Defeating the TONER OUT message
The 4500/4550 will declare TONER OUT when there’s still around
40 grams of toner in the cartridge. HP states this is a quality
issue, to ensure consistent quality. And there is some truth in
that. The toners for the 4500/4550 are not made up of uniform particles.
Some are more magnetic than others, and those particles tend to
be the darker ones. So the end of a cartridge has lighter toner
than the beginning of a cartridge.
Still, if you’ve got TONER OUT and you need to print more,
here’s the trick. To determine how much toner is in a cartridge
the printer shines a light beam through two clear plastic windows
on the cartridge. When a light beam can go through both windows
unobstructed, the printer declares “TONER LOW,” and
starts a countdown of pages printed. It calculates how much of each
color is being used, and at some point declares TONER OUT.
Now this is one of the least reliable toner sensors ever invented.
If a window is dirty you can run dry out without tripping the sensor.
If you want to squeeze another fifty pages out of a TONER OUT cartridge,
then remove the cartridge and put black electrical tape, or duct
tape, or some opaque tape over the clear plastic windows. To the
printer this will appear to be a new cartridge.
ALSO – order a new cartridge! Your print quality may deteriorate
at any time.
Rotating the carousel manually
Sometimes when inserting a new cartridge you need to rotate the
carousel slightly forward or backwards, and the printer won’t
let you turn it. There is a keyhole to the right of the top opening,
where you install cartridges, right on the edge. See picture with
red arrow pointing at hole. Insert a screwdriver and push on the
lever there to release the brake. This allows you to turn the carousel
manually.
Defeating the TRANSFER KIT OUT message
The transfer kit does affect image quality but it is usually declared
dead long before its time. If your print quality is OK and you’re
getting a TRANSFER KIT OUT message which is stopping you from printing,
you can defeat this message as follows.
Open middle drawer and remove the transfer kit. On the left side
of the open drawer is a black plastic spring-loaded sensor. See
picture. It slides up and down. In the up position you’ll
get a REPLACE TRANSFER KIT message, or if you’ve ignored that
message long enough you’ll get a TRANSFER KIT OUT message.
In the down position the printer believes it has a new transfer
kit.
So what you want to do is fashion a small wad of paper, about the
size of a pea. Depress the sensor to the down position and insert
the wad in the opening next to the spring. That will hold the sensor
in the down position, and you can keep printing.
Order a new transfer kit and remove the paper wad when you install
the new kit. |
Hilton Imaging Solutions, Inc.
