Faint / gray on WC 3550 for all printing output

[Iluvatar]

I have a WorkCentre 3550 which prints everything as gray, despite the desnity of the origina (from copy) or as a printed document.

Someone has set the maintenance password to an unknown value, so I cannot run the diagnostics.

Could someone help me with a plan of attack so that I might ry to work out what is causing this?

(I have a copy of the workshop manual but it is quite terse and full of jargon. A real world view from a real person would be of more assistance.)

Thanks in advance.

[Joe053204-hcl]

(1)Simply set the lighten/darken to darker in the defaults

(2)Shake the toner a bit, but not hard, don't end up like this

(3)Replace the print cartridge

[Iluvatar]

Joe,

I have tried your solution a number of times with a series of cartridges. No result !

Thanks for the photo :-)

[Iluvatar]

Can anyone else please help with this problem ??

I have had various suggestions ranging from replacing the fuser to cleaning the whole internals of the machine from top to bottom.

I really don't know where to start.

[CherylO-Xerox]

Hi lluvatar,

Thank you for using the Support Forum. Please take a look at the soutions for faded images.  If none of those solutions clear up the issue you will need to have service take a look at the machine.  Please consider contacting your support centre for further assistance.