Question Will these dots and streaks be fixed with new toner and drum?

[Salinger021]

Hello, I have a Brother HL-5250 DN printer (old model, maybe about 15 years). It has always worked great, never any problems. I don't use it often nowadays, but when I do, the page is covered in dots/streaks. Please see the attached pics - the second pic is showing that the marks are there even when trying to pass through a blank page.

https://imgur.com/a/HhjkTIu

https://imgur.com/a/GxSsYRy

I didn't care before because whatever I was printing wasn't a big deal. But now I need to print a clean page. I just assumed it needs new toner and possibly drum but the toner light isn't on and the text actually still prints without fading, so I thought maybe it just needed some cleaning. So I slid that slider thing on the drum back and forth several times as cleaning instructions direct, and that didn't help. I wiped the actual drum with some isopropyl and also cleaned up any loose toner I could find, and that also didn't help.

And also from printing the printer's settings page, it says Total Pages Printed = 3062 and Drum = 84.5%.

I'm pretty sure both the toner and drum are the originals that came with the machine because I don't remember ever changing them.

So does anyone think that getting a new toner cartridge + drum will resolve this issue? I'm perfectly fine with getting new ones but I just don't want to spend like $60 on those only to find out the problem is something else and end up having to get a new printer, and would have wasted that money on the toner + drum. Thanks!

 

[Paperdoc]

A problem like this is not likely to be from the toner cartridge. It is more likely to be from either accumulated dust in various places inside (rollers, paper path, etc.) OR from small defects on the special drum. Inspect closely the "dirty" blank sheet prints from several tries. If the dots ALL appear to be in exactly the same locations and patterns, then those are failed spots on the drum. In that case a replacement drum unit may be the solution. If the spot patterns are different from one print to another, that is more likely random dirt falling on each sheet differently on separate passes. Your printer manual does not say anything about trying to clean out such dirt accumulated in random locations inside because you might damage something while trying to reach around. And it can be hard to do that through small openings without being able to remove a bunch of outer panels.

One SMALL thing I can suggest you try. This idea is just in case the problem is some poor electrical contacts creating random brief signal failures. Be VERY gentle and careful about this to avoid actual damage to the contacts. Remove the drum unit. The manual cautions you never to touch the exposed electrical contacts on it because you could damage them or foul them with finger oils. But these MIGHT have some dirt or oxidation on them that you can clean off carefully. First get a small very clean pink pencil eraser - maybe on a new pencil. Use this to "erase" over those contacts with only modest force. The eraser is a very gentle abrasive that may loosen dirt / oxidation. Now use a soft small brush to dust off all those contacts. Finally use a Q-Tip and a small amount of rubbing alcohol to wipe over the contacts gently. Repeat this process on the matching contacts mounted in the printer case. Then allow everything to dry thoroughly before re-installing the unit in the printer. If you are lucky this may help.

 

[Salinger021]

A problem like this is not likely to be from the toner cartridge. It is more likely to be from either accumulated dust in various places inside (rollers, paper path, etc.) OR from small defects on the special drum. Inspect closely the "dirty" blank sheet prints from several tries. If the dots ALL appear to be in exactly the same locations and patterns, then those are failed spots on the drum. In that case a replacement drum unit may be the solution. If the spot patterns are different from one print to another, that is more likely random dirt falling on each sheet differently on separate passes. Your printer manual does not say anything about trying to clean out such dirt accumulated in random locations inside because you might damage something while trying to reach around. And it can be hard to do that through small openings without being able to remove a bunch of outer panels.

One SMALL thing I can suggest you try. This idea is just in case the problem is some poor electrical contacts creating random brief signal failures. Be VERY gentle and careful about this to avoid actual damage to the contacts. Remove the drum unit. The manual cautions you never to touch the exposed electrical contacts on it because you could damage them or foul them with finger oils. But these MIGHT have some dirt or oxidation on them that you can clean off carefully. First get a small very clean pink pencil eraser - maybe on a new pencil. Use this to "erase" over those contacts with only modest force. The eraser is a very gentle abrasive that may loosen dirt / oxidation. Now use a soft small brush to dust off all those contacts. Finally use a Q-Tip and a small amount of rubbing alcohol to wipe over the contacts gently. Repeat this process on the matching contacts mounted in the printer case. Then allow everything to dry thoroughly before re-installing the unit in the printer. If you are lucky this may help.

Thanks for the advice. I'm trying to compare several pages - hard to tell if they're exactly identical. They're surely very similar, particularly the horizontal bands which are equally wide and spaced across the pages - maybe a pattern made by the drum's roller. Well I was hoping for something more definitive (like yes that's totally the toner or drum) but maybe since the total pages printed is getting pretty close to the toner's expected capacity, I might just go ahead and buy a toner replacement first and see what happens, and then maybe a new drum unit. I'll report the results when I get that done.