Well. some know that I am broke lately, but even when I was doing well I liked to hold on to money except for certain things.

So I have this printer. I bought it new, but then it was in not so friendly an environment. There were cigarette smokers, pot smokers and drug smokers around. Eventually the printing faded. I suspected maybe a HV problem or something because all colors were affected. It sat dormant for a time until I found a parts unit. I changed the HV board and whatnot, and finally the LASER assembly. That made it work. I took the original one apart and found that the spinning mirror was dirty as hell. All I would have had to do was clean it. So it is working, and I seriously do not remember going through an alignment procedure for registration. I have seen a bunch of color printers and generally they print a color page and you set values in software to make the colors align. More modern units that include a scanner sometimes do it themselves, just scan the test sheet you just printed and it makes a few noises and sets itself.

I do not remember doing any such thing with this printer, and when I first installed the LASER unit the registration was indeed off. But it did it itself. It was not long before it was in perfect registration. (I went on a beer run I think) I figure it must have sensors like a late model three tube rear projection TV with the "autoconverge" feature, though I saw no evidence of any sensors.

The issue now is one of toner. Following is what I have read about that :

They sell toner refill kits. Low toner is calculated by usage by a small chip on the cartridge. A new ("bootleg")chip is sold with the toner refill kit.

It somehow fools the machine into not knowing the toner is low. They said that you must change this chip before it runs completely out because somehow it knows in software that is was empty. By then it is too late. Not sure if I believe this but it is possible.

Now my machine is saying to buy cyan toner. I think it is in error because with the dirty mirror it should not have used as much as the usage should indicate. Right now the prints come out fine with perfect, deep color so it is not low enough to fade by any stretch.

The parts printer I got had toner cartridges in it and in fact I used the black already, no problem there. The guy must have changed it so it is probably not a "promotional" one that comes with it only half full so they can extract $ 70 each for them. All four add up to almost half the cost of the whole thing. (more than half of what I paid)

The parts printer had a bad (IIRC) "transfer belt" ? The rollers on the color toners are wrecked but the black is fine. I believe there was cat urine in that machine and that caused the problem.

So my thought is to take the cyan from the parts machine, put that chip in my cartridge with the good roller, and somehow extract the rest of the cyan toner to top it off.

I am looking for tips and tricks o how to do this. They have instructions but I think they come with the refill kit as I was unable to find it on the web. At least in the past. Someone may say it is available now and stick up a link, which I would appreciate, but that won't cover how to get the toner out of the other cartridge, which I would really like to do.

I also have some black Xerox copier toner which I am pretty sure can be used. Most of my printing is text in black so the first "bootleg" chip is most likely to go in the black so I can just throw in more toner as needed. If so it'll probably last longer than I do.

What am I wrong about and what am I right about ?

The other two printers in the house are inkjets with clogged heads due to non-use, one of them is a four ink type without the heads built into the cartridge. I am going to get the model number of that one, do a web search on the subject and try to clean the print head, but if that doesn't work I'll be back about it.

With these inkjet printers being practically disposable around here, any help in getting this LASER printer to be low maintenance is appreciated, so thanks in advance.

On Fri, 6 Apr 2018 16:51:23 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

With these inkjet printers being practically disposable around here,
any help in getting this LASER printer to be low maintenance is
appreciated, so thanks in advance.

I'll try to cover the low points of your stream of consciousness
adventure in printer repair.

If you're looking for parts, the CP1215, CP1312, CP1515, CP1518, and
CM1312 are all the same engine. Your CM1312 has the additional glass
plate scanner/copier, but is otherwise similar internally.

I have a CP1518 in my office waiting for me to spend some time raising
it from the dead. The previous owner ran about 60,000 pages through
it in about 6 months. That produced enough wear on the plastic parts
to have it stop printing. It looks new on the outside, but very worn
on the inside. I would expect such a printer to last longer, but I
guess that was only the old HP company.

Yes, the toner cart chip replacement works. I have had some defective
chips, but they were quickly replaced by the vendor. I'll spare you
my rant on refill, counterfeit, and profit protected toner carts.

