Printer Ghosting

[EchoBlue]

Hi guys. 

My printer started to act weird. 

I guess the term is "Ghosting"? 

It prints but it leaves markings. 

Click HERE to see what I mean. 

How do you fix this? 

I have a Samsung SCX-4600. I believe it takes toner not inks. 

I appreciate the help.

[Bombastinator]

The moral of the story is never sleep with your printer on the first date.
 

Looking at your link, “ghosting”, seems to be “some sort of an number of different print errors” it’s a bunch of radically different printing systems.  I’m seeing dirty drum problems for laser printers, freeze out from 3d printers, all kinds of stuff that have totally different causes.

 

If you’ve got a laser printer and you’re seeing leftover images of previous prints, there could be several reasons that all come down to some variant of “your drum is dirty”.  There are still various possible causes of this though.

 

 

[EchoBlue]

1 hour ago, Bombastinator said:

The moral of the story is never sleep with your printer on the first date.
 

Looking at your link, “ghosting”, seems to be “some sort of an number of different print errors” it’s a bunch of radically different printing systems.  I’m seeing dirty drum problems for laser printers, freeze out from 3d printers, all kinds of stuff that have totally different causes.

 

If you’ve got a laser printer and you’re seeing leftover images of previous prints, there could be several reasons that all come down to some variant of “your drum is dirty”.  There are still various possible causes of this though.

 

 

It's a toner printer. 

How do you clean it?

[Bombastinator]

5 minutes ago, EchoBlue said:

It's a toner printer. 

How do you clean it?

Toner means laser printer.  Fixing laser printers is not my area.  It is for some here though.

[Kisai]

6 hours ago, EchoBlue said:

Hi guys. 

My printer started to act weird. 

I guess the term is "Ghosting"? 

It prints but it leaves markings. 

Click HERE to see what I mean. 

How do you fix this? 

I have a Samsung SCX-4600. I believe it takes toner not inks. 

I appreciate the help.

Laser printers do that if the fuser was exposed to light. You have to replace it. You should only change fuser assemblies (some printers the toner cart IS the fuser assembly as well) as quickly as possible and not unseal them until you're ready to insert it. 

 

If you're just getting "track marks" that's just dirty mechanical parts and they should be cleaned the next time you replace the fuser/toner cartridge assembly. It won't happen if you don't reuse paper. 

 

To avoid dirt in the printer, never recycle paper back into the printer once it's been printed on. The way "toner" works is that it's melted into the paper, so if you re-use the paper, the toner is re-melted and will leave trails on mechanical parts as it goes through it. If you flip the paper over, the heat will still melt the toner.

 

Toner is basically plastic powder. 

[Evanair]

Looks like a fuser or drum issue. On a color printer you could tell by printing a CYMK test page and see if it's a drum or fuser, black and white you can't  Your model doesn't have a bias transfer adjustment or a few other things you could do for a more professional printer. 

 

Usually this thing can happen when you get a paper jam and fail to clear it or you ended up having toner on the imaging drum.

 

If you know how these things work, you can visually espect the drum and fuser and you'll see exactly which item has the imprint on it. You can fix it but you could see which to replace.

 

So here's your options. Change the toner cartridge, as it has the imaging drum built in.  If you have a spare lying around, this is a good option. If you don't, move on to the next bit.

 

Just FYI, the fuser costs more than the printer is worth, and more than a replacement black and white printer all together.  So you're ready stuck with just replacing the printer.  It's not worth investing in a new fuser UNLESS you have spare toners lying around, as you'll just have to throw them away.

 

 

[EchoBlue]

16 hours ago, Kisai said:

Laser printers do that if the fuser was exposed to light. You have to replace it. You should only change fuser assemblies (some printers the toner cart IS the fuser assembly as well) as quickly as possible and not unseal them until you're ready to insert it. 

 

If you're just getting "track marks" that's just dirty mechanical parts and they should be cleaned the next time you replace the fuser/toner cartridge assembly. It won't happen if you don't reuse paper. 

 

To avoid dirt in the printer, never recycle paper back into the printer once it's been printed on. The way "toner" works is that it's melted into the paper, so if you re-use the paper, the toner is re-melted and will leave trails on mechanical parts as it goes through it. If you flip the paper over, the heat will still melt the toner.

 

Toner is basically plastic powder. 

Let me get this right

Toner printer is the same as Laser printer? 

I get faded printed on the paper too sometimes. Track marks 50% of the time. 

You talked about how you should not reuse the same paper that was printed. 

What if you want to use both side of the paper?

 

16 hours ago, Evanair said:

Looks like a fuser or drum issue. On a color printer you could tell by printing a CYMK test page and see if it's a drum or fuser, black and white you can't  Your model doesn't have a bias transfer adjustment or a few other things you could do for a more professional printer. 

