During the weekend I've spent some time to fix some problems with a couple of my favorite LaserPrinters:
HP LaserJet 2200.
And I realized that these sturdy guys are from the same time period like the PPC G3 hardware.
I started to look for the Lj2200 in 2003 and later, since at that time I fancied a printer, that was sporting IrDA to connect to my PalmOS-handheld.
During the last 15y this specific model proofed to be a real die-hard in daily office-routine and printing-cost are decent due to a big aftermarket for refilled toner-cartridges.
Unfortunately this happy pack of 2200ers now starts to show signs of age and a few of them failed during the last 1 or 2 years and went to storage, since I was lucky to have enough replacement at hands for easy swapping devices and that helped to avoid trouble that might have been caused by the need of reconfiguring printing-workflows and settings in the office-network.
So last sunny Sunday there was time and mood to start fixing a battered crowd of 4 2200er printers, and I was amazed, how neat and nifty it can be, to work on these machines. Luckily there was help by some precious web sources - especially a video about full maintainance of the Lj 2200 in Spanish language.
Finally solving my problems came down to
- replacing or maintaining the fuser-unit and
- maintaining the rotating prism within the laser-unit.
1) Replace / clean / repair the Fuser-Unit:
One unit had a damaged fuser-sleeve (it was torn and a half of it was ripped off), so I replaced it with a new replacement fuser-unit, that I was lucky to find and that is said to be good for another 200.000 printed pages.
The next 2200 had been a more delicate problem: a defective toner-cartridge had cause a real mess of spreading toner-powder all over the device (and finally also onto shelve and floor of my office at home. I was so happy, that we do not have any carpets...) Most time consuming job on that device had been wiping, vacuum-cleaning (and cleaning the vacuum cleaner afterwards) and blowing the black toner-powder out of the case. Then I found the fuser unit with stucked paper and 1-3mm melted toner all baked together and sticking to the fuser-sleeve. Just out of curiosity I started the attempt to dissassemble the whole fuser unit. There was no manual or video about that process, so a bit bricky, but good fun, cause I thought, this was a lost case anyway. But then the whole mess of paper and baked toner could be removed from the fuser-unit without damaging the fuser-sleeve and I was lucky to re-assemble it completely (mainly because I had that damaged unit at hands to check, where which part has to go. Better take pictures while dismantling.) I couldn't believe my eyes, when perfect printouts came out of the 2200 after my cleaning-job. My next challenge will be to get a cheap 5 buck fuser-sleeve to refurbish the damaged fuser-unit, that was left from the first replacing-job.
2) Lubricating the spinning-prism of the laser-unit:
Once this little spinning-prism motor unit gets stuck, the whole printer stops to work, and all 3 LEDs are glowing. Following a detailed instruction about this matter, that I found on a web-search, I was lucky to dismantle the laser-unit and lubricate the axis of the prism's motor-unit with the help of my wife's sewing machine oil.
Now 4 printers were fully recovered for daily work and I'm looking forward to try that fuser-sleeve repair too.
It's unbelievable how these printers still perform after >20y of daily service. They are one of the backbones of my daily work.
So anyone else here to introduce his/her choice of favorite sturdy and indispensable peripheral devices?
HP LaserJet 2200.
And I realized that these sturdy guys are from the same time period like the PPC G3 hardware.
I started to look for the Lj2200 in 2003 and later, since at that time I fancied a printer, that was sporting IrDA to connect to my PalmOS-handheld.
During the last 15y this specific model proofed to be a real die-hard in daily office-routine and printing-cost are decent due to a big aftermarket for refilled toner-cartridges.
Unfortunately this happy pack of 2200ers now starts to show signs of age and a few of them failed during the last 1 or 2 years and went to storage, since I was lucky to have enough replacement at hands for easy swapping devices and that helped to avoid trouble that might have been caused by the need of reconfiguring printing-workflows and settings in the office-network.
So last sunny Sunday there was time and mood to start fixing a battered crowd of 4 2200er printers, and I was amazed, how neat and nifty it can be, to work on these machines. Luckily there was help by some precious web sources - especially a video about full maintainance of the Lj 2200 in Spanish language.
Finally solving my problems came down to
- replacing or maintaining the fuser-unit and
- maintaining the rotating prism within the laser-unit.
1) Replace / clean / repair the Fuser-Unit:
One unit had a damaged fuser-sleeve (it was torn and a half of it was ripped off), so I replaced it with a new replacement fuser-unit, that I was lucky to find and that is said to be good for another 200.000 printed pages.
The next 2200 had been a more delicate problem: a defective toner-cartridge had cause a real mess of spreading toner-powder all over the device (and finally also onto shelve and floor of my office at home. I was so happy, that we do not have any carpets...) Most time consuming job on that device had been wiping, vacuum-cleaning (and cleaning the vacuum cleaner afterwards) and blowing the black toner-powder out of the case. Then I found the fuser unit with stucked paper and 1-3mm melted toner all baked together and sticking to the fuser-sleeve. Just out of curiosity I started the attempt to dissassemble the whole fuser unit. There was no manual or video about that process, so a bit bricky, but good fun, cause I thought, this was a lost case anyway. But then the whole mess of paper and baked toner could be removed from the fuser-unit without damaging the fuser-sleeve and I was lucky to re-assemble it completely (mainly because I had that damaged unit at hands to check, where which part has to go. Better take pictures while dismantling.) I couldn't believe my eyes, when perfect printouts came out of the 2200 after my cleaning-job. My next challenge will be to get a cheap 5 buck fuser-sleeve to refurbish the damaged fuser-unit, that was left from the first replacing-job.
2) Lubricating the spinning-prism of the laser-unit:
Once this little spinning-prism motor unit gets stuck, the whole printer stops to work, and all 3 LEDs are glowing. Following a detailed instruction about this matter, that I found on a web-search, I was lucky to dismantle the laser-unit and lubricate the axis of the prism's motor-unit with the help of my wife's sewing machine oil.
Now 4 printers were fully recovered for daily work and I'm looking forward to try that fuser-sleeve repair too.
It's unbelievable how these printers still perform after >20y of daily service. They are one of the backbones of my daily work.
So anyone else here to introduce his/her choice of favorite sturdy and indispensable peripheral devices?
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