Laserjet 4050 prints blank pages after cleaning

[Living11]

My Lazerjet 4050 has been working perfectly with my notebook (one to one) for years at home.  Until recently, I noticed there are some gray shades on the left margin of the paper.  So I took out the toner cartridge and cleaned the inside of the printer gently and lightly with a facial tissue paper.  That must have been a big mistake.  Since then the printer only printed blank pages but the gray shades on the left margin of the paper still appear.  There is no error code.  The paper goes in, thru and out normally but just blank.  I am an old age semi computer illiterate and have tried some simple solutions and  troubleshooting in the forum, such as a new toner cartridge ... openning the Top Cover after the paper advances half-way through ... performing a half self-test ... but all to no avail.  I hate to have to replace this printer.  Can some expert tell me if there is any fix to this problem .. in simple computer language?  Thanks.

[rashmi1234]

Hello,

Please see the given below document for Blank Page issue-

http://h20566.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/template.PAGE/public/kb/docDisplay?javax.portlet.begCache...

[davidzuts]

Since this is now a very old printer, odds are the action of opening the toner door and removing the toner cartridge, probably caused the laser/scanner linkage to break. Common on this model now. First make sure the internal pages are blank. Just run a config report from the information menu. If the report is blank, then remove the top cover and then remove the laser/scanner and remove the shutter itself. It is only used to prevent toner dust from adhering to the laser/scanner lens when you open the toner door to change toner or remove jams. Once removed put the laser/scanner back and all should be good. You may want to take a dry qtip and clean the lens of the laser/scanner while you have it out. Your issue with the gray shades is probably a bad toner cartridge.

[Living11]

Thanks Annie, but it says IE cannot display the webpage.  Thanks anyway.

[Living11]

Thanks David.  I tried to open the front cover by following the online service manual chapter 6 but was stuck at 6-11.  Not surprising for this old dummy.  They all look so complicated to me.  Will see if I can find a young technical friend to follow your proposed solution.  Thank you again for your help. 

[Dennis_Handly]

>it says IE cannot display the webpage.

I have no problems with IE10 nor firefox 29.0.1.