HP LaserJet Printer bleeding onto pages

[darkflux]

Okay, so a few months ago, our printer started printing with strange faded color smears on the pages. Very subtle at first, but it has gotten progressively worse over the months, and now it almost covers the page:

http://i655.photobucket.com/albums/uu275/zzzz4444/hp.jpg

It is magenta on one side of the page, and orange-ish on the other. I've tried running a Cleaning Page several times, manually cleaning things out, replacing cartridges, replacing transfer roller, and Calibrating the Color Cartridges, none of which shows any marked improvement. It also only does this on the print side of the paper, and it appears as though the toner is leaking onto the transfer roller (primarily on the edges, but also on the rest of the roller).

Any ideas/suggestions?

[SHThompson · Accepted solution]

It sure looks like defective toner cartridges, are you using new HP cartridges?

[darkflux]

we're using generic cartridges (NOT refurbished or refilled), but we'd been using them for 2 years now with no problems, from the same company. it's only in the last 2 months or so we've had issues.

[davidzuts]

First thing you need to do is replace the magenta toner cartridge and see if everything clears up.  If still an issue, then the yellow toner will also need to be replaced.  As Stephen said, sure looks like a toner cartridge issue and he is 100% correct.

[darkflux]

So it should just stop bleeding like that on its own with a new cartridge, or is there something else I need to do after replacing the cartridge?

[davidzuts]

The red on the left side of the page will be gone with a new magenta toner.  Not sure if the orange marks will be gone on the right side.  If they are gone fine and if not it means the yellow toner needs to also be replaced.  Those marks only come from the toner cartridges so replacing them will cause the marks to go away.

[darkflux]

that seemed to have worked. thanks.

not sure why it keeps happening, so i guess i'll be contacting the supplier if it happens again...

[SHThompson]

By the way generic cartridges are generally refurbished or refilled HP OEM cartridges.