On 15 Nov 2006 04:59:57 -0800, Simoc wrote:

Probably dried out electrolytic caps. You should measure their ESRs to
know which ones need to be changed. If there is not very lot of caps,
you can also try to change them all, except the one(s) as main filter
right after mains rectification.

Thanks for the suggestion Simoc.

I had thought of caps but if it's been on 24 hours previously it only
takes 2 seconds before powering up yet if it's been a week it takes 2
minutes. Can you see a cap in the power supply not fully discharging in
24 hours? Then there is the ten years I've had the printer and it's
occasionally gone a couple of weeks between being used, surely the caps
would have discharged in that time and I would have seen the same
problem.

I was thinking more along the lines of a battery to be honest, maybe on
the processor board. There isn't any obvious damage to the psu and no
caps are leaking or bulging.

Thanks also to all who suggest I stay with laser printing :-)

This one has done sterling work and was a real second hand bargain when
I got it. Times change though and I'm now effectively a home user who
may want to print the occasional web page or letter and possible
photographs in the future. Even a modern cheap laser will do something
like 2000 sheets from a toner cartridge and I just can't see me
printing that much in the next 10 years.

I'm not dumping this printer while it still works though and I can't
see me buying an inkjet while this does still work. Lasers are real
value for money printers providing you use them but the consumables do
so many sheets that I'm never going to use them up. The previous toner
cartridge didn't run out of toner, the transfer roller aged first and I
was using it a lot more than I do now.

--
Regards - Rodney Pont
The from address exists but is mostly dumped,
please send any emails to the address below
e-mail ngpsm4 (at) infohitsystems (dot) ltd (dot) uk