Good day to all. I wasn't sure if this post belongs in [OT] or [EE] - hopefully [EE] is okay= .. I have an ancient HP Laserjet 4V printer that I want to keep=20 using. It sat unused for several years and upon firing it up, gave=20 really poor print quality. I ordered in a new toner cartridge and=20 had even worse print quality. So, sez me, I must have a problem with=20 the printer itself. Headed over to eBay and found someone who is selling brand-new HP 4V=20 printers still in the factory box. The only caveat was that the=20 seller said that the printer does not come with the Formatter=20 card. I ordered one. Turns out this printer is, I think, a special version intended for=20 the US military. Brand-new in box it was and it even came with a=20 brand-new toner cartridge. Full cartridge as well, not one of those=20 wimpy starter cartridges. Took the top off and discovered that not only did it not come with=20 the formatter card, it also did not come with the card cage for the=20 formatter card. The power supply cable used to connect to the=20 formatter card was also wrong and way too short. So: I stripped my=20 old printer for all of the missing parts. I also swapped the power=20 supply between the units. Put it all together and used my opened but=20 brand-new cartridge - really crappy print quality. The printer has a test function that completely ignores the formatter=20 card. Tried that - same crappy prints. Okay, sez me, everything is=20 brand-new except for the power supply. So I desoldered the cable=20 that connects to the formatter card from the old power supply and=20 moved it over to the brand-new power supply. Same crappy result. Okay. What's going on here? Brand-new printer fresh out of the=20 factory-sealed carton. Removed the formatter card and used just the=20 print-engine test mode. Still crappy results. Over this whole time period (several weeks), I spent much time on=20 Google trying to see what might the problem be. Kept running across=20 posts that said: You have a bad toner cartridge. So: I ordered=20 another cartridge. It came in - tried it - same crappy result. Ordered another cartridge. It came in yesterday. Tried it - same=20 crappy result. So here's where I'm at. I have an old HP 4V printer that had crappy=20 print output. I have a brand-new HP 4V printer with crappy print=20 output. I have (count them) SIX brand-new toner cartridges. And I'm=20 getting crappy print. I suppose that I should describe "Crappy". Page comes out grey on=20 both sides and the print is extremely faint. The printed pages are=20 not usable. Interestingly enough, if I install my original toner=20 cartridge, I get better print results - sort of usable. Barely useable. Finally was able to chat with someone who knows something about these=20 old printers. He is completely unequivocal about the probable cause=20 of my problem: I have defective toner cartridges. The specific=20 problem is that the doctor blade (wiper blade) that cleans the=20 photo-sensitive drum has disintegrated. It is not cleaning the toner=20 that remains on the drum after the drum has finished one=20 rotation. This toner then contaminates the transfer roller in the=20 printer - that causes the grey on the rear of the paper. I took a much closer look at the boxes that the cartridges came=20 in. All of them have expiry dates before the year 2000 - the box=20 that the brand-new printer came in was dated 1998. The=20 remanufactured cartridge that came in yesterday has a label on the=20 bottom of the box that says to use before 09 2010. Over this time period, I've looked at the toner cartridge and=20 transfer roller in my printer many times. The photo-sensitive drum=20 in the cartridge is covered with toner, as is the transfer roller. I=20 used alcohol (IPA) on a cotton ball to clean the drum and used a very=20 mild detergent and warm water to clean the transfer roller. I then=20 get a portion of a page of excellent print which then degrades to crappy pr= int. Everything keeps pointing to the toner cartridge having a bad wiper blade. I've got yet another toner cartridge coming in but I have a stack of=20 brand-new but not working toner cartridges to dispose of. What to do=20 with them? I'm reluctant to just ship them off to the Eco Station -=20 they are full of brand-new toner that is apparently just fine. I'm=20 guessing there probably more than a litre of toner in each cartridge=20 and the photo-sensitive drums look to be in excellent=20 condition. Brand-new condition in five of the six cartridges. I'm trying to track down someone who rebuilds toner cartridges and=20 might want these but not able to find anyone yet. I'm in Edmonton, AB, Canada. Any thoughts or suggestions? Many thanks! dwayne --=20 Dwayne Reid Trinity Electronics Systems Ltd Edmonton, AB, CANADA 780-489-3199 voice 780-487-6397 fax 888-489-3199 Toll Free www.trinity-electronics.com Custom Electronics Design and Manufacturing --=20 http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .