Phaser 6500 Black print faded (faint, gray)

[DougJoseph]

I have not found a solution. These printers use a powdered toner rather than ink (you probably knew that and typed ink out of habit). I have used aftermarket toner. If these printers will only work with the "name brand" toner, then the question is why. The Xerox price for their toner is so expensive it is not worth owning the printer, if it only works with theirs.

[neilj1974]

Doug

I have exactly the same problem as you describe. I have 4 Xerox 6500 in my office (Recently Purchased), one started to fade a month ago and now you can virtually see nothing on the page, B&W is the worst. Then today the second one has started to do the same, the black is fading along with the magenta. I tried the suggestion of shaking the catrifges the doing the color adjustment but it did not work on either. I was starting to think it might be the ink, i was curious to see if you were using aftermarket cartridges, i purchased replacements of Amazon which were sold by a company called toner 100. Did you ever figure out what the problem was ?. I have tried every maintentance item on the printers menu but stilll no luck. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Neil J

[PaulCo]

Hi Doug,

Sorry to hear that. Al I got contactiing Xerox is I need a maintenance contract. Not sure if it is worth it.

I tried all the maintenance tips and tricks & no improvement.

Sucess to yah,

PaulCo

[DougJoseph]

Earlier I posted that I got my blacks back, but it did not last, and now the magenta is gone too. :-( 

[PaulCo]

Hi Doug,

After 2 years of use and half way through my 2nd black toner my 6128MFP started doing the exact same thing. Suddenly, wham pale grey print.  I let it go on for 8 weeks with no alerts. No nothing.  I replaced the toner again and it is still very pale.

Tha colors are fine. I am stumped.

Cheers,

Paul M.

[DougJoseph]

Hm. I had already tried forcing a color registration adjustment via the menu before this happened and it did not help. So I'm still stumped as to what would be needed to force a fix if this happens again. Thanks for posting. Helps in the search.

[Kimzi]

Hi, Doug!

THIS is what the printer did.

It performed an automatic color Registration adjustment, which it should do everytime you pop in a new toner.

Best Regards

Kimzi

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Please remember to select "Accept as Solution" for posts that helped you solve the issue.

[DougJoseph · Accepted solution]

Update: After WEEKS of printing all blacks as faint, faded gray, "out of the blue" I finally got an error message that said "Low Density Black Cartridge"

-- when I looked up that message, the manual said to shake the specified cartridge.

Remember I had already tried changing the black cartridge out with a new one, and I always shake the new ones before I put them in. 

Nevertheless, I removed the new black cartridge and shook it just to humor the thing.

However, note that when I reinstalled it, the system did some kind of self-check or maintenance. I think that is what really made the difference. Now my blacks are back. I wish I knew how to cause that self-check or maintenance routine to run at will.

[DougJoseph]

Thank you. I should have mentioned that I did those steps yesterday, but it did not help. Does anyone have any other ideas? It seems to be a software issue, as the faintness is universal across the entire page, very even and seemingly "intentional." (I can try to print a black rectangle that covers the entire width of the page, and it prints out as uniformly (exactly the same faint shade of gray) across the whole page. All the test prints generated by the printer also show complete uniformity of light, faint gray across any place on the page.)

[CherylO-Xerox]

Hi Doug,

Thank you for using the Support Forum. Please make sure that you have cleaned the imaging unit and laser lens using the solution in the online support.  If this does not help please consider contacting your support centre for further assistance.