HP Color LaserJet 2600 2605 - Faint Red Or No Red

If your Hewlett Packard Color LaserJet 2600 or 2605 prints the red (magenta) faint or not at all, the laser scanner assy needs to be stripped out of the printer and cleaned.

This fault affects the red first and is usually worse on the left hand side of the page. Before you start stripping the printer down, it’s a good idea to try another red (magenta) toner cartridge in it first.

There are two probable causes of this. Firstly, the magenta scanner sits at the bottom of the printer and will tend to collect any stray toner or dust that’s floating about inside the printer. Secondly, there is a fan situated right next to the scanner which will blow any stray dust or toner into it.

This is, briefly, how you remove the laser / scanner assembly from the printer:

  1. Remove the right cover; remove one screw at the back and pull the right cover off
  2. Remove the left cover; remove one screw at the bottom of the cover, press the clip in at the front, and pull the cover off
  3. Remove the nine black screws holding the metal plate on at the back of the printer and remove the metal plate
  4. Remove the cables connected to the two logic boards except for the flat cable connecting the two boards together and the yellow cables at the bottom of the right hand board
  5. Remove the cables from the black plastic cable guides
  6. Remove the L shaped cable guide at the right by pressing in two clips with a small screwdriver and pull the guide out
  7. Remove the long horizontal guide by sliding it to the left and lifting it away
  8. 2605 – unclip the cable guide on the left
  9. Remove the eleven screws from the metal plate with the two logic boards on it and lift the plate away complete with the boards
  10. Remove the white plastic clip holding the two flat cables from the scanner to the printer chassis
  11. Remove the three screws from the scanner, two at the top and one at the bottom, and lift the scanner assembly out of the printer (2605 – bottom screw has a metal spring plate covering it)

With the scanner on the bench in front of you, you can now dismantle it ready for cleaning.

Remove one screw and a spring from the front of the scanner and lift off the cover. Remove the long plastic arm which will fall out if you turn the scanner over. Remember how this arm fits.

You will see four 6 cm long red / purple coloured mirrors inside the scanner. Inspect the bottom one. Initially it will look the same as the others. Carefully wipe a small part of it with a cotton wool bud and you will see the difference it makes. It is this thin coating on the mirror that causes the fault.

Carefully blow away the dust from inside the scanner. Use the cotton wool buds to clean all the mirrors and lenses. Blow again to remove any fluff left behind by the cotton wool buds. It’s now ready for reassembling.

When you fit the scanner back into the printer, make sure it’s seated correctly. It hooks in at the top first and there are two locating lugs on the right hand side, one at the top and one at the bottom.

Be careful not to pull the two flat cables out of the scanner. When you fit the plate and logic boards back into the printer, be careful not to trap the purple wires from the top of the scanner behind the metal plate.

It’s probably best to leave the side covers and back cover off until you’re sure it’s working. Power the printer on. If you get any error messages, check all the cables are connected. Any scanner related errors are usually caused by the flat cables from the scanner coming out or the purple wires from the scanner trapped behind the metal plate.

Do a test print. It should be looking good now. If the color alignment isn’t spot on, run the calibration routine which is desribed in this post:

HP Color LaserJet 2605 – Colours Out Of Alignment

One final note. I once had one of these printers where someone had attempted to clean the outside of the lense from inside of the printer. Whatever they had used to clean it with had scratched the surface leaving it opaque instead of transparent. This required replacing the whole laser / scanner assembly to cure it.

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September 29th, 2009 | Tags: , , , , , , , | Category: Color LaserJet 2600, Color LaserJet 2605 | 2 comments

HP Color LaserJet 2605 - Colours Out Of Alignment

The symptons of this fault is that the colours appear to be out of alignment. If you look closely at a printout, you will see it is actually the black that is shifted horizontally and the other colours are ok.

You will also find that running the calibration routine in the menu makes no difference.

Just in case you don’t know how to perform the calibration, this is how it’s done:

  1. Press the green button with the tick on it (select)
  2. Press the right arrow button, System Setup shows on the display, press select
  3. Press right twice to show Print quality and press select
  4. The display will now show Calibrate Color, press select
  5. Calibrate Color Now will be on the display, press select
  6. You will now see Press √ to calibrate now, press select
  7. The display will briefly show Printing Document and change to Calibrating
  8. After a few minutes, the printer will return to Ready

You can try calibrating the printer and see if it cures the fault. If it doesn’t, the fix is to perform the Super NVRAM Initiializer.

Super NVRAM initializer

CAUTION Super NVRAM initialization will erase all network settings. Before performing Super NVRAM initialization, print a Configuration page, which contains network setting information.

When a super NVRAM init is performed, the printer enters the Generic Product Mode, which changes the language and country/region settings to “undefined.”

NOTE Super NVRAM init will erase all data stored in the protected NVRAM settings

Before performing the Super NVRAM Initializer, you will need to print out the config page, network config, and service page. You will need to print these out again after and change any settings that have been reset. The two times I’ve had to do this, I’ve been lucky and the settings have been ok.

Config Page

  1. Press select
  2. Display shows Reports, press select
  3. Press the right button twice
  4. Display shows Config Report, press select

Network Config

  1. Press select, on Reports, press select
  2. Press right four times, on Network Report, press select

Service Page

  1. Press select, on Reports, press select
  2. Press the left button, on Service Page, press select

Now you’ve printed out your settings, you can do the Super NVRAM Initializer:

  1. Turn printer off
  2. Hold down left and right arrow keys
  3. Turn printer on
  4. When you see the message Permanent storage init, release the (Left arrow) and (Right arrow) buttons

You will then be asked to select the language and location (country). When you’ve done that, the following message shows on the display:

TURN OFF
TURN OFF

You won’t have to turn the printer off and on. If you wait a few seconds, it resets itself.

When the printer is “READY”, print out another test page. You should find that the black is now aligned properly but the image might look blurred because the red is not aligned. Simply run the calibration procedure described earlier and everything should now be ok.

Don’t forget to reset any settings, especially the network settings.

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September 17th, 2009 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Category: Color LaserJet 2605 | One comment