LaserJet 200 M251 Prints Totally Black Pages

[Steven_F]

My LaserJet 200 M251 has recently started to print pages that are totally black - see attached example of printing the cleaning page using the touchscreen on the printer itself.

So far, I've tried the following:

1. Updated the firmware on the printer
2. Unplugged the printer from the electrical socket and left it unplugged for over an hour before plugging it back in
3. Downloaded and run the HP Print and Scan Doctor which doesn't find any problems - all it says is that the supply levels look ok and that the printer is using genuine HP supplies

I've seen a couple of other posts on this forum, one of which looks to have been related to the toner cartridge.  I purchased the current black cartridge from Amazon in Nov-2016 and it hasn't been used much since then.  Before I purchase another cartridge, I wanted to check whether the roller in the back of the printer could be a problem - the roller in my printer is totally black and seems to be covered in toner - see below.

Is anyone able to check on a working LaserJet 200 to see what the roller looks like?

Thanks in advance for any help,

Steven

[Copier-Pro]

This sounds like the machine is not charging the drum unit.On the side of the drum unit and on the inside of the machine there is contact point,make sure they are not misformed or out of place.The roller that you are referring to will be black because that is the image transfer roller.Once you solve the black printing problem then the roller will clean itself.Hope this will help.

[Steven_F]

Thanks for this info - I did some further investigation and found out the problem.  When I checked the toner cartridge I saw that the drum (I think - I'm not too familiar with the different parts of a cartridge) had a solid black band of toner across it.

I cleaned the toner off using a soft tissue and did a few test prints which all came out OK.  In my haste to fix my problem, I forgot to take a photo of the toner cartridge that shows the problem but below is a pic showing the cartridge after I'd cleaned it and done a few test prints - you can just see the toner is starting to build up at the edges of the drum again, assuming that the blue thing is indeed the drum.

I'm assuming that cleaning the drum would NOT be the recommended approach from HP but as the cartridge is still at 70% capacity, I'm going to stick with this approach for now until the cartridge is empty and then try a new cartridge to see whether or not the same problem occurs; this should help determine whethe the problem is with the cartridge or with the printer itself.

[Copier-Pro · Accepted solution]

I believe you got the drum unit out of the machine to clean.On the side of the drum unit is contact points sometimes silver plates and sometimes copper plates.Clean then with a cloth and inside the machine there will be similar contacts giving power to the unit just clean then also and make sure there is not spilled toner inside the machine.Hope this will help.

[Copier-Pro]

The roller inside the door is perfect.I think you should just replace the drum unit.If the drum has a scratch on the drum it can arc and produce the black prints.Hope this will help.

[Steven_F]

Thanks for this suggestion, I've cleaned the contacts on the side of the drum and inside the printer and checked that there is no toner spilled inside the printer.  So far, so good - my documents are still printing properly