Why is my laser printer leaving a giant blank streak down the middle?

[Phishie]

So this happened after I printed out about 750 flyers in only around two hours worth of time. Ya I know... bad idea. So anyway, if anybody knows a lot about printers, take a look at the picture below. My printer is an HP Laserjet 1020. The problem is not the toner cartridge because I already went and bought a new one and it still doesn't print correctly. -_-

So printer gurus:

What component in my printer is broken? Is it worth fixing or should I just go buy a new printer for $100?

 

[Simmy]

I believe its called the imaging drum or something like that? Probably one of the most expensive parts to replace unfortunately. But then again I'm not a printer guru so best wait for someone elses input.

It's probably not worth repairing when you can get new printers for $100.

 

[Phishie]

Yeh drums are expensive. I am just going to buy a new one anyway. I'm just wondering if anybody can actually tell me why it's doing this because I am curious.

And if I would have printed those 800 pages over four days instead of in one day, do you think it still would have burned itself out?

 

[Simmy]

How many pages had you printed before those 800 leaflets?

 

[14049752]

A couple of things:
The drum on that printer is built into the toner cartridge, so if you've already replaced the toner, you've also replaced the drum.

The part I suspect is the transfer roller...basically it just adds a static charge to the paper. If it's dirty, worn out, or whatever it won't do its job and the toner won't stick to the paper long enough to make it through the fuser.
The part number is RM1-2093-000CN It's still an $80 part, but you might want to see if you can take it out and clean it first.

 

[Phishie]

How many pages had you printed before those 800 leaflets?

I've printed maybe 500-700 pages before this. I was going to see if I could take the printer apart and clean it out to see if that would make a difference but after removing 8-10 screws I still couldn't figure out what I was doing with it and didn't wanna break the thing even more lol.

It seems to run a lot hotter than it used to now...

I think I am just going to buy a new printer and stay away from these heavy-duty jobs. A new one is $110 after tax and S&H.

 

[Crgky127]

Try running a printer cleaner sheet through it (make sure it's the laser kind!).

 

[Blues]

There is also the fuser which may need to be replaced and I think they can be expensive.

 

[thecoldone06]

My guess is also the transfer roller. Could also be the charge roller. I doubt it would be the fuser as that doesn't put the image on the paper, just melts it on. If your image was coming out ok but you could smear it, then I'd say fuser. Those rollers are about $60 each generally (not sure what printer you have)

 

[Blues]

Yeah Im not sure it is the fuser but if he can pull up any diagnostics sofftware tht reports such things would be good and Im just trying to think of replaceable parts.

 

[focuz]

Alright printer guru at your services.

The drum is in the toner cartridge so their shouldn't be any problems with this as long as you changed the toner for testing. Not 100% sure but I do believe the charge roller on these are also in the toner catridge so no worry with that either.

To find exactly what the problem is you will need to start a test print and stop the printer in the middle of printing. Then see where in the printer the defect starts so you can rule out on which side of the printer the defect is starting. (Print like a 4 page doc so you have paper throughout the printer when you stop it.)

Before buying any parts I would check to make sure you don't just have dirt or loose toner on the scanner unit glass or on the transfer roller. To clean the transfer roller just use a dry lint free cloth. The scanner glass you can use a damp cloth just make sure water doesn't drip anywhere.