Clone toner carts are cheap enough that I no longer refill the carts
with toner. It's not the cost, but the mess that I usually make
handling the old and new toner. Replacement carts are about $15/ea or
$40 for set of 4 colors:
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=Color+LaserJet+CM1312+toner
https://www.ebay.com/itm/162121265042

The deterioration in print quality you described was probably dirty
optics. With cigarette and recreational drug smog, it coats
everything with a layer of brown tar. Just cleaning the optics isn't
enough. The printer will get hot, the residue on other parts will
volatize, and you'll soon get another layer of tar on the optics. I
suggest painting the insides with alcohol until most of the residue is
gone. Make sure you have a plastic catch basin to trap the dripping
dirty alcohol. I've only done this once, and have refused to do it
again. In the future, you might consider a plastic printer cover when
it's not in use.

Most toner carts use an optical method of determining toner use. Also
used are simply counting pages and declaring the toner out after some
number of pages. Both are rather conservative and tend to indicate
empty when there's plenty of toner left. I vaguely recall that
there's a setting to ignore toner out indicator or something similar,
that will let you run the carts until they are really out.



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

On Saturday, 7 April 2018 00:51:26 UTC+1, wrote:
Well. some know that I am broke lately, but even when I was doing well I liked to hold on to money except for certain things.

So I have this printer. I bought it new, but then it was in not so friendly an environment. There were cigarette smokers, pot smokers and drug smokers around. Eventually the printing faded. I suspected maybe a HV problem or something because all colors were affected. It sat dormant for a time until I found a parts unit. I changed the HV board and whatnot, and finally the LASER assembly. That made it work. I took the original one apart and found that the spinning mirror was dirty as hell. All I would have had to do was clean it. So it is working, and I seriously do not remember going through an alignment procedure for registration. I have seen a bunch of color printers and generally they print a color page and you set values in software to make the colors align. More modern units that include a scanner sometimes do it themselves, just scan the test sheet you just printed and it makes a few noises and sets itself.

I do not remember doing any such thing with this printer, and when I first installed the LASER unit the registration was indeed off. But it did it itself. It was not long before it was in perfect registration. (I went on a beer run I think) I figure it must have sensors like a late model three tube rear projection TV with the "autoconverge" feature, though I saw no evidence of any sensors.

The issue now is one of toner. Following is what I have read about that :

They sell toner refill kits. Low toner is calculated by usage by a small chip on the cartridge. A new ("bootleg")chip is sold with the toner refill kit.

It somehow fools the machine into not knowing the toner is low. They said that you must change this chip before it runs completely out because somehow it knows in software that is was empty. By then it is too late. Not sure if I believe this but it is possible.

Now my machine is saying to buy cyan toner. I think it is in error because with the dirty mirror it should not have used as much as the usage should indicate. Right now the prints come out fine with perfect, deep color so it is not low enough to fade by any stretch.

The parts printer I got had toner cartridges in it and in fact I used the black already, no problem there. The guy must have changed it so it is probably not a "promotional" one that comes with it only half full so they can extract $ 70 each for them. All four add up to almost half the cost of the whole thing. (more than half of what I paid)

The parts printer had a bad (IIRC) "transfer belt" ? The rollers on the color toners are wrecked but the black is fine. I believe there was cat urine in that machine and that caused the problem.

So my thought is to take the cyan from the parts machine, put that chip in my cartridge with the good roller, and somehow extract the rest of the cyan toner to top it off.

I am looking for tips and tricks o how to do this. They have instructions but I think they come with the refill kit as I was unable to find it on the web. At least in the past. Someone may say it is available now and stick up a link, which I would appreciate, but that won't cover how to get the toner out of the other cartridge, which I would really like to do.

I also have some black Xerox copier toner which I am pretty sure can be used. Most of my printing is text in black so the first "bootleg" chip is most likely to go in the black so I can just throw in more toner as needed. If so it'll probably last longer than I do.

What am I wrong about and what am I right about ?

The other two printers in the house are inkjets with clogged heads due to non-use, one of them is a four ink type without the heads built into the cartridge. I am going to get the model number of that one, do a web search on the subject and try to clean the print head, but if that doesn't work I'll be back about it.

With these inkjet printers being practically disposable around here, any help in getting this LASER printer to be low maintenance is appreciated, so thanks in advance.


Do yourself a favour and bin the inkjets. Once ink dries in the head they're usually a waste of time, and they'll only clog again. If you must play, try alcohol.

Opening the cart: is there really no youtube vid showing a refill/recon on your cart?


