Hi all! I just joined today!

[Sassiej]

I'm Sassiej. I found this site from niffty-stuff.com. I need a lot of help with three printers but I'll start with a Brother HL-2040 bought in 2008. I've refilled it three times. I did not empty the overflow toner the first refill. It printed just fine. The second time my husband overfilled and the prints were mostly good with some streaking down the page. Those disappeared with gentle cleaning of the red roller. The third refill, early last year I emptied the overflow toner and filled the cartridge as instructed. Ever since the printing has been very uneven. I will have a good print, then a light one, then one with very heavy black streaks running vertically. I've taken the drum out and gently cleaned the visible toner off and might get one or two good prints. The drum light has never gone on through all this. Otherwise the printer functions well.
So, since the printer is 8 years old, is there any hope of fixing this problem? If it can be resolved, what should I do?

Thanks for, hopefully, a solution!

 

[The Hat]

Hi Sassiej and welcome to this forum (Formally Nifty-Stuff.com) same old faces but even more help than ever before..

Now solving laser printer problems is not as easy as inkjets are and it often requires the replacement of a cartridge, drum or both, so keep your fingers crossed.

If you’re getting light Text !
See Fig 1

and 2.

If you’re getting black bands on your Text !..
See Fig 1

and 2..

And last but not least one single black band on the Text..
See Fig 1

and 2..

If none of these solutions are what you’re getting on your printer then maybe you could post a sample of the worst pages and we could take it from there..

 

[Sassiej]

Hi The Hat, Is your "Hat" green?

I thank you for responding to my dilemma and appreciate your suggestions. But, I was able to solve my problems. I took the drum and toner cartridge out and apart. I cleaned every surface I could. A lot of dust and link were stuck where the red drum is. Then I noticed the toner was coming out of the plug because the damaged bit from pulling it out once wasn't seated well. So, I replace it with a new one and reinstalled the unit. I reinstalled the driver and it's good to go! The print an inch on the left side is faint but I can live with that. No more dense streaks! The moral of the story is maintenance and use a new plug when refilling the toner!

 

[The Hat]

I do hope you have fixed all your gremlins and they don’t return on you again..

 

[Smile]

Welcome to the forum, It's hard to troubleshoot lasers because they have many components that fail after few refills, and while OEM carts last better they third party sometimes brakes before you use the toner.