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KonicaMinolta PagePro 1350W bands and toner refills
I bought one of these black and white laser printers a few days ago. It's my first laser printer. The reviews I read warned about the "banding" that would be visible in photos and sure enough, I see bands . Can anyone here tell me what causes this and if there is anything that can be done to cure it or minimize it.
Also, has anyone here had experience in refilling the toner cartridges yourself with less expensive materials? Thank you. |
#2
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I also own this printer, although, I have to admit it hasn't been taken
out of the box yet. Banding usually is a result of uneven toner distribution on the drum, but the causes can be numerous. It could be a mechanical issue in how the toner is applied or made available to the drum, it could be the drum doesn't have even sensitivity, it could be the laser power is variable, it could be the ionic charges aren't being created evenly. Let's just say it's bad or cheap design. Black toner laser printers aren't really designed to make pretty photo images in most cases, and cheap ones are, well cheaper. They generally are designed for text and other printout that doesn't require well controlled half toning or other gray scale rendering. Apparently you can use 3rd party toners, but for some reason (other than greed on K-M's part???) using anything other than K-M toner cartridges causes the printer to run at about 1/4th the speed. A way around it is to buy a special chip that I assume gets burned out on the original when it runs low. Art anonymous wrote: I bought one of these black and white laser printers a few days ago. It's my first laser printer. The reviews I read warned about the "banding" that would be visible in photos and sure enough, I see bands . Can anyone here tell me what causes this and if there is anything that can be done to cure it or minimize it. Also, has anyone here had experience in refilling the toner cartridges yourself with less expensive materials? Thank you. |
#3
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On Sat, 12 Feb 2005 22:47:00 -0600, anonymous
dijo: I bought one of these black and white laser printers a few days ago. It's my first laser printer. The reviews I read warned about the "banding" that would be visible in photos and sure enough, I see bands . Can anyone here tell me what causes this and if there is anything that can be done to cure it or minimize it. Also, has anyone here had experience in refilling the toner cartridges yourself with less expensive materials? Unless you're printing massive quantities, it's probably not worth it to remanufacture the cartridges yourself. It's not just a matter of refilling it with toner. Cartridges typically contain numerous other parts, such as the drum, wiper blade, mag roller, and others (depending on the make and model). In additio, there are problems with seals that have to be dealt with correctly. By the time you're done, you can get professionally remanufactured carts on eBay for less. In fact, eBay is your friend here. I buy most of my toner carts on eBay (and I use 8-10 per month). -- Bogus e-mail address, but I read this newsgroup regularly, so reply here. |
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On Sat, 12 Feb 2005 22:47:00 -0600, anonymous
wrote: Also, has anyone here had experience in refilling the toner cartridges yourself with less expensive materials? I do not have experience, but it can be done: http://www.tonerrefillkits.com/refil...agePro_1350 W -- To reply by e-mail please replace the underscore with a dot. |
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On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 17:18:58 -0800, Marek Williams
wrote: On Sat, 12 Feb 2005 22:47:00 -0600, anonymous dijo: I bought one of these black and white laser printers a few days ago. It's my first laser printer. The reviews I read warned about the "banding" that would be visible in photos and sure enough, I see bands . Can anyone here tell me what causes this and if there is anything that can be done to cure it or minimize it. Also, has anyone here had experience in refilling the toner cartridges yourself with less expensive materials? Unless you're printing massive quantities, it's probably not worth it to remanufacture the cartridges yourself. It's not just a matter of refilling it with toner. Cartridges typically contain numerous other parts, such as the drum, wiper blade, mag roller, and others (depending on the make and model). The 1350W has a separate drum so the toner cartridge can be refilled with new toner a few times with no need for remanufacturing and without affecting print quality. When the other parts in the toner cartridge wear out after a few refills, just buy a new one, which can again be refilled with new toner a few times. This is probably cheaper than buying a new remanufactured cartidge everytime it runs out of toner. In this particular model, a chip in the cartridge also has to be replaced if you want to print at the printer's rated speed, but this shouldn't affect the refill/remanufacture issue. -- To reply by e-mail please replace the underscore with a dot. |
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I'm just wondering what excuse Konica-Minolta uses to justify the chip
being made dysfunctional when the toner runs out. How do they justify the printer being made to run at less than half speed if you refill? That really seems like a flagrant violation of the Magnuson-Moss Act. Art Rui Sá wrote: The 1350W has a separate drum so the toner cartridge can be refilled with new toner a few times with no need for remanufacturing and without affecting print quality. When the other parts in the toner cartridge wear out after a few refills, just buy a new one, which can again be refilled with new toner a few times. This is probably cheaper than buying a new remanufactured cartidge everytime it runs out of toner. In this particular model, a chip in the cartridge also has to be replaced if you want to print at the printer's rated speed, but this shouldn't affect the refill/remanufacture issue. |
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On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 14:26:46 GMT, Arthur Entlich
dijo: I'm just wondering what excuse Konica-Minolta uses to justify the chip being made dysfunctional when the toner runs out. How do they justify the printer being made to run at less than half speed if you refill? The official corporate spin is that the customer is entitled to top quality. Therefore, it is in the customer's best interest to make sure only Konica-Minolta prodcuts are use. -- Bogus e-mail address, but I read this newsgroup regularly, so reply here. |
#8
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All consumable companies, which is what most printer companies are these
days, say the same thing, but that in itself doesn't make it legal under Magnuson-Moss Act (in the US at least). Epson gets away with it by claiming the "features" like the chip in the cartridge records the approximate ink levels, and this is a feature that allows people to switch cartridges even if one is only partially full, because the information is kept on the cartridge. At the same time, the cartridges were redesigned to make them automatically close the ink outlet and air inlet to keep the ink fresher if you were to hold a partially filled one for later use. They also claim this is necessary because it keep the head from going empty and drying out or getting an air lock. All of this, of course, may be true, but the real reason for the chip is to try to prevent refilling. But, how Minolta can do what they do is much more questionable. I suppose they could claim the toner quality restricts the speed the engine should operate at to protect it, and while their toner is worthy of whatever pages per minute, that inferior ones may not be. It's pretty specious, but I would expect they think they have it all worked out. Art Marek Williams wrote: On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 14:26:46 GMT, Arthur Entlich dijo: I'm just wondering what excuse Konica-Minolta uses to justify the chip being made dysfunctional when the toner runs out. How do they justify the printer being made to run at less than half speed if you refill? The official corporate spin is that the customer is entitled to top quality. Therefore, it is in the customer's best interest to make sure only Konica-Minolta prodcuts are use. -- Bogus e-mail address, but I read this newsgroup regularly, so reply here. |
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