Cleaning my printer question for seasoned notaries

[jennjoneis]

My printer needs cleaning. I can tell by the sometimes blotchy
or overinked look on the documents I print.

Google’s advice is to :
soak a peice of paper with rubbing alcohol
and “run” the sheet through my printer 2 or 3 times

Is that a good idea? Any other suggestions.
Thanks

[cNsa5]

@jennjoneis Hmmm . . . my initial thought is: “Nope! Not going to try that one!”

I regularly purchase “Dust Off” => an Electronics Duster (compressed gas) to clean my printer in the toner cartridge compartment and within the compartments of the letter-size paper drawer & legal-size paper drawer.

1. Open the printer compartment that stores the toner cartridge & use the Dust-Off to clean it out.
2. Take the toner cartridge outside & blow it clean.
3. Clean the corona wire inside the drum unit by sliding the tab slowly from left-to-right at least six [6] times.

If that fails to clear the aberrant toner appearances on your paper, check the Remaining Life on your drum unit as it may be approaching the end of its Machine Life. Access Machine Info and then Parts Life to checking this data.

If there is quite a bit of life remaining (greater than 30%), then you probably need to have the fuser replaced (expensive & usually must be performed by a Certified Technician).

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NOTE: The above information is purely my individual, anecdotal insights based on my direct experience. Brother laser MFC printer are the workhorses I rely on, so the steps noted above I developed over nearly two [2] decades utilizing multiple models of Brother laser printers.

[jennjoneis]

Thanks I will definately try the dust off. I opened it today and …it’s dirty!

[Arichter]

Don’t like that alcohol-soaked idea at all. HP or Brother or something else? Makes a difference.
Sounds like ‘end of drum life’ to me. If HP, you can sometimes squeeze additional pages by simply removing the cartridge and gently wiping the toner off the drum with a facial tissue. Try not to touch the drum surface with bare hand.

[jennjoneis]

Yes, I have to be careful where I whipe. I tried whiping before and it ruined my printer’s printing capacity.
I hope there’s a youtube video out there or something…

[Arichter]

Seriously…go to MicroSoft Edge and ask Bing (AI). It’s become my new best friend for tech issues.

[jennjoneis]

Just curious, what are your thoughts about AI? Should we trust it, or run…

[Arichter]

I pretty much trust it for stuff like this. It will give you links to videos and/or other sites that seem to be spot on. It fixed a techy problem I had with an old HP after an hour spent with HP support couldn’t fix it.