—so I was leaning toward it being a toner problem...

Thomas Stewart8 said:it’s not even that pricey, might be worth a shot.

you sure it isn't just a bad drum or running low on toner?
weirdly enough, that "smudge" is always in the exact same spot... made me think it was definitely the toner...

No way. Sounds like you had a paper jam and ever since, the thing's been acting up. I've got an old LaserJet 1000 myself. When the toner runs dry, you usually just get faded spots. This mess you're describing sounds more like your rollers are trashed. That part I posted is just a consumable—it's all about how the paper feeds through. Standard stuff for the LJ series.
Mine's been chugging along for almost ten years now, and when the toner dies, it doesn't leave streaks. Try a different cartridge, but honestly, I doubt that's the culprit. If it were the drum, you'd see tiny little specks everywhere. Like... fine toner dust sprayed all over the page. Hard to describe. But that's usually what happens.

From what I can gather, earlier owners ended up ditching this printer altogether because of constant paper jams. Nobody seemed to complain about the actual print quality—which is a shame—but whatever.
So, it’s not just a quick fix; I’m looking at ordering those two specific parts from the top and swapping them out. I actually took the thing apart a bit ago to clean everything, but honestly, it didn't change a thing...

Looking back at your comment, you mentioned the rollers? You think they might have kicked the bucket too?

I forgot to mention—it’s also smudging the prints, even in areas where there isn't actually anything scheduled to be printed. Instead of leaving the paper clean and white, it just leaves this light layer of "dirt" or residue everywhere.

Thomas Stewart8 said:Forgot to mention—it’s leaving smudges even when there isn't supposed to be anything printed there. Basically, instead of clean white paper, it just "muddies" the whole thing up.

Then the drum is shot. Why are you even bothering? For like $90, you could grab a used model that replaced the old 15 series. Brand new, works fine, comes with toner. A single genuine replacement toner for an LJ 1000 is like $75. A whole new printer will run you about $200.
If the drum's gone, don't waste the money fixing it. It's all cheap junk anyway.

Thomas Stewart8 said:Hey everyone, hope you're all having a great start to the year!

So, here's the deal. Every time I finish a print job, that little orange light next to the exclamation mark starts blinking. Plus, the text on the page always comes out looking "smudged" in basically the same spot. To be more specific, the top half of the paper looks totally fine, but the bottom half is an absolute disaster.

To give you a better idea, I've attached a photo of the test page below.

Any suggestions would be huge. Thanks!

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/855/dsc03651in.jpg

Probably some cheap off-brand toner that trashed the fuser.

I got this printer for basically nothing, so I don't mind dropping a little cash to get it back in shape. If I want to give it a full service and swap out the fuser, I’m looking at spending roughly $50. My main issue is just figuring out where to start—it keeps blinking that orange light after every single page, even though there isn't a paper jam to be found.

So, here is what I need to grab first:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-LJ-1010-1...item1c2d6b6c9b

And then this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-LJ-1010-1...item1c2bdec249

The toner currently inside is some off-brand knockoff—there aren't any HP markings on it—but judging by how it landed in my lap, the machine definitely worked at some point.

I've attached a video below showing it printing completely blank pages (just a Word doc with zero content), so you can see exactly what kind of mess we're dealing with:
http://youtu.be/p9IWepqxeWU

Thomas Stewart8 said:Got this printer for free, so I don't mind dropping a little cash to get it running right. Thinking about doing a full service and swapping the fuser, probably for about $50. Just stuck on where to start. And I can't figure out why that orange light keeps blinking after every single page when there isn't even a paper jam.

Try swapping the toner first.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport...ctID=c00028320

Door open, media out, no print cartridge, or media jam

The printer is in an error state that requires operator intervention or help.

Check The following : The
The print cartridge door is completely closed.
Media is loaded.
The print cartridge is correctly installed in the printer.
There is no media jam.

If it ain't the toner, move on to the next thing.

Instructions:
http://diagramas.diagramasde.com/otr...20SERVICIO.pdf

I’ll give it a shot—found a full set of replacement toner cartridges on eBay for a decent price (around $50). To be honest, the printer is actually my most urgent need right now (go ahead, laugh)—I need it once a month just to print out the payment slip for my son’s school lunch program! I think I'll probably play it safe for a while and see if I can track down someone else who owns this same model; maybe we could swap toners and see if that actually works...
🙂

I just finished printing out about 5 or 6 pages, and now it’s dead.
🙂

The thing is just blinking an orange light at me—that's it. No amount of mashing buttons seems to bring it back to life.
😢

EDIT:
Turns out it was just a paper jam. I tried to rush through a two-page job by typing too fast, and the machine couldn't keep up. Typical.

Just wanted to give an update after running some tests. I just tried swapping in two different genuine toner cartridges, but the result is identical—those same streaks appearing in almost the exact same spot every time.
What should my next move be? :/

One more thing—I might be able to get my hands on a decent stash of empty toner cartridges (not just for this specific model). Is there actually a market for those somewhere, and does anyone know what kind of price I could realistically ask for them?

Thomas Stewart8 said:I gotta report back after testing it out. I just tried using TWO brand-new, genuine toner cartridges, and yeah, same deal—smudges appearing in basically the same spot.
What should my next move be? :/

One more thing, I might be able to get my hands on a bunch of empty toner cartridges (not just for this specific printer). Is there any way to sell those somewhere, and what kind of money are we talking about?

Service is $300 - $117 + tax
== $200 for parts + labor