Print Fading from left side

[MadScienTech]

Hello Everyone,

My HP LaserJet Pro M501dn is not quite two years old and I have had issues for about six months with the print fading from the left side of the page.  Toner has been replaced several times since it all started and with different brands.  It even does it with an HP brand cartridge in it.  Started out happening after a few a weeks of replacing the cartridge.  Now, replaced the cartridge and it started happening the next day.  Cleaned everything.  Take the cartridge out and shake it and prints fine for a while and then starts fading again.  Could it be the laser going bad?  If so, doesn't make sense why removing toner and shaking is a temporary fix.  Last multi-page job started fading until nothing showed on the pages.  Mulptiple pages came out blank and then started fading back in slightly.

[Valsimot]

If removing and shaking toner temporary fixes print quality on the left side then isn't very likely you have toner issue. If you had printer issue ( like a dirty laser) then shaking toner wouldn't have any effect on print quality. Buying a genuine toner cartridge would probably fix your problem.

[MadScienTech]

I've had genuine and non-genuine HP toner.  The last one which was a genuine HP toner and the problem happened the soonest.  I thought the HP toner would fix the issue as well, but it didn't unfortunately.

[Repairatrooper]

I would remove the cartridge and make sure that all the contacts in the cavity of the printer a clean and free from contamination of either toner. The contacts will all be spring wires of various sizes that contact with the cartridge to transfer the high voltage to form the image. As stated, if you had a dirty laser, shaking the cartridge would do nothing, but if the contacts are dirty, just the act of removing and installing the cartridge might temporarily improve contact.

[Valsimot]

Print supply status page with genuine toner and fading print on the left side, scan and post here so we can see the print.

It's strange that fading starts from left, especially with the genuine toner, it usually starts from the middle, (unless you print something very black on the left side of the paper).

[MadScienTech1]

Trying to work with the end users to get a print that is bad.  They keep shaking the toner before I get to it.  I took the printer covers off and cleaned the snot out of it.  As soon as I can get a faded printout, I will submit it.

[MadScienTech1]

It looks like removing all of the covers and cleaning it really well fixed the problem.