Print quality is always unsatisfying, why?

Print quality issues happen occasionally in daily use of printers. Today, Chipjet will share failure causes and solutions on some common issues with you. Let’s see how to deal with them.

Common Problems for Inkjet Printers

1 Incomplete and Faint Print

Causes:

• Ink low

• The nozzle is clogged.

Solution:

1. Check the ink level first and change the ink cartridge if ink is low;

2. If ink is not low, then the nozzle is clogged and please clean the ink cartridge.

2 Horizontal Faint Stripes

Causes:

• The print head is too dirty.

• The print head is too close with the print roller.

• The paper is too thick.

Solutions:

1. Uninstall the print head and wash it or adjust the distance between print head and print roller.

3 Ink Stains and Cross Colors

Causes:

• The external ink cartridge is lifted 50mm higher than the horizontal plane of print head.

• The ink cartridge is overfilled, causing the siphon breakpoint missing.

Solutions:

1. Place the ink cartridge at the same horizontal plane as printer and wait for 2 hours to return to normal. If ink stain happens again, then wash the print head;

2. Wet out a color ink-jet paper with ethyl alcohol and then press the paper feed key to let the paper pass in and out for 10 times;

3. Perform the cleaning and print test in the printer’s application program.

Common Problems for Laser Printer

1 White Vertical Stripes:

Causes:

• The laser radiation outlet of the printer or toner cartridge is shielded by some foreign material;

• There is some foreign material on the cleaning scraper of toner cartridge;

• The waste toner container is overfilled.

Solutions:

1. Disassemble the toner cartridge and clean the scraper or replace a new toner cartridge;

2. Tap the waste toner container gently and shake the toner cartridge to get the waste powder uniformly distributed;

3. Clear up the waste powder in the waste toner container.

2 Toner Specks

Cause:

• There is toner powder left in the paper path of printer.

Solutions: 

1. Print documents with only one word on each page with high quality printing papers to clean the internal parts of the printer。

2. if the problem is unsolved, then the toner container or toner cartridge may have to be replaced.

3 Washed-out Print

Causes: 

• Toner is low in the toner cartridge.

• The image develop voltage is low.

Solutions:

1. Take out the toner cartridge and shake it gently. If the print result is not improved, then replace the toner cartridge with a new one or contact professional serviceman to deal with it.

2. In addition, there is a group of switches beneath the toner cartridge for adjusting the laser intensity and match the luminous sensitivity of the toner. If the switches are set improperly, then the printout could be faded.

4 Dark Vertical Bands

Causes:

• The reverse mirror above photosensitive drum is moved.

•  Laser beam scans outside of the normal range.

• Toner cartridge lose efficacy.

•  The toner is at one side of the cartridge.

Solutions:

1. Take out the toner cartridge and shake it slightly to make the toner in it distribute evenly.

2. If the issue is not solved, please replace the toner cartridge.

5 Full Page with Gray Background

Causes:

• The developing bias voltage is too low;

• Magnetic roller scraper is ageing;

• The developing magnetic roller is too close with the photosensitive drum;

• The photosensitive drum is overworn and its service life comes to an end.

• The electric conduction between toner cartridge and printer is abnormal.

Solutions:

1. Check the photosensitive drum surface to see if there is toner powder on it. If yes, the magnetic roller scraper is ageing and out of shape, replace the scraper with a new one.

2. Check the conductive steel strap on the toner cartridge and contacts of printer to see if there are some foreign materials or some parts are missing/damaged. Get rid of them if there are foreign materials.

6 Color Difference

Causes:

• The color gamut of four-color printers is limited, so the print result is different from the photograph indeed.

• Toner cartridges of different brands will be different in colors during printing.

Solutions:

1. Check the printed diagnostic page of four colors and replace the toner cartridge of wrong color.

2. The laser device of corresponding color malfunctions and you need to carry out hardware maintenance to replace the laser device. 

7 Ghosting

Causes:

• Fuser assembly of the machine is ageing;

• Paper is damp;

• Toner cartridge is damp (the drum and toner powder);

• Black density is too high

Solutions:

1. Replace regularly the fuser assembly and paper;

2. Print on around 10 to 20 pages and the printer will return to normal; or replace the toner cartridge with a new one;

3. Lower the print density of the printer.

8 White dots on printed black or grey pages

Causes:

• Toner cartridge’s developer roller is adhered with foreign materials;

• Toner cartridge’s developer roller is adhered with substances of rubber or oil blowout.

Solution:

1. Replace it with a new toner cartridge

9 Black dots on white or grey pages

Causes:

• There is foreign material on toner cartridge’s PCR rubber or the PCR’s surface is broken.

Solution:

1. Replace it with a new toner cartridge

10 Smearing

Causes:

• Toner cartridge’s primary charging roller is in bad contact during charging;

• The developing roller’s resistance is too high;

• The electricity amount on toner powder is too small;

• The toner powder is damp;

• OPC is in bad contact.

Solution:

1. Replace it with a new toner cartridge

Calm down when you encounter print quality issues. Make failure diagnosis according to the above steps, and then solve them based on our solutions. If you have other solutions, welcome to leave a message here and share with us.