Laser Printers

Question 1

Fuser is damaged

Answer 1

The fuser permanently melts the toner to the paper using heat and pressure. If the fuser is not working, the toner will easily smear when touched.

Question 2

Toner cartridge is low

Answer 2

A low toner cartridge will cause the output to appear faded and difficult to read. A low toner cartridge will not cause the output to smear when touched.

Question 3

Photosensitive drum has been scratched

Answer 3

A scratched drum will cause lines and other stray marks to appear on the printed page. The toner sticks to the scratches and is transferred to the final page output.

Question 4

Incorrect printer driver is installed

Answer 4

The printer driver will format the output into a page description language that the printer can understand. An incorrect driver would not cause the printer output to smear.

Question 5

Printer cleaning process is not working

Answer 5

If the cleaning process is not working, then a “ghost” of previous passes around the drum will appear on different parts of the printed page. It’s common that poor cleaning will cause multiple faded versions of a page to appear in the printed output. A non-working cleaning process would not cause the printer output to smear, however.

Question 6

White streaks on printouts

Answer 6

White streaks on printouts are most likely caused by toner on the transfer corona wire.

Question 7

Vertical black lines

Answer 7

Vertical black lines are caused by a scratch or a groove in the EP drum.

Question 8

Smearing

Answer 8

If the fuser were not heating properly, toner would not bond to the paper, and you would have smearing.

Question 9

Faulty printer drivers

Answer 9

Faulty printer drivers will cause garbage to print, or there will be no printing at all.

Question 10

Dim printed images

Answer 10

Dim printed images are usually caused by a drum or imaging kit that is near the end of its lifetime and needs to be replaced.

Question 11

Damp paper and dirty paper rollers

Answer 11

Damp paper and dirty paper rollers are usually associated with paper jams. Damp paper can also cause the printer to pick up multiple sheets of paper. A worn pad that separates the sheets can also cause a printer to grab multiple sheets of paper.

Question 12

The toner will not adhere to the page.

Answer 12

When the fuser assembly needs to be replaced, the toner will not adhere to the page.

Question 13

Separation pad

Answer 13

The separation pad ensures that the printer will pull a single page from the paper tray at a time. As the separation pad becomes worn, more than one page can be pulled through the laser printing process.

Question 14

Duplexer

Answer 14

A duplexing unit is used to print on both sides of a page without manually flipping the page over during the printing process. A problem with the duplexer might cause a page to jam, but a duplexer would not to pull multiple pages at the same time.

Question 15

Transfer belt

Answer 15

The transfer belt is commonly used on color laser printers to collect different toner colors and transfer them to the paper.

Question 16

Fuser assembly

Answer 16

The fuser assembly applies heat and pressure to permanently affix the toner to the page. A bad fuser assembly would not cause multiple pages to be processed at the same time.

Question 17

Imaging drum

Answer 17

A bad imaging drum might cause stray marks or lines down the printed page. A faulty imaging drum would not cause the printer to pick up multiple pages.