Laserjet Pro 400 M401dw Streaks down right side of page

[Alanis712]

My printer is printing out with a streak on the right side of the page.   I googled it, and found that it was the transfer roller, so I took it out, cleaned it - didn't help.  So I ordered a new one, installed it - I think it made it worse. 

And every day since then it's been getting worse.  I also saw some information about cleaning the print rollers, but I don't see any way to access the rollers on this machine. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[tonerspills]

This looks to be either the toner cartridge itself, or the fuser is going bad. Are you using HP OEM cartridges or an off brand?

If you've been using an off brand, the toner imaging drum seal on that side of the toner cartridge is probably bad. This toner can then get carried into the fusing unit (heater) and stain or build up on the fuser film.

Start a print job and open the front door a second or two after you hear the paper start feeding, carefully take the toner cartridge out and look at your paper-careful not to get dirty as the toner will not yet be fused to the paper and can easily wipe off. If the mark is on the paper under the cartridge, then its the toner cartridge most likely. If the paper looks nice and clean, then your fuser film has probably gotten contaminated.

You can run cleaning pages from the 401 control panel- arrow to service/ cleaning page- and the printer will promt you to load paper in tray one- you will have to repeat this process several times for that amount of build up if it is the fuser.

[Alanis712]

I"m not sure if I did what you said correctly, but I've been using the cleaning pages, and (I did it 4 times) the streak gradually gets lighter.  Eventually it's very faint, but as soon as I start printing again it comes back.   Based on this, can you tell if it's the cartridge for the fuser?  We only use HP cartridges.

[tonerspills · Accepted solution]

I'd say fuser, ask a service tech for a second opinion if you can find one to do it cheap, or just replace the printer. M402 is the new model, you can usually find them for around $129 US if you watch for a sale, or call hp and ask for a trade in deal.

You'd know if it was the cartridge if you made the printer jam while the paper was under the cartridge. Start printing one of the reports from the printer control panel, when you hear the printer start running, give it about 1-2 seconds then open the front door, the paper should be jammed underneath the toner cartridge- if the image on the paper looks clean and theres no smudge, then its the fuser. You can also flip the toner over and move the flappy door to expose the imaging drum. You should see the latent image of whatever you are printing on that greening/bluish colored drum and if there was loose toner or the smudge line was present- it would be obvious.

A report from the admin menu will also help by indicating the usuage of the printer 150k-300k pages printed is about all you will get out of these

menu/reports/configuration page or usage page and look at the total number of printed pages. (engine cycles)