NT

"I'll try to cover the low points of your stream of consciousness
adventure in printer repair"

LOL, I do appreciate that. (that thread I said there was nobody whose opinion I respect more, that was a mistake, I meant YOU)

"I have a CP1518 in my office waiting for me to spend some time raising it from the dead. The previous owner ran about 60,000 pages through it in about 6 months. That produced enough wear on the plastic parts to have it stop printing. It looks new on the outside, but very worn on the inside. I would expect such a printer to last longer, but I guess that was only the old HP company. "

If you want, I have almost every part for the thing from the parts mule. I might just send them to you for shipping. I will never use the thing enough to wear it to that point. If you want to pay something fine, just charge the **** out of the customer of course. Whatever.

"Yes, the toner cart chip replacement works. I have had some defective chips, but they were quickly replaced by the vendor. I'll spare you my rant on refill, counterfeit, and profit protected toner carts. "

Rant or not, I do hope it doesn't get on a moral train idolizing HP and their attempt to capture a market so they can gouge people. I know the rollers wear out but for one, how much ? And for two, form what I have seen of HP they don't give a flying **** about anything but money coming in, so do unto other as they do unto you. After paying $ 500 for this thing the least they could've done is give me full toner cartridges with it.

"The deterioration in print quality you described was probably dirty optics."

I figured that out when I saw the rotating mirror. things have changed and them people are gone. I don't even smoke cigarettes now, and if I burn one it is out in the garage. but this does not wear the gears, so that offer it not all that bad. If you want I'll gather up everything and list it so you can decide what you want and not. Plus, all that stuff did not come from the printer I bought and used, it is from the parts printer.

"I
suggest painting the insides with alcohol until most of the residue is gone.. Make sure you have a plastic catch basin to trap the dripping dirty alcohol."

I saw the innards, the nylon is still white, the grease where it is is good, I think the mirror somehow attracted that smog more than the other parts. And it wasn't that old when it was taken out of service. I thought it was running low on toner, but it wasn't.

"I've only done this once, and have refused to do it
again."

You should see some of the jobs I had to do. (not really) Bad enough cleaning capacitor crap, but sometimes there was roach and rodent feces, luckily not anything alive because they were careful about that. But it was still gross, and the PAID. I made them pay. I mean, I would wash my hand BEFORE taking a ****.

"Most toner carts use an optical method of determining toner use."

That seems harder to implement than in an inkjet.

"Also used are simply counting pages and declaring the toner out after some number of pages."

That is more profitable, so let's ponder just what a wonderful and benevolent company like HP would do... ... ... Done.

"I vaguely recall that there's a setting to ignore toner out indicator or something similar, that will let you run the carts until they are really out. "

I says to buy cyan toner, it also says override in use. The two concerns are if it gets really out completely, will it stop completely ? When I unplugged the thing it wouldn't even scan so of course I cursed HP. (I worked on a couple of their scopes and they are as bad as Tek but without the good) apparently that was a different issue because now it works. It has been sitting for quite some time.

Will operating it completely out of cyan toner damage it in any way ? I don't see how but this is not my field of expertise. (to say the least) If it can tell which toners get used and I only print black and white, it should work forever right ? If so I can actually ignore the nag.

If that is the case I won't tamper with it at all. If it does run out, which I will see by the prints it makes, then I'll deal with it. That might be the best way to go.

Let me know if you want those gears and things. i cna gather up all the pieces parts and take some pictures. I might still have the whole side assembly with the gear train, but that might not fit a unit that is not all in one.. I don't know. Just let me know.

"Do yourself a favour and bin the inkjets. Once ink dries in the head they're usually a waste of time, and they'll only clog again. If you must play, try alcohol. "

I didn't buy them. It's family. I bought the LASER printer because of that after I went through a dozen inkjets or so. But they will not spend the money to print so rarely. they might end up either using mine or going to a retail place or library where they do that.

"Opening the cart: is there really no youtube vid showing a refill/recon on your cart? "

I checked years ago and I couldn't find one. Maybe things have changed. Plus now I have the software to download it and not just from youtube.

In article ,
says...


Do yourself a favour and bin the inkjets. Once ink dries in the head they're usually a waste of time, and they'll only clog again. If you must play, try alcohol.

Opening the cart: is there really no youtube vid showing a refill/recon on your cart?




Oe of my better moves was to get rid of an ink printer and go to the
laser type with the toner. I do not really need any color printing for
the most part. The laser really puts out the work and Ican set it to
automatically print both sides or even to print two pages on one side of
a paper if the print is large enough to read. The printer was on sale so
the cost was not very much.

