Off-brand cartridges never worked for me, but the stripe could be bad,
maybe something on the mirror/laser assembly?
Try taking the cartridge out and shake it to spread the toner evenly
over the width, then print a couple of pages all black.
I also buy toner on ebay, with a little patience I've always found
genuine brand toner well below the normal price. This comes from
people who don't have the printer any more and stuff like that, expiry
date doesn't seem to matter but brand does.
ST
On Fri, Jan 8, 2010 at 6:15 PM, Brian Lalor <blalor@...> wrote:
> Thanks for the info, everyone. I'll do a little more experimenting before
> giving up on the printer, but I'm going to hedge my bet and pick up an HP
> P1006 from Staples on the way home and return it if I can get mine working.
> I've got two off-brand cartridges, both of which seem to exhibit the same
> quarter-inch-wide stripe down the left third of the page and generally thin
> toner density, even with all of the settings properly set up for max
> density. The stripe makes me think that there's something else that needs
> maintenance, ∗on top∗ of needing a good toner cartridge (probably an
> official HP one). Just a replacement cartridge for this printer is north
> of $50 on eBay, which I would gladly do if I thought that was all I needed.
>
> Live and learn. This printer's still got plenty of life left in it, I
> think, just not for PCBs!
>
> --
> Brian Lalor
> blalor@...
>
>