Printer not printing correctly HP Colour LaserJet Pro MFP M479fdw

chocolateteddy

I have a problem with an HP Colour LaserJet Pro MFP M479fdw

It has been working fine for over 2 years and I only use original HP cartridges

When I print something that has block colours on it I am finding marks appearing on the right side of the paper and only on the right hand side.
It also does this to a lesser extent when printing black and white word documents but shows as smudging.
I have run the cleaning page and drum clean but it still hasn't corrected the problem. Please help I have charity reports to print soon and this printer would think nothing of printing a 30 page document 100 times with no problems.

You can see on the photo below (an A4 poster I printed which I have zoomed in on). What do I need to do to stop this happening. 

facade

Looks like some problem with the transfer belt.

There may be damage to the belt, or even bits of label or something stuck to it.

If you remove the cartridges you can see the belt, I think the printer has to come apart to remove it for cleaning.

While they are out, look for any marks on the drums, but as the pattern affects all colours, either the belt isn't picking up any toner in the white areas, or something is removing it from the belt- have a look for torn paper or a label somewhere brushing against the transfer belt.

chocolateteddy

facade said:

Looks like some problem with the transfer belt.

There may be damage to the belt, or even bits of label or something stuck to it.

If you remove the cartridges you can see the belt, I think the printer has to come apart to remove it for cleaning.

While they are out, look for any marks on the drums, but as the pattern affects all colours, either the belt isn't picking up any toner in the white areas, or something is removing it from the belt- have a look for torn paper or a label somewhere brushing against the transfer belt.

Thanks for your help
I have cleaned the belt - option under printer maintenance on printer control panel but will try taking cartridges out and looking  at belt. When you say look for marks on drum do you mean on the cartridges? 

Looking at the printout to my eye it looks like it is being removed from the belt so will start there. I'll let you know what if anything I find. 

facade

Not really my area of expertise I'm afraid. 

AFAIK, each cartridge has a drum that the image appears on. The drum picks up toner and it attracts to the paper as it moves past the drum.

The transfer belt doesn't carry toner, it is a drive belt that moves the paper smoothly over the drums keeping it flat, rather than using a series of small rollers, so disregard the idea that something could scrape toner off the belt, it has to be something scraping toner off the drums, or off the paper before it goes through the fuser and melts.

So you are looking for obvious belt damage or debris, or something in the paper path between the cartridges and the fuse unit.

interstellaflyer

First place I'd look is the fuser unit, I've seen similar to this when the roller is damaged.

chocolateteddy

interstellaflyer said:

First place I'd look is the fuser unit, I've seen similar to this when the roller is damaged.

Thanks, what is and where do I find the fuser unit?

SiliconChip

chocolateteddy said:

interstellaflyer said:

First place I'd look is the fuser unit, I've seen similar to this when the roller is damaged.

Thanks, what is and where do I find the fuser unit?

Take a look at the bottom of page 111, it's the only place in the index that refers to the fuser.

https://kaas.hpcloud.hp.com/pdf-public/pdf_375412_en-US-1.pdf

chocolateteddy

So I have had a good look and there is no paper or bits of paper jammed anywhere that I can see no damage to the cartridge drums. No belt damage and no debris So back to square one. Suppose I'll have to contact HP although it is out of warranty.   

facade

See if there is a computer shop that can repair it. Seems fuser problems are common enough that eBay sells spares and there are youtube videos on changing the fuser roller.

I don't think I'd attempt it though it is a lot of fiddly work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM1BiHgRZXQ

I'd imagine HP would swap out the fuser unit, but I suspect a new printer is cheaper- get one that will use your cartridges and use these up first.

bodsj

those are repetitive marks, measure the distance between them and use the repetitive ruler found in the manual HP Color LaserJet Pro M454, HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M479 Service Manual: Troubleshooting - ENWW (laserexpressinc.com)

Page 140 chapter2 - this should help find the component thats failed

chocolateteddy

Thanks for all the advice and the Troubleshooting manual, hadn't seen that.
Looking at it it appears it is the fuser rollers at the very least.
Looking at the video it started off "Mmm I could do that to ... ok I think not" 
Waiting for the computer shop to let me know if he can look at it for me.