 

Usually this thing can happen when you get a paper jam and fail to clear it or you ended up having toner on the imaging drum.

 

If you know how these things work, you can visually espect the drum and fuser and you'll see exactly which item has the imprint on it. You can fix it but you could see which to replace.

 

So here's your options. Change the toner cartridge, as it has the imaging drum built in.  If you have a spare lying around, this is a good option. If you don't, move on to the next bit.

 

Just FYI, the fuser costs more than the printer is worth, and more than a replacement black and white printer all together.  So you're ready stuck with just replacing the printer.  It's not worth investing in a new fuser UNLESS you have spare toners lying around, as you'll just have to throw them away.

 

 

I should just get a new printer? 

Money is tight though... You sure I can't just clean it here and there to fix it?

[Evanair]

2 hours ago, EchoBlue said:

I should just get a new printer? 

Money is tight though... You sure I can't just clean it here and there to fix it?

It's not something you can clean.  Both items that would need to be "cleaned" are sensitive.  Both cannot be touched and one cannot be exposed to light for very long. 

as an example:

 

Fuser: https://www.quikshiptoner.com/catalog/samsung-scx-4600-fuser-unit-110-120v  $105

Toner: https://www.staples.com/Samsung-Black-Toner-Cartridge-MLT-D105L-High-Yield/product_817096 $80

 

New Printer: https://www.staples.com/Brother-HL-L2320D-Monochrome-Laser-Printer/product_1074269 $90

[Bombastinator]

48 minutes ago, Evanair said:

It's not something you can clean.  Both items that would need to be "cleaned" are sensitive.  Both cannot be touched and one cannot be exposed to light for very long. 

as an example:

 

Fuser: https://www.quikshiptoner.com/catalog/samsung-scx-4600-fuser-unit-110-120v  $105

Toner: https://www.staples.com/Samsung-Black-Toner-Cartridge-MLT-D105L-High-Yield/product_817096 $80

 

New Printer: https://www.staples.com/Brother-HL-L2320D-Monochrome-Laser-Printer/product_1074269 $90

This is why they make drum cartridges isn’t it?  Replace the drum?

 

of things for dirty perhaps a whole bunch of paper might be enough.  Blot it off using more paper.

[EchoBlue]

@Evanair @Bombastinator Do you have any recommendation for a color printer? 

I probably won't be using it often. Maybe once every 3 months. 

Under $100. 

Or should I stick to a black and white printer?

[Kisai]

4 hours ago, EchoBlue said:

Let me get this right

Toner printer is the same as Laser printer? 

I get faded printed on the paper too sometimes. Track marks 50% of the time. 

You talked about how you should not reuse the same paper that was printed. 

What if you want to use both side of the paper?

 

I should just get a new printer? 

Money is tight though... You sure I can't just clean it here and there to fix it?

To print on two sides of the paper, you need a printer that prints on both sides, often called duplex printing with an automatic document feeder. It works by printing on one side, and then running the paper back through a second mechanical assembly so that the toner doesn't go through the clean paper track. In general, you can do manual duplex printing and reduce the amount of toner that will be transferred to the clean paper if you don't let the paper get cold first. It's usually never that much of a problem unless you print a lot of dark pages. Your average page is 5% coverage, not 50%.

 

I do want to stress the point that the reason the mechanical parts get dirty in double-siding is because the toner transfers to mechanical parts, and then subsequent pages pick it up. If you're seeing a track mark evenly spaced between each mark, that is a mechanical debris issue. If you are seeing one solid faded line, that's the fuser. Now, before you toss your printer toner cartridge, shake it. If that somehow fixes it, that just means the toner was "settling" and there's nothing wrong, it will happen when the toner gets low.

 

Admittedly, I hate servicing printers, and my office only has a small handful of VERY OLD printers, like ones with centronics parallel ports on them, These are printers from the late 90's/early 2000's. So laser printers are super-reliable normally. 

 

[Bombastinator]

21 minutes ago, EchoBlue said:

@Evanair @Bombastinator Do you have any recommendation for a color printer? 

I probably won't be using it often. Maybe once every 3 months. 

Under $100. 

Or should I stick to a black and white printer?

I haven’t dealt with color printers since wax was a thing.  I’m useless there.  The only thing I can say is ink jet is iffy because if you use it a lot it’s more expensive and in you don’t use it at all the heads dry out and it’s expensive anyway.

[Evanair]

14 minutes ago, Kisai said:

To print on two sides of the paper, you need a printer that prints on both sides, often called duplex printing with an automatic document feeder. It works by printing on one side, and then running the paper back through a second mechanical assembly so that the toner doesn't go through the clean paper track. In general, you can do manual duplex printing and reduce the amount of toner that will be transferred to the clean paper if you don't let the paper get cold first. It's usually never that much of a problem unless you print a lot of dark pages. Your average page is 5% coverage, not 50%.

