I destroyed a printer so you don't have to.

[Rob Blessin Black Hole]

Thanks for doing this much appreciated !

[Rob Blessin Black Hole]

Hello Spitfire: So Mr. Pix was in town for a few days and we replaced the rollers on 4 printers. One actually takes the paper through and prints all black pages and I think this is due to the broken corona wire it is an easy to remove assembly. Hopefully swapping one out cures that probelem. There is a small slit by the exit tray and when your NeXT boots up if you see an orange glow that is a good sign. The other 3 unfortunately did not glow upon boot up and subsequently hang during the print process.
You mentioned a PP utility and yes I've been looking at the manual we have in the archives.  Here http://www.nextcomputers.org/NeXTfiles/Docs/Hardware/NeXT_Laser_Printer_N2000/NeXT%20400%20DPI%20Laser%20Printer%20Complete_OCR.pdf   chapter 2 ,
Questions :    Is the fuser lamp ("fixing roller heater") burned out ?   Any thoughts on where to find the coorect one ? I looked in Original USHIO fuser lamp ... ushio.com no joy.

[Rob Blessin Black Hole]

This one looks really close for the lamp replacement  https://morelectricheating.com/ushio10010-ushio-qih240-1000-s2-quartz-lamp-240v-1000w

[Rob Blessin Black Hole]

Hello NeXT Community: I have been trying to simply get a working NeXT laser printer. I've succeeded in the past and usually an orange glow upon boot up is a good sign.

 So my questions are if it does not glow and printer tester app indicates a problem with the fusing section . 

What components are most likely the culprit in the fusing section ,

 as my guess is no way all of these  printers (as in 15 some in the original box) have burned out bulbs and I don't think we have located a worthy replacement for the bulb.

I've heard the thermister switch may be an issue,

Would a bad thermister switch prevent the bulb from lighting up during boot,



I recall a thread on this but have scoured the forum and coming up empty.

I'm making notes on all of these as some actually try to pull in paper then get the paper jam sp I'll try a

new in take roller to see what happens ..... I had one that actually took the paper all the way through and it printed solid black.   

I'm humbled and before I start shuffling parts around and yes I'm looking at the manual , we may be able to

create a beyond replacing the intake roller guide.

Any help appreciated ,

PS Canon  LBP-UX engine is the "NEC-Mitsubishi Silentwriter 2 990". If anyone wants to order a replacement fuser unit ($100USD or so on ebay and such), Spitfire if you can point me at this part , I'll give it a go for the community and BUY ONE

[spitfire]

Hi Rob,
 So I'm in the process of repairing my good printer. We've slowly partially disassembled the fuser section. I say we, as there's so many screws to keep track of it really ix a two man job. One for disassembling, one as safety/spotter.

Anyways, We're disassembling the fuser and replacing the thermo-switch and thermistor.
We've checked the fuser lamp and it has continuity, so it seems good. If you give me a week or two I'll finish that replacement up and see if it works. If a new thermo-switch and thermistor fail to correct the issue, then I'll suspect the problem is in the PSU or logic board.

As for a fuser unit an ebay search pulled this up immediately, $100USD buy it now:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/111786459736?hash=item1a06fe0258:g:-jMAAOSwVL1WDU7w&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAwCVCZR4rIGCgW4ofMqDSGj2%2BncP25cAcfw5Yv%2BBoq5l84UWCrqQBxlg4PjVILTLUYXDeiQznhzsxqBfBV7iN5kLUG2i0upz20Ug%2BBuhY1XpPk8yP36KKaVJn4YGupnh09%2B6tbZo8aW4QR4vHt1YbRZHEcfi1SOvBF9MOzD4er70NZ6xgIxMexkyk8Plizxrqzo3sscZ%2BqTVLa3olkj7iHt8caSO8gDlsRFh4yXSedJPGtX%2BHBhIJ7%2B2%2FMA5U0DuPVw%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR9S10J7eYA

If you do purchase that, before testing it out take out the fuser lamp and either use gloves, or clean with alcohol before reinstalling. Grease from your hands will cause the lamp to fail quickly.

Also take photos of any markings. Better yet take detailed high res photos of the entire lamp, along with detailed photos of the fuser from all angles.

[Rob Blessin Black Hole]

Hello Spitfire: Thank you , Dave gave me a great tip to manage screws , a stack of small Dixie cups and at each level fill the cup with screws, washers, etc. and stack the next cup on top repeat, this makes it easy to keep track of all of them and when it comes to reassembling the cups with parts are in perfect order .

I took a chance on this one for a Laserjet 2 as it was only
https://www.ebay.com/itm/111786459736

Order total: $69.91

Order number: 05-09046-75606
HP LaserJet 2/2D/3/3D/SX Fuser Assembly - HP-RG1-0939
HP LaserJet 2/2D/3/3D/SX Fuser Assembly - HP-RG1-0939
You should get it by Sep 9.