On Saturday, April 7, 2018 at 2:50:28 AM UTC-4, wrote:
"Do yourself a favour and bin the inkjets. Once ink dries in the head they're usually a waste of time, and they'll only clog again. If you must play, try alcohol. "

I didn't buy them. It's family. I bought the LASER printer because of that after I went through a dozen inkjets or so. But they will not spend the money to print so rarely. they might end up either using mine or going to a retail place or library where they do that.

"Opening the cart: is there really no youtube vid showing a refill/recon on your cart? "

I checked years ago and I couldn't find one. Maybe things have changed. Plus now I have the software to download it and not just from youtube.

A lazer printer for B/W printing. Only B/W printing. Sounds like a good option. I never figured that.

"A lazer printer for B/W printing. Only B/W printing."

Ihad one. An HP Laserjet 1100+. It was good, black and white, a tank of toner that was huge, it was fast and got the job done. This was a while back and used the parallel port, I had to have two of them, one ran that and the scanner because the Zerox color inkjet woulds not tolerate anything inline, like you used to hook up flatbed scanners. I had a Visioneer 6100B that was VERY good, I mean phenomenal performance. Seen nothing like it before or since.

I bought the Xerox because it had a lengthy cleaning cycle, four color and the print head not in the cartridges. thing made all kinds of noise. Go to print something it was zonk, zong zoook zonk, zonk zook zonk zonk. And so forth. That got irritating but it was supposedly cleaning the head. Well the thing clogged up anyway.

At least the ones with the heads integrated into the cartridge took care of that, but added to the cost of the cartridges. If you print alot you could refill them, but let it set and you need new ones. One day I was in a store and I saw a brand new printer for $ 5, a return. they didn't return the cartridges. After seeing the price of those it sat there I think until they threw it in the dumpster.

So up fill the landfills. The American way. That's why I bought the LASER. Ten years and nothing ever went wrong except the dirty mirror which was sue to that crazy lifestyle. (wake and bake etc.) And running out of toner. When it wouldn't work it must have been a software problem in the PC because it would still make copies, which it will do on its own. The only thing I can bitch about is the cost of the cartridges.

They include new rollers, do all (consumer/small office) LASER printer have that ? I am pretty sure the really big ones have a tank and you just fill it. Is there a lower end model like that ?

On Sunday, 8 April 2018 00:41:40 UTC+1, wrote:

"A lazer printer for B/W printing. Only B/W printing."

Ihad one. An HP Laserjet 1100+. It was good, black and white, a tank of toner that was huge, it was fast and got the job done. This was a while back and used the parallel port, I had to have two of them, one ran that and the scanner because the Zerox color inkjet woulds not tolerate anything inline, like you used to hook up flatbed scanners. I had a Visioneer 6100B that was VERY good, I mean phenomenal performance. Seen nothing like it before or since.

I bought the Xerox because it had a lengthy cleaning cycle, four color and the print head not in the cartridges. thing made all kinds of noise. Go to print something it was zonk, zong zoook zonk, zonk zook zonk zonk. And so forth. That got irritating but it was supposedly cleaning the head. Well the thing clogged up anyway.

At least the ones with the heads integrated into the cartridge took care of that, but added to the cost of the cartridges. If you print alot you could refill them, but let it set and you need new ones. One day I was in a store and I saw a brand new printer for $ 5, a return. they didn't return the cartridges. After seeing the price of those it sat there I think until they threw it in the dumpster.

So up fill the landfills. The American way. That's why I bought the LASER.. Ten years and nothing ever went wrong except the dirty mirror which was sue to that crazy lifestyle. (wake and bake etc.) And running out of toner. When it wouldn't work it must have been a software problem in the PC because it would still make copies, which it will do on its own. The only thing I can bitch about is the cost of the cartridges.

They include new rollers, do all (consumer/small office) LASER printer have that ? I am pretty sure the really big ones have a tank and you just fill it. Is there a lower end model like that ?

If you want low end & long lived, look at HP laserjet 5 & earlier. Those things just go on & on & on. The 286 (I think it is) in them is a bit slow at getting it together but it works.


NT

I had a really huge old one a long time ago. Two guys to carry it. And just a printer, not even a copier. When turned on, periodically the lights would dim a few times for about a second each. I figure it was the HV recharging the drum or whatever so it would be ever ready to print. Luckily I had a 50 foot cable so I could put it in the closet.