 

I do want to stress the point that the reason the mechanical parts get dirty in double-siding is because the toner transfers to mechanical parts, and then subsequent pages pick it up. If you're seeing a track mark evenly spaced between each mark, that is a mechanical debris issue. If you are seeing one solid faded line, that's the fuser. Now, before you toss your printer toner cartridge, shake it. If that somehow fixes it, that just means the toner was "settling" and there's nothing wrong, it will happen when the toner gets low.

 

Admittedly, I hate servicing printers, and my office only has a small handful of VERY OLD printers, like ones with centronics parallel ports on them, These are printers from the late 90's/early 2000's. So laser printers are super-reliable normally. 

 

Quite a bit wrong in this post.  First paragraph was true for old Laser printers because a color print would have to go through 4 different passes of the system to get a single print (CMYK). New "laser" printers are all LED based and do this with one pass. It also never was an issue on a black and white printer. The papers just get routed back under the print system and refead into the loop, upside down, where they entered from the paper tray.

 

Secondly, line or evently spaced dot can from from anything that's moving. If it's a copy, it can be from debree (or a dot) on the glass. But if it's also a print, then it can be either a nick in the drum(s) OR fuser (both will cause evenly spaced dots in n the page). A line can also from from either, as it's a complete mark all the way around the drum or fuser.

 

As for sharking the toner cartridge (or banging) that works with a print that looks like it's out of ink (toner) and it just loosens it up and spreads it evenly to give more life to the cartridge

[Evanair]

27 minutes ago, EchoBlue said:

@Evanair @Bombastinator Do you have any recommendation for a color printer? 

I probably won't be using it often. Maybe once every 3 months. 

Under $100. 

Or should I stick to a black and white printer?

If you want under 100 you're going with ink. If you want a color laser, you're looking at 200+. More if you want a multi function unit.

 

With that amount of printing, and for that cost, just go buy the cheapest pos printer you can find at an office supply store. It'll do the job and be easy to replace later on. Just check the ink costs for the brands before buying

[EchoBlue]

6 minutes ago, Evanair said:

If you want under 100 you're going with ink. If you want a color laser, you're looking at 200+. More if you want a multi function unit.

Color laser?! Really? 

I have no idea how much has changed when it comes to printers... 

Does it also dry out like ink or is this the new standard? 

I think Black and White would be fine but having color would be a bonus. 

$200+?! Examples please?

Thanks=

[Evanair]

13 minutes ago, EchoBlue said:

Color laser?! Really? 

I have no idea how much has changed when it comes to printers... 

Does it also dry out like ink or is this the new standard? 

I think Black and White would be fine but having color would be a bonus. 

$200+?! Examples please?

Thanks=

Go to Amazon and type in color laser printer you'll see.

 

Ink always drys out. Toner doesn't. 

 

Almost all inkjet printers are color these days.

[EchoBlue]

7 minutes ago, Evanair said:

Go to Amazon and type in color laser printer you'll see.

 

Ink always drys out. Toner doesn't. 

 

Almost all inkjet printers are color these days.

They come in multiple toner cartridges?? 

But then you said they never dry out so I could use it once a year and it would print like as if I just bought it?

[Bombastinator]

8 minutes ago, EchoBlue said:

They come in multiple toner cartridges?? 

But then you said they never dry out so I could use it once a year and it would print like as if I just bought it?

It’s the major reason to buy a home laser printer imho.  I bought a cheapass one recently because I have a tendency to need 50 prints and then nothing at all for 6 months or more.  It really sucks when you need a printout and your head is clogged.

[Kisai]

40 minutes ago, EchoBlue said:

They come in multiple toner cartridges?? 

But then you said they never dry out so I could use it once a year and it would print like as if I just bought it?

Toner is just plastic powder, it's not ink. It's like half way between newspaper and magazine grade. Like you can print photos on regular paper, but the regular paper will look like a photo printed on "paper" just like a photo on newsprint doesn't look as good as a photo on photo paper.

 

Laser printers also don't permit printing to (inkjet) photo paper or transparencies since they will melt unless you buy paper "for laser printers", so keep that in mind if you want to print photos. Most copier paper is insufficient for photographic printing, but sufficient for printing something like a webpage.

[Bombastinator]

Inkjet photo paper used to be wacky stuff.  Covered in dried gelatin to be hydroscopic so the ink jet would make nice round dots with no bleeding.  Side bit was you could soak the gelatin right off the page and apply it to stuff like extremely flimsy goopy transparent decoupage.  Dunno if it still does that.