hi everybody!
found an abandoned HP Laserjet 1020 in the dumpster. got it home, cleaned it and fitted the toner cartridge. it installed fine, prints fine, except the mess all over the paper (see pic).
now I haven't had to do with printers in at least a decade, but I seem to remember it's something with the thing inside the toner cartrdidge, so replacing the cartrdige should fix it.
can someone confirm this, as I can't really afford to waste money if it's something inside the printer. thank you!
It could be a number of things. There are several rollers the page goes through when printing (including the drum it self). They each have a different diameter. You see that repeating horizontal line/zone across the page? That is telling you which roller it is. In service manuals it would tell you the circumference of each roller so you could narrow down your troubleshooting. See if you can get the service manual and if HP still publishes these numbers for your printer.
Could be the transfer belt which tends to be a very expensive item.
Personally had a brother printer with issues similar but not nearly as severe. The toner cartridge had a rubber roller attached that had some gunk buildup that i carefully wiped away and then it came out printing fine
The toner is a very finely powdered abs plastic so you probably don't want to be using anything you plan on keping to wipe it.
Still using the original sample toner cartridge and drum like 10 years in
so a new toner cartridge fixed everything, got it off some local business that was selling off its surplus for $5 apiece. the thing is these models have the toner and drum in one cartridge; that used to be two things way back when I was using those things last.
Seems like the wrong instance for this community as evident by the printer in question
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