Tag: Geek Stuff

Fixed Fading Issue for HP2605 (again)

Posted on by George in Geek Stuff, Home PC, Personal

About a month ago I ran out of black toner (124A if your shopping for replacement cartridges) and was thinking about getting rid of the printer.  I have not used it as much over the last year or so.  However, I decided to keep the printer to print worksheets for Boy Scout merit badges and maybe a few resumes if needed.  I stopped by Staples and purchased my replacement cartridge, and once again I have fading on the right side of the paper.  This time issue was with the black toner cartridge.

Going through all the cleaning steps did not help, the problem was the optical box at stated in a previous post.  This is the second time I’ve had to clean the mirrors in the optical box.  The printer works well and I’m sure I’ll keep it for another year or two, but I’m not sure if I want to continue putting total faith in HP printers.  Maybe I’ll spend some time over the next few months researching for an excellent laser printer that works with Apple Print (print from my iOS device) or maybe ditch the whole thing and be more green.

Here are some before and after pictures.  Merit badge found on nerdmeritbadges.com.

New cartridge installed and this was the output from cleaning.
Cleaned the printer several times, but still not right
Text on the right quarter of page is faded and distorted
Text on the right quarter of page is faded and distorted
After cleaning the mirrors in the optical box
the way it is suppose to look

Star Wars and Camping Weekend

Posted on by George in Geek Stuff, Personal

First off Star Wars Episode VII, The Force Awakens, was the best Star Wars movie…ever!  All I can say is ,”WOW!!”  I saw the movie Friday night at 10:15PM at Penn Center IMAX at the Waterfront in Wilmington, DE.  We arrived about 45 minutes early and wait in line.  We ended up in the second row from the screen.  Normally I cant stand to be that close, but it didn’t matter this time.  Like many, I will see it again in the theater.

On Saturday, I was on a camping trip at the Henson Scout Reservation with Boy Scout Troop 660.  The Scouts shot black powder and .22 rifles.  In the afternoon, the first year scouts worked on orienteering while older scouts worked on camp gadgets for their First Class rank.  The meals were fantastic, and we enjoyed good stories by the fire.  I was up till almost midnight putting out our camp fire and enjoying the cold night looking up at the stars (27 degrees F).

It was perfect “guys” weekend, and I’m looking forward to the next.

Fading Fix for HP Color LaserJet 2605

Posted on by George in Geek Stuff, Home PC, Personal

Over the last 2 months or so, I’ve noticed my color print outs did look as good as they use to.  For example, I was working on a new idea for Cub Scouts, designing a new pit pass for the scouts to wear for Pinewood Derby in Spring 2014.  The pass included a red, blue and yellow car, but the colors were off.  The red car car looked yellow-orange with yellow flames.

So I ran the color calibration from the printer, and afterwards, the pit pass looked the same.  I prided the supplies status page to verified there is toner, but it looks faded.  So I stared searching for a reason why this was happening, and I came across the following page.

HP Colour LaserJet Fading Fix

The problem is the mirrors in the optical box on the HP Color LaserJet 2605, the box is not sealed.  The mirror for the magenta cartridge collects a lot of dust.  This dust keeps the laser from reflecting off the mirror correctly, and preventing toner from being picked up and placed on the paper.

The process took me about 2 hours 45 minutes to complete, but it was well worth it.  My printer works great.  Except for this one issue, the output is fantastic.  Also, I didn’t have to spend $300 plus on a new printer.  Below are pictures of the status supply pages.

Supply Status Page before cleaning mirrors.
Supply Status Page after cleaning mirrors.