C9735A will not seat in HP 5550

[DFrank88]

Hello all, I'm new to the community but I have a question that I thought that I would toss out there. I have a HP Color Laser Jet 5550 that has a fuser warning at 2% life remaining. I've attempted to replace the fuser with what HP has called a "compatable) fuser Q3984A  but cannot for the life of me to get it to seat properly in the device.

The connector (right) side of the cartridge will coonect and screw in without any isses but the gear (left) side won't even get close to seating properly.  I've compared the fuser that's currently installed to the replacement fuser and theres only 1 different in them. On the original theres a 3/8" plastic tab on the gear (left) side of the furser towards the rear. I've looked into that area where that tab would go down into the little slot, but theres nothing in the slot that the tab presses against.

The major problem that I have is that I have 3 of these printers on my network and per HP these "compatable" fusers are supposed t work. Has anyone run into this same issue before?

[davidzuts]

You are confusing the HP color laser jet 5500 and the 5550. The fusers are not the same. Look at the big gear on the fuser as one will be white and the other I think black and the grooves on one will be straight (5500) and at an angle (5550)

http://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/hp-color-laserjet-q3984a-110v-fuser-kit

You posted to the wrong board. Should be on the Laserjet Board.

The C9735A only fits the 5500 and the Q3984A only fits the 5550.

[DFrank88]

Thanks for the reply  davidzuts and I'll see if an admin can get this moved to the proper board. The device is a HP Color LaserJet 5550 and not an HP Color LaserJet 5500 and you're correct, on my second look at the gearing they're different. The orginal gears are angled and black and the replacement is straight and white. "BUT" the fuser unit that your link shows doesn't look anything like the fuser unit that's in the device.  The fuser unit in the device looks exactly like the C9735A with the exception of the gears and the divot. In the images the fuser unit on the bottom is what is currently in the device and the other is the wrong replacement and they both look nothing like the Q3984A fuser.

[davidzuts]

It looks like they used the wrong picture on the page. The picture is for the clj8500 as is the box. I would open a chat conversation with them before ordering just to make sure.

[DFrank88]

I was thinking the samething so contacted my vendor rep at CDW and he sent me a pic of the fuser for the 5550, it looks exactly like the one that is currently installed. I'll be ordering them Wednesday, thanks for your help and input. You help straighten me out.

[davidzuts · Accepted solution]

You may want to contact Metrofuser.com as they sell this fuser for a lot less money on advanced exchange. They remanufacture the item and I have had very good success over the years with their fusers.