I use an ancient Xerox Techtronix Phaser 7300DT. I don't use it that much anymore but I turn it on every month or so and let it run for a while. The drums and transfer units have coatings which deteriorate if they are not charged periodically. In my case an electrostatic charge holds the toner to the imaging drum (There are four for the colors.) Then the image is transferred to the transfer belt and finally to the paper. When the coatings deteriorate they are no longer able to hold an electrostatic charge and problems arise. I don't believe you can recover these units. I usually have to print 10 or 20 pages before things start to look really good. Allen -----Original Message----- From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On Behalf Of Dwayne Reid Sent: Friday, June 14, 2019 2:45 PM To: pic microcontroller discussion list Subject: [EE] What to do with brand-new but expired toner cartridges? 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 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 print. 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 --=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 .