Developer Forum

I have a Samsung ML-6060 mono laser printer, which I have had for some
time, although I don't do a great deal of printing with it.

However recently the print has been rather pale and gray, rather a
dense black. I am sure that it is *not* set to the "toner save" option,
as the "toner save" light does not light up, and I have checked the
various print options to disable this.

There is no sign of streaking or small areas not printing - print is
all an even (but gray) colour - so I doubt that this is due to the
toner running out. However I have also tried shaking the cartridge
about to redistribute the remaining toner.

Can anyone suggest what is causing this "light printing" problem? Could
it be some sort of bug in the printer driver that is printing in "toner
save" mode while not giving an indication of this? Or could it be due
to a dodgy cartridge?

Please note that I have only had about 2 cartridges through this
printer since I bought it, so I doubt that it could be worn out.

Brian Rumary, UK

Have the apparent "problem" with my Brother 2050dn; not consistent tho.

Believe that it is probably a combo of the OS font setting (size),
font & monitor size. For me, when I go to change the various display
font sizes, I see that there is a variation of visibility in that there
seems to be "darker" nearly bold font change from the smaller font.
e.g. On my system, the apparent from "light" to "dark"/bold on the
screen is about font size 13; when I use size 12, the font is "lighter".

The change also happens with an editor, EditPadLight, around the same
font sizes. Thunderbird displays some email quite light & others in
nearly bold on the screen. Think that the printer is reflecting what
is displayed on the screen. Sometimes printing from the command
line with linux on 1 file is lighter than other times on another file!

This is not the case with me. The "gray printing" is apparent on *all*
printing, regardless of font size or page size. Also most of my printing
is done from Word or PDF documents, not screen-shots or web page
print-outs.

Brian Rumary, UK

The Samsung ML1610 I occasionally use persistently printed light as you
described, to the point where it was unsuitable for "proper" letters, this
in the face of all driver reloads, updates and print settings.

What made the difference for me was when I reloaded the cartridge with a
proprietary toner - instantly, voila, my prints were blacker. Don't know if
I had a bad initial cartridge that didn't have the proper toner load. If
Samsung deliberately supply original cartridges with less contents, or if
there was something intrinsically wrong with their toner, but the difference
was immediately apparent.

I think this may be the case for me, but I'm rather reluctant to throw away a
half-full cartridge, given how much they cost! It is normal practise to sell
laser printers with half-full cartridges, so I don't think this by itself
would have any effect on the print quality, only the number of pages you could
print before it runs out.

Really I'm surprised that a toner cartridge from a major manufacturer would
behave like this; it's more like what you would expect from a seller of cheap
"compatible" units. AFAIK my present cartridge is a genuine Samsung unit,
although I did buy it off eBay! Was your ML1610 cartridge a genuine Samsung
one?

Brian Rumary, UK

Further to this problem, my printer laser cartridge showed signs of
running out (uneven printing), so I put in a new one. Now the print is
coming out nice and black, as it should.

Obviously my "grey print" problem was due to a duff cartridge. It was
supposed to be a "genuine" Samsung part, but I suspect it was really
just a second-hand one that had been re-filled with poor quality toner.

I can't afford Samsung cartridges at high-street prices, so I think I
shall just buy compatible ones in future - then I won't waste as much
money if they turn out to be poor quality!

Brian Rumary, UK