Your
toner cartridge isn't dead, it's only sleeping.
Don't assume that you can't squeeze a little more
life out of your laser printer's toner cartridge.
When your output starts to fade, you can redistribute
the toner to knock out some more pages. Take out the
toner cartridge and shake it back and fourth a bit.
It's a temporary fix, of course, but handy when
you've got to print something right away.
It's not the heat, it's the humidity.
Do you always keep your air conditioning on during
hot summer months? Then be prepared to deal with one
of your printer's worst enemies‹humidity.
Prevent white splotches from appearing on your paper
by keeping the package sealed. Likewise, keep your
spare toner cartridges in their aluminum bags until
you're ready to pop them into your printer.
Set it up right. When the gadgetry
inside your printer gets hot, you risk electronic or
mechanical failure. To avoid this, make sure air can
circulate around the printer. Don't suffocate your
computer by surrounding it with books and other
items. You'll also help keep problems at bay if you
set your printer up on a flat, even surface‹it's
simply not a good idea to keep your printer
precariously balanced atop a cardboard box that you
once left out in the rain.
Cleanliness is next to good printing.
Get dust and excess toner out of the picture; buy a
can of compressed air to blow this debris away from
printer parts. A clean paper path will lessen the
chance of paper jams. Either replace the fuser wand
(usually found at the end of the paper path) every
time you replace the toner cartridge, or regularly
clean it. Be careful because it gets very hot, in
fact your printer may caution you against touching it
at all. Use alcohol on a swab to carefully clean
fragile corona wires‹dirty ones can cause print
blemishes along the length of each page.
Dry
Weather and the Static Problem
Did
you know that some of your office equipment uses STATIC
ELECTRICITY to operate?
This is a wonderful technological breakthrough,
except for one thing. When we have big temperature
changes or low humidity (below 50%), you will
experience SHOCKS or STATIC in the home
or office.
These SHOCKS or STATIC will cause your
equipment to malfunction intermittently. Here are
some examples of what you might see:
Intermittent black streaks down the pages
Intermittent black spots down pages
Here's
what you can do to
help.................................
1.
Mix Fabric Softener (Downy) and water into a
spray bottle. The mixture is 50% water & 50%
fabric softener. Spray carpeting once a week.
2. Spray Static Guard around the printer, on
the floor and spray a rag and wipe down the printer.
$3.99 a can.
3. Buy a Humidifier. Don't put the humidifier
right next to the printer. Average cost is $29 to
$129.
4. Buy a Static Mat. Cost is $39.00.
A Temporary Quick Fix is to turn the
printer off for 15 minutes and change the toner
cartridge. Remember this toner cartridge is still
good. What you are doing is changing the temperature
inside the printer, which will change the humidity
and change your print.