I'm' hoping this fuser matches as the toner cartridges are hp laser jet 2, 3 compatible for the NeXT laser ought to be fun, I'll wear gloves to prevent screwing up the bulb lol. If this part works it will be gold .

[spitfire]

That LJ2 part looks like it may work. Most of the LJ2 parts I've seen have a large plastic tab on the top of them which made me leery. Perhaps there are multiple fuser assembly versions? If we can find a common LJ2 part that works that would be great.

Dixie cups, that's an excellent idea.

[Scutboy]

Since we're digging into old printers in this thread, does anyone have ideas/links for replacement parts for the original Apple Laserwriter? I know it's a Canon engine, but I have a couple that have pickup rollers and the separation rollers that have turned to goo.

So far I've not found anything correct, or cheap enough that I want to take a chance on them.

I do have a NeXT laser printer so this thread has already produced dividends!

[spitfire]

A simple search leads to the Wikipedia page on the Apple LaserWriter.

"The LaserWriter used the same Canon CX printing engine as the HP LaserJet, and as a consequence early LaserWriters and LaserJets shared the same toner cartridges and paper trays"

So it uses a Canon LBP-CX engine. LJ1 parts should work in it.

[Rob Blessin Black Hole]

Hello NeXT Community :  I also found this to be useful an original HP Laserjet II and III Factory manual
https://diagramas.diagramasde.com/impresoras/HP%20LaserJet%20Classics%20II%20III.pdf  There are a lot of similarities between these and NeXT Laser Printers shared parts and excellent component breakout diagrams with detailed cleaning materials and instructions. I like the how to pointers , lots of do's and dont's tips which  help to avoid or prevent damage and extend the life of the printer. I'll see if we can upload this doc to our archives as web links always change. Best Regards Rob Blessin  I'm proud of the fully refurbished working NeXT Laser Printer project that I just completed and even diagnosed misaligned paper causing the paper jam on the fly lol https://youtu.be/SBWiJkBsaj4

[spitfire]

Sigh.
 
So I finally had time to put my printer back together with new thermoswitch and thermistor.
On bootup the lamp lit up and I saw a warm glow out the exit slot.

It printed! .... twice. After printing a test page, and a few pages of another document it ran out of paper. The printer now refuses to print, doesn't warm up the lamp and "PP" reports No errors.

Sigh.

Lets see how Rob gets on with the LJII assembly. If that works out, I'll just order one of those and replace the whole thing as one unit.

[crimsonRE]

Thanks for investing so much in the attempt, though, whatever the outcome...

[Rob Blessin Black Hole]

Hello Spitfire: It sounds like you are so close. On cold start boot does it find the printer in software? if you are not sure check usr/adm/messages Does it glow on boot? We can try and trick it with ye old hot swap printer foo, if you have another NeXT laser printer that gives errors like paper jam and is found on boot but no glow  , login with this printer surrogate, send a test print or 2, when it says printer jam , pop the cover open, which I think sets it at rest and  leave it open, unplug and disconnect printer cable.... then hot swap to your recently working printer you just refurbished with its lid open and paper and ink cartridge, plug it in
printer cable then power cable,,,,, shut the cover , clear the paper jam error window not the que and see if it now finds the refurbished printer and with any luck prints the test pages in the printer que window like Frankenstein adding the juice lol.

 It is worth a shot.
I would also try it on a fresh install of the operating system to try and narrow it down to a hardware or software issue as hardware sounds repaired but software is tweaking.

[paolo.bertolo]

Hi Guys,

Any update on this interesting thread?

I recently scored a NeXT Laser Printer, it arrived in rather good cosmetic conditions. It must have been some department printer or whatever, as there's a clear sign of a peeled identification label.
So, it probably has some serious mileage on it.

Anyhow, according to the seller, both the pick up roller and the delivery rollers are gone, but otherwise it should work. When it turns up, the lamp is clearly visible as it glows.

However, there's no toner. So, I'm now waiting for a NOS unit, but after some 20+ years I don't know what to expect.

Interesting thing, though, according to this excellent video it should be possible to refurbish the toner unit.
Has anybody ever tried that?

[paolo.bertolo]

So, I received a toner cartdrige and finally started testing the printer.
Immediately bad news: I could not print a single page, the printer throwing generic hardware failure errors (according to the utility PP).
Initially I thought about mechanical problems, so I dismantled and cleaned the whole mechanical section, but to no avail.
Eventually, I decided to inspect the digital board and... Boom! Many through hole caps are totally busted, god only knows since how long.
So, recapping be it.
However, while reading the service manual, I got cautious about one part: shorting the laser connector J202 once it has been unplugged for preventing damage from static electricity. While repairing minidisc and CD readers, I have found the same precaution to apply, but in that case it was a matter of shorting to connectors with a little solder.
Here the manual indicates a dedicated piece of hardware, which of course I do not have.
I must admit it's not fully clear to me if the part to protect is on the board or downstream the cabling or both.
Would you have any suggestion?