HP 5000 Prints Too Light

[henry finley]

My trusty HP 5000 just will not lay down a coat of ink heavy enough any more. Firstly, it should be known that I am versed in its operation and menus. It's on ink setting 5, not on economode, and the laser glass is all clean, and the toner cartridge is new and genuine HP. But the coat of ink on the paper is definitely sub-par. Google searching has turned up little helpful, other than to give me an idea that there may be a capacitor problem possibly on the power supply or HV board. If there's an expert out there who has seen this turn up regularly, would a cap or circuit board problem be the likely problem? And if so, are there boards you can buy on ebay or somewhere so I don't have to do a bunch of soldering?
One last observation: the whole machine has gotten brittle as heck. Pretty sorry plastic. Literally falls apart to touch it.

[Iowatech]

Is that a Laser Jet 5000 or a Design Jet 5000?

[henry finley]

HP Laserjet 5000, running in PS. Thank you.

[blackcat4866]

Two considerations:

1) Have you cleaned the internal laser optics? Machines of this era, especially in a dirty environment will need the laser cleaned occasionally.
2) Are you using OEM toner?

=^..^=

[henry finley]

All counts are correct. Everything's spotless. Without correct items, my post would have no basis.

[blackcat4866]

All counts are correct. Everything's spotless. Without correct items, my post would have no basis.

I'm pretty sure that I didn't ask anything about the counts. Pardon my skepticism, but I seriously doubt that you cleaned the internal laser optics. I'm not sure what you mean about "correct items". I'm talking about OEM toner cartridges versus generic or re-filled toner cartridges. =^..^=

[henry finley]

I'm pretty sure that I didn't ask anything about the counts. Pardon my skepticism, but I seriously doubt that you cleaned the internal laser optics. I'm not sure what you mean about "correct items". I'm talking about OEM toner cartridges versus generic or re-filled toner cartridges. =^..^=

Thank you for your help. I appreciate it sincerely. But I don't seem to be clear that everything is clean and correct. Proper HP toner. Hearkening back to my first post, I made sure of these things before posting, specifically to avoid speculation and doubt, so that someone might chime in from an electronic standpoint.

[Iowatech]

Thank you for your help. I appreciate it sincerely. But I don't seem to be clear that everything is clean and correct. Proper HP toner. Hearkening back to my first post, I made sure of these things before posting, specifically to avoid speculation and doubt, so that someone might chime in from an electronic standpoint.

Any chance you could share some pictures of what you're dealing with? That actually would be the best way to eliminate speculation and doubt. But only mostly, we can't see what your machine is doing in real time like you can after all.
Thanks!

[subaro]

First thing i would do is try another cartridge. Not every car that rolls of the assy line is perfect. In that way you would eliminate cartridge issue for sure. was this happening before you replace the new cartridge ?. What about the transfer roller, was it replaced, it is a maintence item that should be replaced at a specified page count. The cartridge contacts should be checked to see if making proper contact . The high voltage pwb would most likely be the cause if the above checks out as it supplys the bias to the drum and transfer roller. order a transfer roller and install it. Also, you have to remove the cover of the laser unit and check the mirrors if dirty. you can see if there is dirt in there, if it looks ok then there is no need to clean it if you don't have the experience.

[theengel]

Thank you for your help. I appreciate it sincerely. But I don't seem to be clear that everything is clean and correct. Proper HP toner. Hearkening back to my first post, I made sure of these things before posting, specifically to avoid speculation and doubt, so that someone might chime in from an electronic standpoint.

He didn't say anything about electronics. The suggestion was, disassemble the machine, and clean the laser unit. He's not talking about the laser glass, he's talking about the internal hexagon mirror and everything else involved.

No one solders parts onto these boards... you just replace the boards. They're cheap. Anyway, it's very unlikely that this is a board problem. It's most likely dirt in the laser unit. If you were going to replace something, you'd probably start with the laser unit itself. But I would put in a new OEM ctg before doing that.

The plastic on these deteriorate over time. This machine is pretty old, and the plastic get's brittle. There's nothing you can do.