On Thu, 15 Mar 2012 21:03:44 -0500, Matthew Fries
wrote:

It's probably residue from a sticker that they put on demo units in
the retail stores.

Nope. This printer has printed 160,000 pages. That must have been a
really long term demo. Judging by what little was left of the actual
label, it was probably a vinyl bumper sticker or multiple smaller
stickers.

The sticker lists the features of the printer, and
maybe the price. I have a Laserjet 8100 in the office that has
leftovers from the demo sticker that I have not been able to remove
for years. The coverage isn't nearly as great as that on your printer,
and it's out of the way, so nobody cares.

I've seen those on inkjets, laptops, and desktops. The stickers are
little better than graffiti. Many stickers seem to use some form of
"permanent" glue.

Over the years, the glue seemed to dry out and is now almost a powder,
but even the usual solvents won't break it. There are a few deep
scratches from someone trying to scrape the residue off.

I've also seen the same thing with some labels. The glue turns to
dust and the label falls off. However, the residue left on the
printer is difficult or impossible to remove.

Since this is a REPAIR group, you could actually replace the plastic
exterior pieces. You can find a comprehensive selection at
PARTSNOW.COM. I have ordered many internal parts and some cosmetic
pieces from them over the years.

I buy most of my printer parts either on eBay or from Printerworks. In
this case, the top cover is $33.
http://www.printerworks.com/Catalogs/HP-LaserJet-2300/105_2300TopCover.html
Seems expensive, but I may do that if I can't get the crud off.

I didn't work on the printer today as I was doing service calls.

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558