1700 laser printer Vertical Streak on printed output

Question

I have a Dell 1700 Laser Printer, and it puts a light vertical streak on every printed page, about an inch to the right of the center.  I have replaced the drum and the tonor, but it's still there.  Recently after installing a new tonor, I cleaned the drum with a tissue and the rollers by the drum, which both had ink on them.  The streak lessened but did not disappear, and in a few pages, it came back.    Is there a fix like  'cleaning paper', Is this caused by internal rollers?  Is there a way to clean it/ fix it myself? thanks

sarah77 · Answer

My 3010cn was having a similar problem and I foun this solution which worked:

jeadsparity
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Posts: 3
Registered: 05-22-2007

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THE WHAT:

If you are experiencing vertical smudges, particularly about 2/3 down on the page, and about 1/4 to 3/8 inch in length, with multiple smudges spaced apart, the problem is the transfer belt (wide "rubber" belt) INSIDE the drum unit.

THE WHY:

After it sits for a while, the rollers inside the unit stretch the belt and leave impression in the transfer belt even while it is turning inside the drum unit. These raised areas actually rub against the inside of the drum unit, which is why it smears the color. If you can print black o.k. that probably means black is printing and transferring to the page BEFORE the belt cycles.

THE FIX:

I have worked on laser printers for many years, and I am not afraid to try disassembling and engineering a fix. Inspection of the drum unit showed that the rear of the top cover was actually flexed down toward the transfer belt (due to an engineering or manufacturing defect, tightening the screws on either side pulls the center of the top cover down) Since the tabs on the top cover appear sufficient to hold the cover in place, I simply removed the 2 rear screws completely. I would advise against loosening them and leaving them in the unit unless you want to put some glue on them. The last thing you want is for one or both to back out and fall into the printer. I flexed the top cover out by hand a bit to help it recover from the strain it had been in, and the gap between it and the transfer belt was obviously greater than it was when I started. I re-ran a full page print that previously showed a lot of streaks, and it ran clean!

So, you have 3 options, live with bad print(lazy), buy a new drum unit(expensive), or use this technique to fix your old drum unit(obviously the best choice). If you don't think that you are mechanically inclined enough to handle this, find a friend to help you, but this is really pretty simple. If you need help identifying the drum unit, open the front and top doors on the printer, raise the blue lever on the right and pull the drum unit toward you with the blue strap in the middle. Try to keeps your hands off the rubber belt and the blue/green image drum as much as possible. Good Luck!!

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1700 laser printer Vertical Streak on printed output

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