hp laserjet 4300 Paper wrinkling

**copydocinc** · 10-13-2015

My customers HP laserjet 4300 was wrinkling the paper, and they had nearly 200,000 pages since last PM. So I recommend a maintenance kit, probably the fuser is causing the wrinkling anyway, right? Well I did that and it works like a champ except for a couple days later they call again with the wrinkling again. Side note: it would print a run of about 200 just fine and then the next run maybe page number 5 would wrinkle then page 12 and then maybe 10 in a row would wrinkle, so it's occasional, sometimes very often. OK, so I notice the big conveyor belt is loose and sliding off to the side of the center spindle and I replace that feed assy, the one where the belts feed the paper into the fuser. Works good for me again. I ran about 100 pages. and left, so now a week later they are calling again for the same wrinkling problem. It is wrinkling down the page, starting about 1/4 the way down and going to the trail edge, like what a worn press roller in a fuser would cause. Not a wrinkle like an accordion from paper lead edge stopping. Oh and 2 different fuser units did this since that was what it was doing before the maintenance kit was replaced. Paper type setting is plain. and the paper wrinkling is plain paper (the machine does have about 2.5 million total page count)
Any thoughts or ideas?

**blackcat4866** · 10-13-2015

I think I would bring a ream of our paper, then burn through 500. When it doesn't wrinkle, then it has to be their paper. =^..^=

**subaro** · 10-13-2015

under the print quality sub menu there are setting for the fuser mode. check and make sure it is set to normal. below is from the service manual.

FUSER MODESPLAINPREPRINTEDLETTERHEADTRANSPARENCYPREPUNCH EDLABELSBONDRECYCLEDCOLORCARDSTOCK>164 G/M2ROUGH[Paper Type]=NORMALLOWHIGH1HIGH2ENVELOPERESTORE MODESUse this item to configures the fuser mode associatedwith each media type.Change the fuser mode only if you are experiencingproblems printing on certain types of media. After youselect a type of paper, you can select a fuser modethat is available for that type. The available selectionsmight include some or all of the following modes:NORMAL: Used for most types of paper.HIGH 1: Used for rough paper.LOW: Used for transparencies.HIGH 2: Used for paper that has a special or roughfinish.The default fuser mode is NORMAL for all print mediatypes except transparencies (LOW)

**theengel** · 10-13-2015

On heavily used machines like that, you almost gotta use OEM. You didn't mention if you were or not.

**Printerdude** · 10-13-2015

Look at the print at the fold, is there print in the fold or on top of the fold. Are you using New OEM Fusers?

**copydocinc** · 10-14-2015

The fuser I am using is an oem fuser rebuilt by Laser Stop in Utah. I think they are using oem rollers or at least heat sleeve. I have used their rebuilt fusers for many years, with very little problems. Many HP authorized dealers and 3rd party shops like mine use their products successfully. This particular machine has had at least 10 of their fusers installed in it over the years with no problems, up until now, but I still don't know if the fuser is the problem.

I am going there today with another fuser unit from Laser Stop to check it out. Probably won't know for sure for a few days, if it was the cause.

I like the idea of checking the crease for print inside or outside the crease, to determine that it may be creasing before the toner crtg. If the crease is big enough, that should be easy to determine. Thanks for that idea.

I will double check on the fuser settings again as well.

**copydocinc** · 10-16-2015

Ok, so, I'm dumb. My customer was using a leaking micr toner crtg. I told them to get rid of it after the maintenance kit was replaced. Then again replacing the feed assy. I thought they got rid of it. They said they didn't want waste the money, so they wanted to use it up, before they got rid of it.
The leaking toner created a small mountain of toner on the paper guide into the fuser unit, causing a corner of the paper to hit it causing that edge to delay a little, in turn causing the wrinkle.
Brought the machine into the shop, took it apart, blew it out, cleaned the little baked on toner mountain off of the fuser guide plate and everything is great again.
Yes I did charge the customer again and tell them I will charge them again next week and the week after that and so on, if they don't get rid of that leaking micr toner crtg, that they did not buy from me.
I don't think they saved any money, by keeping that leaking crtg. $625 parts and labor charged, so far.

Thanks for the ideas, guys.

**Printerdude** · 10-16-2015

Thanks for sharing your results.

**blackcat4866** · 10-17-2015

Good catch! I've seen this on other HPs and a few of the older Ricohs. Pretty much any machine that's blowing toner. It usually causes jamming though. Yeah, they're saving quite a bit of money ... other than the $625 bucks in parts and labor. =^..^=